Interviews/Arjan Timmermans

Natalia Kills has done three interviews with Arjan Timmermans.

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 **Length** | 12:33

Yes! How are you?

**I'm waving at you.**

Hi!

**Hi! I'm well, how are you? How's your Saturday going?**

My Saturday is going fine, thanks!

**You look beautiful!**

Oh my god, I feel like a hot mess. Thank you.

**Also, I'm very fascinated by the thing that's hanging on your wall there.**

Oh, I made it!

**Oh, you did?**

Yes. It was an antique, kind of, deer horns, and I like spray paint so I spray painted it black and I hung it on my wall above my television.

**Very interesting, very interesting.**

Also, I'm wearing this hat, I don't know if you can see... Let me see...

**It says "society of"... oh, now I see.**

"Zombie research society," it's a zombie hat. You know there is actually a zombie research society?

**Is there?**

Yes, there is, where, basically, people who really believe zombies are real... they have a club that you can join and find out about it! I mean, I didn't join. [Twirls hair]

**That's very interesting too. I had no idea that existed. I'd love to just give people an introduction to who you are before we really get more into the music and the videos and the film. So you started out as an actress over in the U.K., right?**

Right.

**And so, how did you get to the U.S. and how did that happen?**

I'd been making some music in the U.K. and I made a demo and put it on MySpace, which, at the time, was the place to be. I don't know where's the place to be now, but it was MySpace back then. A famous blogger blogged about me and I got like 2 million plays in just a couple of months, so I thought, "Well, why don't I go to America and see what I can make of this." I ended up going to L.A. and I met a lot of people. Hang on, my dog Dracula is playing with a sock that must've found.

**Oh yeah, take care of that, sure. Take your time.**

Okay, one sec. Dracula! Have you met Dracula?

**No, I'd love [to]. Aww, what a cutie!**

Okay, you just sit here. So, I came to L.A. and I met a lot of different record labels and a lot of producers, and I actually met will.i.am, and that's who I signed with.

**Did you just... meet him? Or was there an introduction? How did that happen?**

I was shopping, and a man ran into the shop, and he said, "Hey, you look interesting," and I said, "Okay," and he said, "Are you a singer?" and I said, "Yeah," and he said, "Okay, cool. What's your MySpace?" and I was like [cheers], 'cause I had a cool MySpace back then. And then he emailed me after he'd checked it out, and he introduced me to a DJ and, literally in the same evening, the DJ was like, "Cool, I want you to meet my friend," and we drive to this house and it's will.i.am... and I'm like [shocked expression] "okay!" When I met him, he was just getting into house and electro, and he was working on the new Black Eyed Peas record, and I think he was just really looking for what was going to be new and interesting, and I already came with my own ideas and stuff, so I think that's what the main attraction was; for us to get together. I had my ideas and he was an idea-man too, so he could recognize that immediately, and he had the tools to help me get to where I am. Two of the coolest parts of Interscope are Cherrytree and, obviously, will.i.am's division kinda shared the responsibility on getting my album where it needs to be.

**So what is it that you want to do?**

I've actually done more than I thought I would already. I had the idea for the album before I'd even made any songs and I decided I wanted to make a film for the album so it would go in tandem with the music. I have 11 songs on my album and then they'll be the soundtrack for this movie which is the theme of the record. I just got to do all of that, and then I wanted another way for my fans to get to know me and my early audience to have a very clear vision of who I am, and I made the show Love, Kills xx and Cherrytree really just supported me [with] whatever I needed; equipment, for example, [those] kind of things so I could do that and make it not look like it was done badly. The album is actually a soundtrack to my life. It's kind of a soundtrack for anyone who is in a similar mind-frame to me, and I believe that it's kind of what exists in all of us. My album's called Perfectionist, and I really believe that we're all perfectionists. From everything, when you grow up, when you're a child, you decide what you wanna be when you grow up, and you wanna be an astronaut or an actress or a doctor or a whatever, and every time you go on a date or you're shopping or anything you do, we're all looking for the ideal. We're all following and chasing our ideologies, and that's basically what being a perfectionist is about. It's kind of just chasing your ideologies and the disappointments and the triumphs that come with it and a lot of the struggle and frustrations that we all suffer while we're trying to just have the best and do the best we can.

**Can you point to some songs on the record that really demonstrate that theme? 'Cause we've heard a few, but are there maybe some other ones that you'd like to point out that really bring that theme to life?**

Most of my album is like that. The album starts off with the first song which is called Wonderland. It's basically saying I don't believe in fairytales and all of the things that we're led to believe that are perfect, but I really believe that there must be some kind of true love or some kind of ideology in the most dark and twisted way that it must exist, it must still exist. The album starts off with that straight away. Some of the songs on the album, like Mirrors, a lot have to do with being a perfectionist is control, and the enjoyment, the pleasure of control, and the vanity of gratification. That's what my first single *Mirrors* is really about. Other themes of being a perfectionist on my album... I have a song called If I Was God, and, of course, it's about if you were God. If you were fully in control, what would you make perfect? What would you change? I have some other songs... I have a song called Heaven, which is very personal to me. I mean, all my songs are personal to me, I'm writing all the lyrics, but *Heaven* is very personal. It's about finding the perfect way to miss someone that you lost, that died. It's basically all the elements of that. A lot of the songs are about desire, disappointment, struggle, joy, just everything you go through while you're looking for the ideal.

**Sounds like very extreme emotions.**

Very emotional. It's very emotional.

**All of those are very extreme: disappointment, happiness. They're opposite sides of the spectrum.**

Well, that's the thing! It's funny, I think everyone is extreme. I think we all live from extreme to extreme. The only difference is most of us are suppressing it, or we're afraid to admit it because we'll be considered neurotic or temperamental or depressed, but we're not. If you're an emotional person, you're a real person and you should be allowed to be that. Not everyone has to make an album about it, but I definitely think that we shouldn't be ashamed of being wildly emotional because people aren't making songs like that anymore, but they used to. We've just recently become ashamed of it. Like, Kate Bush, she used to make songs that were... the lyrics were just wild, the music was wild. If I could make a deal with God, I'd get him to swap our places, and songs about the hounds of love, and also other songs like... A song that really inspires me is actually a Queen song called "Love Kills." The lyrics are incredible. "Love kills, drills you through your heart, scars you from the start." It's like, yeah, love really does. Love isn't all like "let's take some shots and hook up after we go to the club and maybe we'll fall in love and have a relationship if we weren't too drunk to remember each other's names." Love isn't just that that people are singing about. I think love is more than that, personally. Yeah, that's what I think and I think there's nothing wrong with putting that in music.

**I'm really mesmerized by this idea of perfection that you're talking about, so do you think perfection is attainable or is it something that you always just keep striving to... in other word, you will never get there, so it's always more about the journey than about actually achieving perfection.**

I believe that perfection is a state of mind. I think that if you can find some kind of perfection through your imperfect medium, if you can find hope through heartbreak, that's perfection. If you can find love through destruction, that's perfection. If you can find enjoyment through financial hardship, that's perfection. Perfection is finding it when everything's going wrong. It's nothing to do with having everything in order and having everything go swimmingly; it's the opposite.

**Mirrors the single is out now, right?**

Yeah, it's on iTunes in the U.S. and it'll be on all the other iTunes hopefully soon.

**Fantastic. Well, it was great talking with you. So nice to meet you this way, all the way out in L.A. where you are.**

It's great to speak with you too!

**I wish you so much luck with the project and lots of fun. It's gonna be a wild ride for sure. The anticipation is enormous, so good luck with everything and enjoy every minute of it.**

Thank you! I wanna say bye and Dracula wants to say bye. Bye!

**Bye, Dracula! Bye, Natalia!**

Bye!

## Interview #2

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### Transcript

**So great to see you again, Natalia!**

Hello!

**Cherrytree London, it's a big event. What does it feel like to be at this event tonight, to be playing with the entire Cherrytree family?**

I'm really excited because my family are here. It's really nice for me to come back to the U.K. and all of my friends and family who have traveled from all over England have just come to this event and it's just a really nice occasion to perform with all the other amazing artists on Cherrytree. It's so funny because, being a Cherrytree artist, I suppose it might be quite unlike being signed to any other label because we do all meet each other, we do all become friends. We are quite like a family and we do collaborate on a regular basis. So, it's nice that, you know, everyone's here, my boys, Far East Movement, Collette Carr, Frank Musik, LMFAO, everyone's here and it's just going to be, like, a really high energy night.

## Interview #3

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 **Length** | 6:29

### Transcript

**Hi, everyone. It's Arjan right here and I'm here with Natalia Kills!**

Hello. Last time I saw you, we were on set at a music video.

**Champagne Showers!**

Yes!

**The first time we met was about a year ago when we did a video chat and we were talking...**

On Skype... with Dracula!

**Exactly, I met your dog, and we were talking at that time about *Perfectionist*, about the songs you were recording. It's not a year later and Perfectionist came out this week.**

Yes. It did!

**This must be a really exciting moment for you!**

It's really exciting because, to be perfectly honest, it's a bit of a secret, but I had absolutely no idea it was gonna go straight to the top 20 on iTunes, let alone top 15, and the same in Canada, it's at number 3, and I had no idea that I had so many followers. I literally had no idea.

**The single Free is doing really well as well.**

Yeah, I'm really excited. I don't know how you feel about the video, but it's my favorite video that I've ever made so far.

**I love when the hair is on fire.**

You do? I got my hair different today.

**Yeah, that's a great moment. Or you with the chainsaw.**

Oh, the chainsaw!

**That's really you.**

Yeah, that's fun. I had a lot of fun. 'Cause with the chainsaw, we had a regular chainsaw and then I had to spray paint it matte black to give it that couture feeling. I think I'm... I don't know, I think it's a perfect demonstration of who I am, the *Free* video. I'm so excited, I'm so lucky to be doing what I'm doing.

**Also what I like about that song and the video is that it shows a little bit of a lighter side of you.**

Yeah! You know what actually kind of bothers me is that people think that I don't enjoy fun and that I'm so serious. I feel like people have this impression of me where, 'cause my music is a bit deeper and a bit more aggressive or confrontational than a lot of pop music, people expect me to be like, "I'm Natalia Kills. Take me seriously. Very seriously. [Tsk tsk tsk]"

**The other thing is that... so, the record is out in many different places, but do you have one favorite track on the album?**

I do!

**Which one is it?**

It's my favorite track because it's my newest track and I co-produced it, and that's why it's my favorite song because it's so fresh to my ears. And it's called Kill My Boyfriend. It's another really fun one. It's like *Free,* a little more piano-guitar-y

**Thinking about your performance and the intensity that you bring to your performance, what are some of the stage performers that have influenced you that you look up to?**

Actually, one of my biggest inspirations for live performances has been definitely Alanis Morissette. She's very free, it's very wild. It's not very stagey, it's not fully conscious of showmanship, it's more emotional. Also, I really love live Freddy Mercury. Just his body movements are really brilliant. He's very theatrical and I really like Freddy Mercury.

**There's a few lyrics on the album that I'd love to have you elaborate on a little bit.**

Oh god. [Hides eyes behind glasses]

**'Cause I think they're quite striking.**

Which ones? [Scared]

**Okay, the first one is from Wonderland, which is, "I don't believe in fairytales / But I believe in you and me." Tell me a little about that.**

What would you like to know specifically?

**I think it really sets the tone for the entire album.**

Yeah, my album is called *Perfectionist* and it's nothing to do about being perfect. It's actually about looking for perfection and trying to live your ideals and your dreams knowing that everything is messed up and that nothing is actually perfect. It's about knowing when something's totally out of reach, you should still go for it.

**The other lyric and the other song that I think is striking is If I Was God.**

Oh, really! Thank you.

**There's a lyric on there which is, "I just want to protect you from disappointment."**

That's so funny you know that one, no one ever brings that one up.

**So tell me about that song but also maybe about that lyric, because I think that lyric is quite beautiful in that song.**

Well, I had moved to Hollywood hoping to make my career, and basically, I had been fired from all of my jobs because of music. I was so focused on music that I would literally leave 10 minutes after getting into work or doing what I was meant to do because I'd get a call saying "you can go to the studio right now if you come now." I would get fired or I'd have to quit all the time because I was so distracted or focused... I was always late everywhere 'cause of music, but the first time my family actually came to visit me, and I was hoping to make a massive success out of myself in a very short amount of time and save the day and help my family with all of their struggles. The first time they came to visit me in L.A., it wasn't like that at all. I literally had been lying and saying, "Look, guys, everything's great, I'm living the dream. You guys have got to come out here one day and you'll see, and then you can move here and we'll all be a happy family and it'll be great." And, actually, I was still starving [and] broke and trying to make ends meet and trying to be who I am now and do what I'm doing now. It was devastating, and I wrote the whole song saying I don't mean to lie and make out everything as [if] it's okay when it's not, but I just literally want you to believe everything's cool so you're not worried about me being a possible failure.

**Yeah.**

And honestly, if I was God, I wouldn't change my life, I would change theirs. Hopefully now that my album is doing so well, I can do that.

**What is coming up next for you? Are you going to go on more tour dates?**

[Spins around because of bugs]

**We have some flies!**

Save me.

**I don't know what's behind these doors. More tour dates? You're gonna open for Katy Perry, right?**

I am so excited about that. I'm so excited to open for Katy Perry. Her music [is] witty, it's intelligent, it's funny, but it definitely has a lot of substance to it, so I believe her fans are just gonna be really cool and I can't wait to perform for them. Hopefully I'll convert a few of them into boyfriend-killing, wonderland-rejecting, Annie acid-killers, but we'll see.

**Well thank you very much. It was great to see you!**