A little Natalie, shall we?
Welcome!If you like Natalie Imbruglia, then this is the place for you! Midi being played: Torn, by Natalie Imbruglia A background in Australian soaps offers a wealth of opportunities, most
notably a dalliance with Europop and juggling a career between panto and
Saturday morning television. Neither appealed to the canny former Neighbours
star Natalie Imbruglia. Instead she has spent the past year working with
former Cure member Phil Thornalley and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich,
to develop her own fresh rock sound which will astound those critics who'd
labelled her just another pretty face. "If the label had tried to make
me put on some hot pants and sing pop I just couldn't have done that. It's
not me and my voice wouldn't suit that," she says. Thornalley, who wrote
her addictive debut single Torn, out on October 13, says, "Natalie was
someone who was trying to do something other than another pop/R&B/soul
record. There are so many artists doing safe pop so it was refreshing to
find an artist wanting to do something with attitude and produce a more
organic record." In the three years since disappearing from the TV screen
as Beth in Neighbours, Imbruglia has deliberately taken time out to allow
her profile to die down. Now as removed from her past as she could probably
get, Imbruglia's image will be fully reinvented when she tours her country-tinged
songs about twentysomething womanhood most of which she has co-written
with a band she is currently putting together. Imbruglia, who counts
Columbia folk-rocker Shawn Colvin among her favourite artists, adds, "I
think I'm an entertainer, but then I think describing it all is bollocks.
Creative people are creative people. We're all in one basket. This album
is where I'm at. I just want to get on with it and keep getting better.
I'm not doing it for any other reason." Always genuinely into music, Imbruglia
started out as a singer and rejected a record deal before acting. "It took
me a long time to shake off that soap thing and be given the space to do
what I wanted to do. At first I didn't think I could really get away with
it. Then it's like the opportunity presented itself to me and did I have
the balls to do it?" She met her now A&R consultant Mark Fox while
searching for collaborators more than a year ago while he was creative
director at BMG. "I listened to what she was saying; she wanted to be a
developing artist rather than just a singles artist," he says. Fox introduced
Imbruglia to Thornalley, whose lengthy career also includes producing Duran
Duran, mixing Ash and playing bass for Edwyn Collins. He in turn brought
in Godrich Fox, who made Imbruglia his first signing when he moved to
RCA, adds, "I've built my own agenda for her. It was never a case of getting
a single out; I've been the publisher and the A&R man. It was a case
of bringing writers and music to her which would counteract her overwhelming
star quality." Imbruglia adds she had interest from a couple of labels
but had been most impressed with RCA. "RCA's not seen me as a puppet on
a string. They've been behind me 100% and encouraged me to grow as an artist.
I've heaped the pressure on myself. I have to," she says. Godrich says
the tracks he mixed are not comparable to his previous work with Radiohead.
"It's not really what I do. It was light relief. It's definitely a pop
record; very commercial and marketable and with the whole Alanis Morissette
thing companies are trying to come up with something for that market."
Other connections saw Imbruglia working on tracks in LA with Mark Goldenberg
(Eels), in Nashville with Matt Bronleeee and in New York with Mark Plati
(Bowie, Dee-lite). With such names involved, the surprisingly distinctive
feel of the album, and Imbruglia's profile, it seems she could become as
much a household name as Kylie .As Thornalley explains, "I still think
of it as a pop record. Just because it has got attitude does not mean it
isn't pop. So often you just think of Stock, Aitken and Waterman as pop.
It's just that times change. Maybe that's good."
By: STEPHEN JONES
Read the interview and see the cover with Natalie, on Spin Magazine
Links to Natalie Imbruglia Sites!
Natalie Imbruglia - Main Page
Natalie Imbruglia
Natalie Imbruglia Music Homepage
INTUITION: a Natalie Imbruglia page
Paul's Natalie Imbruglia Site
Natalie Imbruglia's Almost Official Web Site
Natalie Imbruglia - Best Links Page
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