Aussie Rules

It s not something that s been much remarked on, but the sudden and untimely death of Princess Diana in Paris last year had a profoundly negative effect on the world of music. Not only did it cause that nauseating Elton John track to become the most overplayed song in radio history, it also inadvertently delayed the release of the new Kylie Minogue album by a full six months!
It was originally going to be called Impossible Princess, the 29-year-old singer explains, and it was due to come out just a few weeks after the tragedy with Princess Diana. At the time, myself and others decided that it d be more appropriate not to have that title. Had I known that it d be a six month delay in my album coming out then I m not sure I d have bothered. But we made that decision at the time so I stuck by it.
Initially the delay was because of the title change but then one thing led to another which led to another and suddenly half a year had passed. I would love to have a great explanation for why it s taken this long but I don t. I guess it s mostly for really, really annoying marketing reasons.
Now, those of you who remember Kylie as the annoyingly squeaky blonde responsible for such musical crimes as I Should Be So Lucky and Especially For You will doubtless argue that there s nothing the least bit negative about the listening public being spared having to hear one of her records for a whole half year. You re wrong, though. Just like her 1987 debut, the new album is now simply entitled Kylie Minogue. There s a decade s worth of difference between the old and new Kylie s however. She s all grown up now.
Musically she s somehow moved from being a Stock/Aiken/ Waterman pop pawn to becoming a genuinely credible indie sensation. And in terms of her image, she s gone from looking like the archetypal nice and innocent girl next door to the kind of sultry nightclub vamp you never see in daylight. The scantily-clad and heavily made-up sex goddess pictured on the cover of the new album her first in nearly four years is virtually unrecognisable as the bright and bubbly Kylie we all used to love to loathe.
Well, I don t see it as a big image change but then I live with myself every day, she giggles. And I think for people who see the album sleeve for the first time and who have different images of me in mind then, yes, it would seem very different. But, whatever about the sleeve, I think the album content is very different. You know, it s quite varied. I ve written before but never in this manner and, unintentionally, I ended up writing about lots of personal experiences or thoughts or moments of mine. So I guess this album is more of an insight to me and what I was experiencing within the two year period it took to make.
Whatever it was she was experiencing must have been pretty intense if the breathlessly sung lyrics on opening track Too Far are anything to go on: Caught up in this house/trapped my very own self in the snare of my mind/no more space than a slither/what I d give for a deep breath inside/where the chaos has me captive/where there s no exit sign/where I fuel the stupid fire/with these feelings of mine.
Yeah, I was having a fairly weird time when I wrote that one, she laughs. I guess I m just trying to be a lot more honest than I ve been before. Which is not to say that I ve been dishonest I think I m often helplessly honest, which works against me sometimes but I ve never been this revealing with my thoughts or with the way I ve projected myself. Like, the album isn t thematic and I didn t have one thing in mind when I started writing it, I just wanted to write whatever I felt. And even if it was terrible or embarrassing, I d just write it and then deal with it. You know, if something was dreadful, just rip it up, end of story.
But I was just writing, writing, writing. And if there s a theme running through the album, I think it s that I m searching to be understood, not only from an outside perspective but in fact, more importantly, from myself. To know more about myself and how I relate to almost everything and just dealing with myself and being more accepting. There s a song there called Jump where I m saying all kinds of things to myself. If I m good, if I m bad, if I m anything just accept it. It s okay.
While writing the songs for the album, she sought help and advice from the songwriters she most admired. Bono told me not to get carried away, she recalls. He said if you tell me a story about what happened in your day then you ve got a song. Bring it all back to base. It s funny, I haven t written anything since I finished the songs for the album. It s really strange but for that time I was non-stop writing I d always carry around a notebook or be writing on scraps of paper which would be compiled into that book. And one night I had something of a drama here at my apartment and instead of freaking out, I just wrote and wrote. It s a good thing to do anyway, putting your feelings onto paper, but everything I did during that period was kind of approached from the point of view of could this be useful on the album? So I was forming everything I was writing into the shapes of songs.
Another songwriter she regularly consulted for words of wisdom was fellow Australian Nick Cave, with whom she had previously collaborated on the hit (murder) ballad Where The Wild Roses Grow . Although there are no new duets with the Bad Seed on Kylie Minogue, she did wind up writing a song with him which may well be released sometime in the future.
Because of the nature of some of the lyrics I was coming out with I thought I ll send them to Nick Cave and ask if he d write a song with them for me. And he did! It s a beautiful song but, unfortunately, I didn t do it justice in time for this album. I did do a couple of versions of it but I think so highly of him that I wanted it to be perfect before I d release it. You know, if there s perfection in music and any kind of artistry in the pop world then certainly, to my mind, Wild Roses was it. So anything I do with him beyond that would have to be very close to that and I didn t feel that that particular song was. I mean, it has potential it s a beautiful, timeless song. But when it s done it ll have to be done right.
Other musicians with whom she s worked on this album include The Grid s Dave Ball and Manic Street Preacher James Dean Bradfield (who wrote two songs for her). So how was Bradfield to work with?
He was really great, Kylie gushes. It kinda came about halfway through making the record. Unbeknownst to me, they had wanted to work with me back in 1991 and had tried to track me down to record a duet with them. And nobody mentioned it to me at the time in those days it kind of makes sense that I wouldn t have heard about it but when I met up with James this all came to light.
The prospect of working with them was fantastic and so I gave him some lyrics and he took them away and the whole time I was thinking please, please, please write me a song. I kept bugging the guy at my record company going have you heard anything back from them? and he was saying no, no, they re on tour and they re very busy. I m sure they ll do something so just chill out! (laughs). Anyway, he eventually did, he wrote two really great songs for me and we recorded and mixed those within the space of two weeks. So my time with them was kind of short. But that whole thing came as a real surprise to me.
Why? Did she feel that because she lacked indie credibility at the time, artists like Cave and the Manics wouldn t particularly want to be associated with her?
Well, this is the strange thing, she muses. I would have imagined that you re right. But with the Manics, they wanted to work with me in 91, and also Nick was apparently interested for about five or six years before we did anything together. I d heard years ago through mutual friends that he wanted to work with me but I guess I was just a bit naive and I didn t really know about Nick. Had I known I probably would have fallen over!
Well, he does come across as a scary sort. . .
Nick s not scary at all, she laughs. He s a real sweetheart. So that s the strange thing you d think all these guys are so incredible that there s no way they would have worked with me before, whereas in fact they re the only two people I know of who did want to work with me. Maybe there s others that I m not aware of but I think that made it even more special, that it wasn t suddenly a cool thing to do and then they said hey, let s work with her. It s something they had genuinely been thinking about for some time.
Of course, the death of Princess Diana wasn t the only high-profile fatality to have had a profound effect on Kylie Minogue s life over the last few months. The mysterious suicide of her former lover, INXS singer Michael Hutchence, in a Sydney hotel room last November is something she s still trying to get over.
I heard the news at about 4 o clock in the morning, she recalls in a hushed tone. My girlfriend called me from Sydney and . . . (pauses). Yeah, I was very, very shocked. It was something that affected me in many ways, his death, but even now that the reality has settled in, he s still affecting me. I feel his presence very strongly and have a sense that he s keeping an eye out for me, which is very nice.
Although their relationship wasn t a particularly lengthy one, she remembers it as being one of the most intense and important loves of her life.
It wasn t really that long a time. A year and a half, I think. I m not very good with time (laughs). It was about that. But it was quite intense and it was a big love for me. He just taught me so much. Yeah, he had a big affect on my life.
Hutchence was once quoted as saying that corrupting young Kylie was his hobby . During their time together there were numerous reports of all-night ecstasy binges, wild drunken parties and handcuffs being found in her luggage by Customs officers.
Well, Michael was pretty wild and just being around him you would have some of that rub off on you, she smiles. It was as if I had blinkers on prior to that, which I guess I did. I was 21 when I first started seeing him, so I was young enough to be impressionable and quite naive to a lot of things and old enough to be eager to know more about all aspects of the world. And if there s anyone I could choose to teach me then he was the best. Absolutely the best!
If Kylie learnt a lot from Hutchence then it s probably fair to say that her younger sister Dannii has learnt a lot from her in turn. The younger Minogue sibling now has a career to match her sister s, having released an album of her own last year. So is there much rivalry between the singing sisters?
I hate to disappoint everyone, but no! she laughs. We ve been very careful to try to keep our careers as separate as possible but, of course, there comes a point where you can t control that and I m always asked about her and she s always asked about me and I think the two of us get a bit fed up because there isn t really that much to talk about. You know, we re both doing our thing, we work together occasionally.
Most recently, just a couple of weeks ago at the Mardi Gras in Sydney we both played. She was on at two in the morning and I was on at four, so it was nice to do something although it wasn t a performance together on stage, it was still kind of our night, an experience we could share. And she interviewed me for her TV show Electric Circus things like that. I think people imagine we have some kind of freaky Jackson-type dramatic relationship, which we don t. We re just pretty normal sisters.
Kylie s career originally began in Australian soaps, playing the role of Charlene in Neighbours. What does she think of the recent success of fellow former Neighbour Natalie Imbruglia?
Well, it s funny but I don t really think of her as coming from a soap, she says. I mean, I never saw her on television. But I knew she was in Neighbours and all of that . . .
You mean you don t watch it any more? Good God!
No, I don t, she confesses. I might come across it from time to time and if I m flicking through the channels and it s on then I ll stop and watch it. But I have no idea who anybody is, I don t know what s going on and I m really out of touch. But I think Natalie s done extremely well, you ve got to hand it to her that first single was a great, great song. And she s doing it her own way. Full respect to her, she s done it brilliantly.
Do you feel much solidarity with other female solo artists?
Well, not particularly, she avers. I mean, I know a few. I know Bjvrk and she s very talented and such an inspiration. Tori Amos as well I ve spoken with her a few times. She actually gave me some really good advice one time. I mentioned I was going off to do some live show and she she s quite intense, Tori Amos (giggles) and she looked right at me and said You know what you have to do? You have to be yourself. And it s something that should be incredibly obvious and something that you re always aware of but I do overlook it sometimes and I m thinking oh, I ve gotta be like this and I want the lights this way and blah, blah, blah , endless things, when in fact I forget that I could just go out and perform and not try to be any specific thing, just do what comes naturally.
Kylie Minogue has had over 20 consecutive top twenty hits over the last decade. She has also starred in several movies and performed at numerous high-profile events. What would she say has been her biggest achievement to date?
That s a question I can never really answer, she says. It s really hard for me to choose one moment or to find a pinnacle point. There s different peaks throughout the years. But I ve realised that one thing I m proud of is the fact that I m still doing what I m doing and I ve progressed and I can see a . . . (pauses). What is behind me in the past is linear so you can see where you ve been and how you got there and how one thing led to the next and I m pretty proud of that. And I still have a lot of fascination and I m still somewhat childlike in my vision of the future. I love the fact that I don t know what s coming next. And I ve kind of had that throughout my career I think, which has helped me stay going this long and not bow out.
Does she have many other ambitions outside of singing?
I d love to do some more acting, she enthuses. I ve made the most horrendous mistakes with doing a couple of horrible Hollywood films that just leave me so embarrassed, but I definitely want to do some more acting down the line.
Recently, Kylie appeared in a short Sam Taylor Wood film called Misfit, in which she appeared naked, miming to an 1890 recording of the last castrato. Or at least I thought she did until I brought it up.
I wasn t naked! she shrieks. I had a bare back, that s all! These things are always sensationalised. I had a bare back down to my waist so it was nothing to get het up about. And I actually looked as much like a boy as I possibly could. So I wasn t really naked. That s just sensationalism!
Er, well I actually read it in her press release.
I ll have to take a look at that, she laughs.
Does she find that there s a lot written about her that isn t true or is blown up out of all proportion?
Oh God, yes! she affirms. Endless stuff! I only have to be pictured next to someone and we re dating or kissing or I m having their child or I m breaking up their marriage or something. I mean, it s astounding, it really is! I would say that half of what s written about me is not true. Sometimes it s extremely not true and other times it s kind of a version of the truth but it s not the truth.
Does she find it hurtful?
Sometimes it is, yeah. There was one a while ago saying well, implying in the heaviest possible way that I was anorexic, which I never have been. And that s a terrible thing because it s a serious problem for a lot of people. And the whole idea of someone going Let s make a headline out of it is just repulsive to me. For one thing it s not true and it s just . . . cheap really.
The story she s talking about appeared in the British tabloids, who ran photographs of an impossibly thin looking Kylie next to the imaginative captions PALEY MINOGUE and KYLIE THINOGUE. Well I think pictures don t always tell the truth, especially when they ve got a lovely soundbite next to them, she fumes. I m thin, it doesn t make me anorexic!
Has she ever sued?
I haven t done in the past, she admits. Normally I think it s too much trouble and aggravation and stress for what it s worth. But I hate to sound pessimistic but I m sure there ll be occasions . . . (pauses). Actually no, I won t say it like that because I shouldn t jinx myself. But if anything did happen in the future that was just not withstandable, I would definitely take action. Definitely!
One story that has appeared about her that she s still not quite sure about was written six months ago by Esquire contributor Sean Vaardal. Entitled An Open Letter Of Apology To Ms Kylie Minogue it humorously detailed the theft of an item of underwear from the laundry basket in her bathroom, stolen by the bold Esquire scribe during the course of a 1991 interview with Kylie at her London home ( marshmallow pink with a subliminal leopardskin print that must have cupped your form beautifully, was his description of the purloined panties).
I did think that piece was very well written and very funny, and was quietly burning up wondering whether it was true or not, she smiles. Because there was a lot in the article that could have been true. I was thinking oh no, I can t believe someone s stolen my knickers! And has had them for years! But I think it was a piece of fiction. I hope it was anyway!
Dead lovers, delayed albums, nicked knickers. It s all enough to get any girl down. Is Kylie Minogue happy at the moment?
Yeah, I am, I guess, she says. I am indeed. I have to say, the only thing is I ve had a slight anti-climax coming back from Sydney after doing the Mardi Gras because it s just the most sensational night. It s incredible! I did it once before in 1994 and I ve always talked about that night as being the performing night of my life. And it was great having the chance to do it again. So now I ve come back to press, press, press, promotion, promotion, TV, TV which, of course, is fine to do but I would prefer to be doing something that s more creative and fresh instead of treading over old ground.
So you re pissed off having to talk to guys like me?
Oh no, you re alright, you re really nice, she laughs (Mmmmmm Ed.). But some people I speak with, I hang up the phone and think why did I go through that? Why should I put myself in the position of being grilled by someone like that? You can hear it in some people s voices. It s quite amusing if they think they can pull one over on me and a few of them do because I ve probably been doing interviews a lot longer than they have! But no, the sooner I get back to writing or performing, the happier I ll be, really.
Is she planning on gracing the Emerald Isle with her presence in the near future?
I would hope so, yeah, she nods. I m trying to get these shows together and I d love to perform in Ireland. I remember when I was in Cork a couple of years ago and prior to that I had performed in Dublin and Belfast and it was just great, really fantastic crowds. So hopefully it ll happen. I d look forward to it. n

Kylie Minogue is out now on Deconstruction.