Pop star Ke$ha made a name for herself with infectious
dance-pop hits but the singer-songwriter is stepping out of her
Auto-Tune comfort zone on "Warrior", out this week.
Ke$ha, 25, stormed the charts with hit songs about
drinking, partying and having a good time, such as "TiK ToK" and "Your
Love is my Drug" from her 2010 platinum-selling album "Animal".
Ke$ha talked with Reuters about the pressures of
following up the success of her first album and responding to her
critics.
Q: Did you feel additional pressure while working on this album after the success of your debut, "Animal"?
A: "Everybody keeps asking me about pressure, and I
think a lot of other people maybe are feeling pressure about this
record, but I just want to make a good record. If I sat around trying to
make a number one record, I'd just be too consumed with that. I just
want to make an awesome, kick-ass record that I love and that my fans
love."
Q: Was there anything that you weren't happy with on the first album and that you wanted to change for the second?
A: "I just wanted to make sure my entire personality
was presented more accurately. I feel like people really got to know the
super-wild side of me but then sometimes a more vulnerable side. I
didn't really feel comfortable expressing it. So this time I kind of
forced myself to express a little bit more vulnerability, less
Auto-Tune, less vocal trickery. It's a little more raw."
Q: You received a lot of criticism for your use of
Auto-Tune, masking your true singing voice. Was that a valid criticism
for you, when many others use it?
A: "I remember having this conversation with my
producer, and him saying, 'We're using a lot of vocal tricks,' and I
said, 'People will get to know me as my career goes on, I just want it
to sound really weird and cool and clubby right now, and super
electronic.' I made a conscious decision to use Auto-Tune for effect, as
ear candy, and vocoders and chop up my words.
"This time around, I have heard so many different
people say I can't sing, it's quite frankly irritating, so I ... made a
five-song acoustic EP ('Deconstructed', out on December 4) that's kind
of like my middle finger to all those people that said I couldn't sing,
and there's more of my voice on this record. You know, haters are going
to hate, you just have to do what you want to do."
Q: Talk us through some of the collaborations on
"Warrior". There's quite a variety, such as with Iggy Pop and Ben Folds.
A: "Ben Folds is a friend of mine. He gave me a giant
glitter grand piano that's in my house, so that one was natural. The
Flaming Lips was probably surprising for a lot of people because we're
two super-different genres of music but we had the most fun and we made
so many songs, it was super insane. We're like best friends, we text
everyday now, so that kind of came naturally. The one that I really have
been working on for years was a collaboration with Iggy Pop. He's one
of my favorite musicians and artists of all time, so that was super
exciting for me, because I respect him so much."
Q: You've written tracks for Kelly Clarkson and Britney
Spears, and you've written all the songs for "Warrior". What did you
want to bring out in your lyrics this time round?
A: "I definitely wanted to maintain the irreverence,
because that's why my fans like me. It's because I'm super honest, not
always PG rated ... but I didn't want to let the haters somehow cramp my
style or get the best of me, so I maintain my irreverence ... I also
really wanted to show the other side of my personality, which kind of is
more nerve-wracking to show people, being a real person and the
vulnerable side of my personality and voice. So there are tracks on this
record that are super vulnerable and were hard even to write. I had to
force myself to sit down and write these songs."
Q: You've carved a distinctive image and also just
launched your latest collaboration with Baby-G watches. How do you want
to evolve your career in the future?
A: "I think that with this record, I really wanted to
show that there are no rules or boundaries in art, at all, like I sing
and I can use crazy Auto-Tune vocoders and I can rap and I can do a song
with Iggy Pop. You can do all these things that make sense. You don't
have to just be one thing, like, you don't adhere to any sort of
stereotype or any boundaries or any rules, so for me it's really fun to
break down these boundaries."
Q: You came in at the forefront of the electronic dance
music explosion in the pop charts two years ago. Why do you think EDM
is doing so well?
A: "Dancing is one of the ways we, as adult human
beings, still get to play and it's socially acceptable. Little kids play
all the time, but as we grow up, we're supposed to just not play
anymore, so our version of that is going out and dancing, and I think
it's one way people are still visceral and animal-like."
(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Dale Hudson)
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