Interviews/CWG Magazine

## 2010

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Natalia Kills, one of the faces of Cherrytree Records, which also manages Lady Gaga and Keane, is an extremely beautiful girl with killer vocals. She writes all her own lyrics, melodies, and even the script to her show “Love Kills.” After being crowned one of MTV’s “Buzzworthy” artists, I had some time to talk to her about her show, her dreams, and staying grounded.

Carly Hill: So first of all, explain to me a day in the life of you.

Natalia Kills: Oh, wow. What an unusual question. Well, how can I make this as interesting as possible? I obviously wake up, and sometimes, I will note down my dreams that I had the night before, and I will obviously get ready, and pick out my clothes, always according to how I feel. And then I will go off to the studio. And right now I’m mixing and putting the final touches on my album, *Perfectionist*, but obviously for a long time I was recording, which was a lot of fun, and then usually, if I don’t stay in the studio all day and all night, I will go home, and I will get ready to shoot my show, Love Kills.

And it’s just the two of us, I am the director and the producer, well co-directing and writing all of the episodes, and I will go to office, and this wonderful guy from France, his name is Gene, we come up will all of the ideas together and we begin to shoot. Each episode usually takes at least a few hours. We will look for a location, and draw a storyboard and everything, and then we will shoot, and that will take a while, and then we’ll edit, and then sleep for five hours and start the day again.

CH: Explain to me a little about your show.

NK: Well, it’s called ‘Love Kills,’ and first of all, the way that it is, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but everyone is kind of doing this thing on the internet, where they’ll use their little camera, and they will film themselves in the studio, or driving somewhere, or whatever they are doing, and they will post it saying “Hey I’m in the studio recording!” or whatever, and people go on and can watch it, and get to know the artist. But, I, personally, don’t actually agree with that way of doing it. You’re not really getting their opinions, but you are learning all the ordinary and mundane things they do, which almost takes away the magic of being an artist. You know you wouldn’t watch Avatar and James Cameron jumps on screen and says “Hey guys! I’m making a film!” It just kind of breaks the magic.

So I thought, how can I let my fans get to know me in a visual way in which it is online, and they can tune in at a certain time every week, and are getting to know me while still keeping the mystery. So yeah basically we thought of a bunch of ideas and I’ve worked with TV and stuff before, so we thought, why don’t we make a show? And I’ll write all the episodes, and figure everything out by myself, with no other help, I don’t need the label to bring me anything, but the fans will get to know me because it is a direct look inside my mind and my imagination.

It’s an unrealistic situation in each episode, but it’s me, and it’s me reacting how I would react, and the storyline is just an analysis of my imagination, of what I think of. They are getting to know how my brain works at the same time as seeing me be me, but in more exciting situations than me in a video. It’s very personal, like I’m writing a letter to my fans of my secrets, like hey, this is what I think about, you know, I hope you enjoy it. We called it love kills as if I did write a letter, I would sign it Love Kills, kiss kiss.

CH: Explain to me the writing process for this album.

NK: Well, I actually thought of the concept first before writing any of the songs. You know I thought of all the artists that I listened to when I was younger, anywhere from Daft Punk to Prince to Michael Jackson, and I noticed that they all had films. And I thought that it would be quite wonderful to make an album that would work as a soundtrack to basically a film version of the album. Like the things that I’m talking about in the album, but in a more surreal, almost esoteric artistic kind of way. And we actually made a film, and then took the film and the soundtrack to the album. So that’s the way the album was kind of made.

I write all my songs and all my ideas, and it’s called *Perfectionist*, and all the songs and ideas are relative and relevant to this concept that we, and myself included, are all perfectionists. Everything thing you do, say you want to go shopping, or on a date, or to a job interview, you always want the best. You want the ideal situation. You want it to be as perfect as possible. And that’s why I believe we are all perfectionists. The album explores all of my dreams and disappointments and my journey to find perfection and love.

CH: Well you mention a lot about dreams, why are dreams so important to you?

NK: That’s what we are. We are our dreams. We are our own materialized versions of what we want to be. I’m pretty sure when you were a little girl, you dreamt of how your life would be, and when you got to a certain age you decided what to be, and that’s what you did, and whether you ended up there, fulfilling your dream, or your dream changed along the way and you found a better situation, something you were more passionate about, that’s what we are. We are our dreams. We work all our lives to be something that we always wanted to be. And hopefully that leads to our own happiness.

CH: What did you dream of being when you were a little girl?

NK: I dreamt of being myself. And I grew up to be myself.

CH: How do you keep grounded?

NK: I don’t know, I think I’m quite grounded. I mean there’s a lot of work to be done, so there’s hardly any time to apprehend this concept that is fame or celebrity or anything, that I’ve still yet to discover. It’s wonderful to have your work appreciated, but at the same time, I’m a musician, I’m a writer, and I’d still be doing this if it wasn’t a career, if it wasn’t profitable. In the world, if music wasn’t something that could be sold, I’d come home from a 9 to 5 and still make music, because it’s who I am, it’s how I survive, how I express myself. I think that’s the best way to keep grounded, to only really focus on that, and everything else like money or fame or the hype and opportunities, that’s just a symptom or a side effect or a byproduct of passion.

CH: What was the moment that you realized that making music could be a career for you?

NK: Well, like I said, I would always make music, and I always have. But realizing that it was something I should take seriously professionally… I was working as an actress when I was 14, and I had left school to go to the city to be in a show on TV, and I realized that the whole point of TV and film and everything is the drama and the suspense. What makes the drama and suspense is actually the music. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but if you actually turn the sound, you mute the sound while you’re watching a film, like a horror or thriller movie, you don’t know when the killer is coming. It doesn’t even feel that scary. You don’t get that emotional connection. So what I realized was that music was the heartbeat, was the pulse, was the blood running through the veins of the film of life. That’s when I realized that music was the obvious way for me to express myself, and there would always be a way to combine the film and the music for me, and now I feel like I have finally found it.

CH: How do you think that being an actress helps you with your music?

NK: Well it’s funny, because I don’t even consider myself an actress as much anymore, I’m more of a writer, a creator, that’s how I see it. But I feel like it’s the other way around. Being able to identify with music so much, and to be able to put so much emotion, because I write my lyrics and everything, and I put all of my emotions in that, and you become so emotionally connected with the situation you are singing about, that you want the world to identify with, that actually makes me a better actress. Because then I find ways to perform it, and performance is of course the expression of the words and the art coming to life. And that is what would make me a better actress, rather than being an actress making me a good musician.

CH: What is your opinion on music that is out today?

NK: Music will always be made, and I think that’s wonderful. The music that I listen to, usually appears in soundtracks, but I grew up listening to a lot of really good music, you know Depeche Mode, Bush, Queen, Berlin, really dramatic music. And music at the moment to me feels like it’s very, it feels like a moment. It doesn’t necessarily feel like a generation, or a song, or a feeling, or an emotion. It does just feel like a moment of ideas, and I think that hopefully by painting a visual expression of my music, that I can draw my fans back into this way of making music a lifestyle, rather than a moment in the club, or a moment on the internet where you hear something and you either like it or you don’t. But I think that obviously there’s still really good music out there, just that we listen to it different, and I think that it’s time for a new awakening, we need to listen to music and find an identity in it.

CH: How do you keep your creativity constant when you’re on a record label?

NK: I’m on a really fabulous record label. I’m not quite sure if you’ve seen, but I’m on Cherry Tree, which manages Feist, and La Roux, and even Lady Gaga. Cherry Tree is the label of all labels, I think for artists. They will show you the way to be successful in music, financially successful, but at the same time, they let you write all your own lyrics, all your own melodies, all the right producers, they wont make you work with their producers, and they are not so into politics that I suppose some labels are.

They sign artists that already know what they want to do, and make that dream come true, in the most commercial and accessible way. They don’t make you commercial and accessible and then tell you, “Hey, now you get the chance to be whoever you want to be.” It’s the other way around, and I think I’ve been very fortunate to be able to do it that way.

CH: So what’s up next for you?

NK: Good Question. So the first official single, not the ones, like “Zombie,” that have been out there getting a little buzz on the internet, but the first official single, which no one has heard, is about to come out – hopefully over the summer. And then the album will follow, and hopefully we will just keep building from there and put a few singles out, and there’s the film and the show, and hopefully people will like it, and if they don’t, I will like it. But that is the next step, the live shows and everything else.

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