Kelis

New look and new sound plus new record label

Interview: Angela Sandweger 
Fotos: Rodrigo Otazu & Meeno

Kelis, when we first met in 1999, we weren’t talking only about your first album but also about your passion for shoes. I remember that your mom used to work in my favorite shoe store in Manhattan. Are you still into shoes?

K: Oh, this is funny! I remember you vaguely. Were you the one in the black and white banana shoes? Well, I changed a bit but I still like shoes. Shoes change the whole outfit. I have a million pairs of shoes. Even when I’m broke I spend a lot of money on shoes. They make me feel good! They create a mood. You know what? You could tell by my shoes that I’m wearing how I feel.

What are you doing in Los Angeles at the moment? Aren’t you one of those New Yorkers who don’t like Los Angeles and the West Coast in general?

K: Yeah, pretty much but it’s a secret guilty pleasure. It’s sunny and nice here! I’ve been also working a bit.

Don’t you still live in Harlem, New York?

K: Yes, I do still live in New York but I’ve moved away from Harlem. I still live in Manhattan.

Did you move because Harlem has changed so much? Because of all the renovation and the sell-out of the area?

K: I don’t really feel that. Everyone I know lives in Manhattan and I’ve lived there all my life, so…

What do you do when you’re in your hometown?

K: Well, I play a lot with my son. We’re outside a lot, I read a lot, I cook a lot, I write, I just live life.

What do you love most about living in New York City?

K: Oh, it’s just such a great city with such great energy. It’s one of these places –
I think a lot of places blend into one and they all look alike. New York definitely stands out. It’s got a heartbeat! You just feel it, you know? It’s not something that you can grab or describe. I think, when you get there, you just know. It feels like life is happening. It’s just everything!

You have been touring for so long these past few years. Can you imagine of living anywhere else?

K: Yeah, I think I can live anywhere really! I’m one of those people; I can see myself anywhere really. I like to imagine what my life would be like everywhere I go. That would be interesting. What I ended up doing would just depend on circumstances. But everywhere I go I try to envisage myself living there.

Is there no place that you really love because of some wonderful experience?

K: I mean: I do. That’s what I’m saying. Wherever I go I envisage myself there, and feel like I could live there if the circumstances were right.

You’ve been very successful these past few years. You’ve had Grammy nominations. You won platinum records. What has changed the most in your life?

K: I’m a mother!

Has this influenced your latest record at all? You’ve just turned 30!

K: It’s hard to say how it influenced the album. It’s just the fact that life changes you. I’m in a great condition now and being a mother is such a blessing. It’s one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Well, I don’t know how it has influenced me or the album. 

Still, you’ve changed your whole style in music and also what you look like. You used to be more R&B and now it’s very electronic dance music, like neo-disco!

K: I haven’t change my style at all! I’m me throughout everything! I don’t think so – the music hasn’t changed that much. And that’s the whole point. We’re talking about me and what I’m doing and where I am at this point in my life.  When years and years go by, it’s not so much about changing my style, about time going by and life changing. It would be more surprising if I sounded and looked exactly the same. It’s just time, you know what I mean?

You produced this album with a lot of different people, like will.i.am, David Guetta, and others. Where do you know Boy Noize from? He’s Hamburg!

K: Well, actually he’s friends with a friend of mine. He was doing a record and he sent me a bunch of records. And I was writing, at least in my head. I loved what he did so I just decided it to work with him. Yes, I met him through my friend.

Did you travel to Hamburg to work with him?

K: No, he actually came over to me. He came to my house, we met like that and we worked from there.

So, do you have a favorite song on your new album?

K: No, that’s too hard to choose. I love them all for different reasons.

Before you did the album, you wrote a cooking book. What’s your son’s favorite dish? And what’s yours?

K: Oh! You know, I went to cordon-bleu school and basically I wanted to rewrite a book or tweak it a little bit at least. I love to cook; I love to cook anything really. I have a favorite dish but I didn’t put it out. I just wrote it and set it aside. And my son? He’s just too young for that kind of food!   

Acapella (single) VÖ 07.05.2010
Flesh Tone (album) VÖ 28.05.2010
Interscope

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