Kylie Minogue Interview with Craig Ablitt

KYLIE MINOGUE

Her Xstatic Return

by Craig Ablitt

How to sum up Kylie in one introductory paragraph? Impossible really. Does she even need an introduction? In what is now approaching two decades, the diminutive Australian superstar has gone from Charlene – the girl next door in Neighbours to global music sex siren, arguably as famous as the Queen of England, although with more hit records, albums and admirers than Her Maj could shake a jewel encrusted sceptre at. From bubblegum popstrel in the late 1980s and early 90s with ‘I Should Be So Lucky’, ‘Hand On Your Heart’ or ‘Especially For You’, to reinventing herself as rock darling – recording with Nick Cave and ending up on the cover of NME, to launching herself back to the top of the charts in the naughties with the unforgettable gold hot-panted dancefloor busting classic ‘Spinning Around’; Kylie Minogue has an arsenal of hits and number of successful reinventions of her sound and style that only Madonna could equal, with icon the only word that springs to mind

However, Kylie’s career hasn’t always been flavoured by chart success, record-breaking tours and global domination. Her well-documented breast cancer diagnosis threatened to take all that she had conquered away from her, understandably rocking Kylie and her worldwide fanbase alike. But like all challenges that have been thrown her way; Kylie came out fighting, beating the disease and coming out in true Princess of Pop fashion to conquer the world once more and complete her unforgettable Showgirl Tour, culminating in the massive Homecoming Tour back in her native Australia. 2007 sees the release of her tenth studio album X – her first since rising above her biggest challenge to date. Rather excitingly, we got the inside info from the girl herself. Here’s Kylie….

“I think it’s safe to say I’ve never had to prepare like I have for this album before,” she begins, hinting at the uphill struggle that faced her in getting back to her best. “I started work on this album a year and a half ago when the album was so far in the future. Who knew when it was going to be?” she questions. “No-one wanted to pressure me, but I had to get back into the studio just to test myself and get some things off my chest, which I did, then went on tour, then finished the album.”

As well as coping with the obvious challenge of returning to full fitness to prepare herself physically and emotionally to get back onstage and into the studio, it is evident in what Kylie has to say, that although the battle against cancer was of her own, she is quick to point at the immense support she received externally at this dark time, and takes this opportunity to thank her immense legion of fans that sent her their best wishes when she needed them the most.

“I had the reality [of the diagnosis], I didn’t need anything else, but I did receive a lot of letters and cards from all sorts of people,” she explains “They all helped, and what I didn’t know about I definitely felt. I felt those good vibes and well-wishers and I’ve kept a lot of the little cards from them because I cherished them at the time,” she reveals warmly. “I really loved them. A lot of them would just say: ‘To Kylie, Popstar, Australia,’ or just ‘Pop Princess’ or something and a number of them actually found me so that was really cute.”

So to the business of this highly anticipated tenth studio album, which according to some was whittled down to just thirteen tracks from a mammoth 100 to choose from. After months and months of hype as to what it was going to sound like and of all the superstar names and contributors such as Calvin Harris that had been rumoured to be getting involved, we finally have the finished project, although according to Kylie, the tracks that were left on the cutting room floor were still of vital importance to the completed product.

“A year and a half I’ve worked on it and a lot of the songs which didn’t make the album in my mind have as much importance as the songs that did end up on the album,” she outlines, “because they were the stepping-stones to get there and it gets to the point where you have to finalise the tracklist; what’s staying, what’s going. Making it’s the fun part, in a way it’s the easy part, but getting towards the end, this is difficult.”


From spinning the record however, you can see in the floorless production throughout and the tracks that made the final cut, that X is arguably Kylie’s most succinct, all killer, no filler album to date – a collection of modern day pop gems with an edge, typically suited to arenas and dancefloors alike – and a record Kylie has been equally as eager as her fans to get recorded and released, so she can take it out onto the road when she tours in 2008.

“I was just so excited to be back in the studios, so excited to have that opportunity to do this and knowing that some of it would be different than before,” she says exuberantly. “ Something had definitely changed in me and I think you can hear that throughout the album,” she outlines, hinting at songs such as the complicated, vocal layered ‘Speakerphone’ or ‘Sensitized’ with it’s clever sample usage of Serge Gainsbourg. “I am proud, but I’m also nervous, which I am every time I’ve got a new album or single,” she continues. “I just want it to be out now and let it do what it’s meant to do and it’s the last bit that’s missing – the audience,” she says, bringing her fans into the foreground again. “It’s like the dress rehearsal for a show, and I can’t stand dress rehearsals! So, go on X, run free!” she proclaims excitedly.

As well as being an album of typically quality musical embodiment, it does of course touch upon Kylie’s personal experiences of the last two years. Although Kylie is willing to talk about her illness when questioned, at the same time she outlines that: “I never wanted to go on about it.” Instead, her true sentiments can be felt and heard on a handful of the tracks on X, which she felt she owed to her fans.

“I think I’d probably be most proud of the fact that with ‘Cosmic’, ‘No More Rain’ and ‘Stars’ perhaps, being songs that touch upon my illness,” she explains. “I think it would have been unfair on my fans to have an album without any part of me and that experience in it because it is very much a part of me now,” she accepts. “At the same time, I wouldn’t have liked to deliver an album full of that type of material so I think we’ve got the balance right. I feel, well, now that it’s about to come out; I’m starting to feel quite excited.”

With Kylie back to her stylish, glamorous and beautiful best and arena dates selling out and being added as numerously as she changes costume on stage; it’s fair to say Xcited is most definitely how she should feel. Welcome back Kylie.