Interviews/Arjan Timmermans/2011/2

*Main article: Arjan Timmermans*

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 **Length** | 6:29

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!**