Posted at 1:11 PM, 16 August 2009 -
Norwegian pop princess Annie was recently interviewed by Wears The Trousers magazine. Here's a few Xenomania-related bits:Working with Xenomania:
«That was actually related to working with Saint Etienne, because they worked with Xenomania before. Saint Etienne are amazing. I think they must be some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Really really sweet. We did this one song and Bob [Stanley] said it would be great to get another producer on it and they suggested Brian [Higgins, Xenomania founder]. He really loved ‘Heartbeat’. He thought it was a great song and said he’d always been looking for the songwriter, and he didn’t realise I had written it myself. He was really excited and almost offered me a record deal the day after. I think he’s doing some really great stuff. I mean, he’s making music all the time and he’s really creative and has a lot of good ideas. Serious and ambitious. It gave me an extra punch to work really hard and that was exactly what I needed.»
The Girls Aloud collaboration:
«When I was doing ‘My Love Is Better’ they were recording ‘I Can’t Speak French’ so they were around all the time. Brian just asked them if they wanted to sing backing vocals on my song and they were really up for it – they had heard ‘Chewing Gum’ before – so, yeah, it was really really fun. But then of course their record company said no and they ended up not singing on the song after all. I thought it was a little bit stupid but what can you say? It wasn’t my choice. They were really nice, very sweet.»
Working with Alex Kapranos (who plays guitar on "My Love Is Better" and "Loco"):
«I don’t know him really well but I met him for the first time in Japan. We were both playing in Australia and then we went to Japan and hung out there. We went to this party that was quite mad! I was a little bit drunk, it was quite embarrassing. I was making this song, ‘I Can’t Let Go’ – I used to call it ‘Misery’ – at the time, and I was inspired by Alan Vega – jukebox, sort of rockabilly – and I always thought that Alex’s voice would really suit it. So I sent him the song but it didn’t happen. He decided he didn’t want to do it after all. But when I was working in Kent with Xenomania, he played ‘My Love Is Better’ and ‘Loco’ to Alex and he really wanted to play on those, so he did.»
"Heaven & Hell":
«Richard X was saying it was the most not-sounding-like-Annie song, like what I used to do before, so I guess it’s something quite different. But I really like the song. It’s sort of tear-dripping and dramatic and I really enjoy songs that are very life-and-death and very dramatic.»
The album's "power ballad", "When The Night":
Who was my role model for that? Everyone! Shit, I have to think about that. [Maria McKee's] ‘Show Me Heaven’ is quite amazing. It doesn’t sound like that at all but I wanted to make a song that was quite simple, but really sort of about pain and longing for something in a way. I might do more power ballads. Maybe a Las Vegas residency! I would love to go to Vegas. I’m not now saying that my next album will be all power ballads. I’m not becoming Céline Dion! Not yet. I think it’s probably wise. There’s only room for one.
Labels: Annie, Franz Ferdinand, Girls Aloud
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