Interviewing Kerli at Lollapalooza

TOUR NEWS

On August 5th-7th, Lollapalooza celebrated it’s historic 25th Anniversary and 7th year in Chicago at Grant Park.

Recently I moved to New York City for a position with EMI Music in Marketing working for Astralwerks, home to The B-52s, Kylie Minogue and David

Guetta among others; however, being a Chicagoan over the past 2 ½ years I felt attending the event was certainly worth a trip back to town.

With over 125 acts performing over the course of the three day event, selecting one’s itinerary is both half the fun and half the battle. Headliners this year consisted of Coldplay, Eminem, Muse and Foo Fighters; however, I particularly enjoy catching the smaller artists before they break.

I flew into Chicago Friday, August 5th and just missed the chance at catching Young The Giant and Kerli perform. I was so bummed. I did get to see UK rapper Tinie Timpah perform his chart topping radio hit “Written In the Stars” and the talented young Christina Perri belt out her beautiful balad “Jar of Hearts.” I strolled past Afrojack’s performance of his dance anthem “Take Over Control” on my way to catch Crystal Castles perform their trippy must-see show. Check out their collaboration with Nate Smith of The Cure on "Not In Love."

I ended the day with an outstanding Coldplay performance that consisted of a lazer show, giant colored beach balls and pretty much every great Coldplay song you could ask for. As a bonus I got to catch Ratatat perform their wild hit “Wildcat” on my way out the festival doors.

During my second day of the festival I caught UK act Friendly Fires perform several songs off their catchy sophomore album Pala while trying to make my way over to catch the majority of the Skylar Gray performance at the same time. Skylar performed a medley of The Cranberries’ “Zombie,” and then went into a Medley of her Diddy/Dirty Money hit “Coming Home,” her Dr Dre/Eminem hit “I Need a Doctor” and Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie”: all-in-all a winner for the audience. Watch video of the medley here.

I ended the festival catching one of my favorite new bands Local Natives perform their track “Wide Eyes” before hopping over to Ellie Goulding’s stage for my final show of the festival. She looked gorgeous and sounded great. The highlight of the whole event though was a chance to interview Estonian pop star Kerli about her recent shift in musical direction, her views on life for gay teens in Estonia and her thoughts on Lady Gaga.

Read on.

INTERVIEWS: Kerli

AfterElton: So tell me about what life was like growing up in Estonia?

Kerli: Well it was

boring and grey and restrictive. Sometimes when I say these things Estonians

get really hurt. They’re like “why is she saying such bad things?” Besides being from Estonia

I’m from a really small town of like 5,000 people. I knew that a world like

this was out there and I knew that I wanted to be part of it. Everything around

me was just so grey. I never really felt like I belonged. I got the fuck out as

fast as I could. I moved away from home when I was 16.

AE: Wow so

where’d you move?

K: Sweden. I got

my first publishing deal at 16. I was a songwriter before I was an artist.

AE: You started

off really young.

K: Yeah, and I got my

first record deal when I was 14.

AE: And then you

signed with L.A. Reid in 2006. Your first big American breakthrough was

“Walking on Air” and recently you’ve come out with the single “Army of Love,” with quite the interesting music video. Where did you get the idea for the gasmasks with the teddy bears?

K: I wanted to

make it very industrial. In my head that video would have even been more early 90’s experimental. I went to Estonia to film it. It was hardcore

making that video. It was just me and my team. Me and my mom made a lot of the

stuff in that video. It was very DIY. I don’t have anybody else. I’m a one girl army.

AE: That’s

awesome.

K: It’s not

awesome. I wish I would have someone helping me. I haven’t met that person yet.

I just did a thing in my blog: “What I want from Santa next year” and this one

thing I want is an “in-house nerd” that is a Logic genius who sews and cooks

and cleans. So when I have a skirt idea he’ll just make it.

AE: Would this be

a boyfriend or a non-sexual in-house nerd?

K: Not sexual at

all. I have other people for that!

AE: So is there

anybody special in your life right now?

K: Everybody’s

special in my life

AE: Good answer!

You’ll make a lot of people happy with that. So you live in America now?

K: Yeah actually

I live in LA now

AE: Who are some

of your favorite artists?

K: I love Imogen Heap. Artists like that are the

biggest inspiration for me because when Imogen wins a Grammy for engineering,

that to me is the real shit. Somebody else writing your record and the whole

"pop stardom fame" stuff, I can’t really connect to that at all. I’m rooting

for Imogen. I’m rooting for Bjork.

I’m rooting for those chicks. And I’m trying to make that essence and

inspiration [in my music] and make it a little more pop

AE: How do you

feel about Lady Gaga?

K: I actually did

a lot of European promo stuff with her when she was just starting. I was

promoting my first album when she was promoting The Fame. She really had a fiery energy around her and she was so

prepared and so together and so on that road. It was written on her face that

she was going to be what she is. There are things that I love about her and

there are things that I don’t love about her, but you can only imagine the

work she’s done and anybody that’s willing and able to work that hard you’ve

got to give props to.

AE: It’s nice to

see that you don’t bash other female artists.

K: Thanks I try,

yeah.

AE: What has it

been like handling fame and success for you?

K: I don’t really

feel like I’m famous. I mean I can go to the grocery store no problem.

AE: Do you dress

up when you go to the grocery store?

K: I’m actually a

really, really shy person. This is me being artsy but my fans helped me pick

out my outfit. I tweeted options and let my fans pick it out. I kind of see

myself as a cartoon character that the kids and I are creating together. I also

make everything and I write and produce, so when I’m in work mode I don’t

really give a shit about what my hair looks like. When I’m the creator, I’m the

creator. And when I step out, then I’m the artist.

AE: Your

[real] name is Kerli, right?

K: Yes

AE: So do you

feel like you have an alternate persona when you dress like this?

K: It’s the

artist and the “artiste.” When I close the door I become the artist. I go for

days. I’m bi-polar so I have this manic period where I pretend my balcony is

the stage. I program with my headphones on for 48-hours straight. It’s manic

creation. I don’t wear platform shoes when I do that. Really. I’m jumping

around like nothing matters. The visual though is such a huge, important part

of music. But it’s not like a different person. It’s the same person. My house

looks like the way I dress though. I have fucking toy guns, weird art, baby

doll heads, unicorns, everything LED that you can imagine.

AE: Where did you

get your love of art? Are either of your parents artists or did you take art

classes?

K: My love of art

comes from not having any around me. I was very restricted from music and art.

My parents don’t read any books. They don’t go to the theatre. I felt really

deprived. I was looking for many things. I was looking for art. I was looking

for religion and spiritualism. My family is very atheist, very real and down to

earth. Just showing my emotion isn’t of the European mindset. Showing your

emotion is taboo. Me being a child and wanting to cry because I was happy or

cry because I was sad wasn’t allowed.

AE: Do you

consider yourself a religious person now?

K: Definitely not

religious. At least not organized. Unorganized. I believe in many things. I believe in

angels. I talk to angels every day. They’re a really important part of my life.

I have areas in my house where I put gifts for them. They’re always helping me

with everything. I get a lot of messages from them. I believe in fairies. I

love nature. I go on vision quests with my friends to the desert. It’s a big

part of my life, as big of a part of who I am as my music.

AE: Tell me about

how you create your music. Do you do it alone?

K: I have a

studio in my house. A lot of this new album I created by myself and did the

original production. With my first album I wasn’t programming yet.

For me the whole way that labels work, they put an artist in a studio with the

producers and they allow one day to make something happen. For me creating art

is a big process. Even us just talking here, me going out hearing what people

are saying and feeling and then putting it in a song, it’s a way longer

process. I have a lot of songs that come to me in my dreams and I wake up and

record them. I like to break the mold in

every area. I just deliver my label music and if I don’t think it’s really good

then I don’t even deliver it. I don’t think they were even expecting that. They were

putting me in the studio with all these people, but now I’m totally going end up writing about 50-75% of this album completely by myself.

AE: Tell me about your new album. When is it

expected to be out?

K: The fall. It’s

taking shape and going more towards the rave world.

AE: When you say

rave world do you mean Kaskade

and deadmau5-style?

K: Yeah. Like Wolfgang Gartner, hard trippy stuff.

I’m recording a bunch of that kind of stuff. The song that is supposed to be my

first single should be sampled by all sorts of people.

AE: What’s the

name of your first single?

K: Can’t say yet.

I’m doing a whole round of shows and performing at the President of Sony’s

private party. And I’m doing an Independence Day festival with 75,000 people,

it’s a free festival. And after that I’m getting in the studio to finish up

that track. So it’s totally going to be on the fast track to finish it up.

AE: What’s it

like growing up in Estonia

dealing with one’s sexuality? Is it taboo to be openly gay?

K: We don’t have

any gay people. I mean of course we have them, but until now it wasn’t really

talked about. And the people who have, people are weird about it. But now that

I’ve been doing all these gay prides I’ve been getting letters from the local

Estonian community and that’s really rad. Drawing attention to that.

AE: So you’re an

icon for people in Estonia

K: I don’t really

like this whole separation, like who fucking cares? That’s why I like the rave

scene because everybody’s tripping balls and it’s not about who you like to

have sex with, or what you believe in even. It’s just about feeling the love

and love for music and art.

AE: It’s a good

attitude to have.

K: I try.

AE: Well thanks for your time and it sounds

like your life experiences have come together to make a really beautiful and interesting person both on

the inside and the out.

K: Thank you very

much!

Kerli - "Army of Love"

LOLLAPALOOZA ALBUMS to check out

Foster the People - Torches

Christina Perri - Lovestrong

Tinie Tempah – Disc-Overy

Friendly Fires - Pala

Young the Giant – Young the Giant

LOLLAPALOOZA SINGLES to check out

Dom – "Living In America"

Crystal Castles - "Baptism"

Phantogram – "When I’m Small"

Lissie – "When I’m Alone"

Skylar Grey – "Dance Without You"

VIDEOS:

In case you missed it here are some video highlights of Lollapalooza...

Deadmau5 – Raise Your Weapon & Sofi Needs a Ladder

Coldplay – Fix You and Every Teardrop is a Waterfall

"Fix You

Eminem – Airplanes

& Stan

Foo Fighters - Everlong