The Hotel Cafe Tour Stops in NYC

The Hotel Cafe Tour hit New York City Monday night to a standing-room-only crowd at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza. The night featured 15- to 20-minute rotating performances from Ingrid Michaelson, Cary Brothers, Joshua Radin, Meiko and Priscilla Ahn.

While Michaelson may have been the main draw, with her MySpace success and songs featured on “Grey’s Anatomy,” all the musicians featured throughout the night impressed the crowd. Whether it was Ahn playing the kazoo during one of her songs or all the performers accompanying Brothers on backing vocals for his song “Blue Eyes,” they kept the audience attentive.

I’ve never been to a concert that rotated performers every 15 minutes or so, but surprisingly enough the show ran extremely smoothly. Each performer played three to four songs every time they were onstage, sometimes bringing out previous performers to sing with them. For the most part, the musicians were a bit mellow — many playing acoustic guitars — but Michaelson’s set as well as Brothers’ livened up the audience.

Michaelson started out her first set of the night by playing “Breakable” from her latest album, Girls and Boys. The piano accompaniment throughout the song was strong but never overpowered her vocals. “Overboard” featured Michaelson’s falsetto singing range as she sang “To fall” — lyrics from the song — repeatedly, hitting a higher note with each repetition.

She explained “The Hat” as being her hoedown song, and at the end of her first set she joked with the crowd, promising that she’d be back after “one more of the whole buffet of singer songwriters” took the stage. “We’re going to make you cry tonight,” she said, alluding to the mellower, down-tempo sets of songs.

Ahn took the stage shortly after, with her light, airy singing style and guitar and strings accompaniment. She introduced her song “Astronauts” by saying, “This song is called ‘Astronauts’ and it’s about astronauts.” Another song, “Leave the Light On,” she told the audience, was inspired and written when she was 18 and living in Pennsylvania with her parents, practically in the middle of the woods. Coming home late at night, her parents would never leave the lights on and she was constantly scared that she was surrounded by “cougars, bears and rapists” in the dark.

Radin took the stage next with his guitar, and later Ahn came back out to accompany him as well as Allie Moss from Michaelson’s band. Solid and soothing vocally, Radin joked about one of his songs, which was inspired by falling in love on a train while in France. “This song gets tons and tons of airplay … on my mom’s iPod.” He had the audience singing along to “What If You,” a beautiful vocally driven song with his light guitar playing blending well with his soft vocals.

Michaelson took the stage again awhile later, playing a few more from her latest album. “Die Alone,” she told the crowd, was inspired by her constant fear of dying alone. “I know everyone feels that way sometimes,” she said. While her voice in the song sounds pretty lighthearted, the guitar accompaniment portrayed a feeling of anxiousness and fear.

Crowd favorite of the night seemed to be Michaelson and her radio hit, “The Way I Am.” With classic lines such as “I’d buy you Rogaine when you start losing all your hair/Sew on patches to all you tear/‘Cuz I love you more than I could ever promise,” she had practically all in attendance singing along. At times she seemed like a choir teacher directing those in the audience who helped her out by clapping along during certain points in the song.

Sia Interview on mp3

I know I have been slacking lately on my blog posts. So hopefully I'll make it up to you with the second part of my interview with Sia live on mp3 for you to listen to! Special thanks to my tech-savvy friends, Tom, Joel and Dan for making this possible! Listen to my phone interview with Sia here.

Lots of exciting things are coming up and I promise to update my blog more! Look back later this week for a concert review of Ingrid Michaelson and The Hotel Cafe Tour as well as some album reviews and interviews in the upcoming weeks! Thanks again for reading and for all your comments! :)

SXSW Recap

No, unfortunately I wasn't one of the lucky ones to attend the festivities in Austin, Texas, this past week, but hopefully one of these years I'll cover South by Southwest! Anyway, below is a list of some bands that a bunch of music mags/websites have been covering as well as some of my picks. I've been lucky enough to have covered quite a few of the bands that attended this year's festival for my blog, and at least one band on this list is bound to impress you. Be sure to check out sxsw.com where hundreds of songs are available to listen to from many of the bands that performed at the festival.

Who the music mags and websites are telling you to check out:

Duffy
I was covering a show at the Knitting Factory a month or so ago and met some guys from her record label, raving about her, telling me that "my homework" was to go home and MySpace Duffy. Well, I slacked a bit on my homework assignment and a few weeks passed, but her name kept coming up all over the summer festival lists so I finally checked out Duffy's website and was quite impressed with her vocals. She's been compared to Amy Winehouse, but to me sounds a bit more sophisticated with an old school '60's vibe. Check out her catchy song, "Mercy."

My Morning Jacket
I've read that they play incredibly live. A blend of rock and folk music, one of their songs, "Gideon," featured on their MySpace vaguely reminds me of U2.

Be Your Own Pet
South by Southwest seems to be the preview of their international tour promoting latest album, Get Awkward, available in the U.S. March 18th. The female-fronted punk rock band definitely has lots of energy and plenty guitar riffs to satisfy any guitar-fiend.

Vampire Weekend
Their MySpace groups their music as punk/new wave/classical, an eclectic combination of genres for sure. Interestingly enough, by listening to them, you can see a bit of each genre resembled in their music. Could there be a flute in their song, "APunk"? Take a listen for yourself.

Liam Finn
This New Zealander was named a Rolling Stone "Artist to Watch" in 2007 and I can see why. His mix of folk rock is intriguing to listen to. Check out "Second Chance" on his MySpace, the song starts off with a soft drum beat that blends well with his voice, later slowing down for an instrumental feature mid-song before picking back up again.

My picks:

Sparky's Flaw
From the beginning chord in their song, "Under Control" I was hooked. I also love the back story on the band - four friends from high school + 1 college roommate = Sparky's Flaw. Not to mention, three of the guys are in their last semester of college and are recording their debut full-length album (due out this summer) during winter and spring breaks. It's a pop/rock mix comparable to Maroon 5 and The Fray with a soulful blend of saxophone, keyboard and guitars.

Hello Tokyo
This Brooklyn-based female-fronted band has been building up a strong fan base over the years, playing gigs throughout NYC and D.C. while their debut full-length album is due out this April. While some songs are a bit down-tempo, "Radio" is one of their most upbeat, energetic songs and definitely showcases the strength of the band.

Happy Anarchy
When I caught up with them at a recent show of theirs and asked how they would describe their music, they couldn't. Which I think is a good thing. They compared it to many different genre's, not wanting to put it into one certain category. "Its classic American rock music," guitarist Yuhei explained. "It has a little bit of everything. We take influence from the Chili Peppers to Radiohead to older bands like The Who. I think the cool part is just whatever anyone thinks it is. I’ve learned to like the fact that you can’t be like, 'Yeah, they’re like this.' There’s potential for a lot of people to like our band."

Jon Foreman
The Switchfoot frontman has been getting much praise for his recent solo EP's from both critics and fans alike. Two of the four EP's released, titled "Fall" and "Winter," have that stripped down acoustic feel of being in his living room while watching him play.

Sia
Sia's live performance showcases her incredible vocals and her stage presence is impeccable. Constantly interacting with the audience, taking song requests and nailing high-powered crescendos in many of her songs had the audience erupt in applause and screams at a recent NYC show. This Australian singer definitely is making her name known in America.

There were well over 1,000 bands featured at this year's SXSW so there's no possible way any music magazine or blogger could have it all covered. Check out sxsw.com to listen to some of the featured artists and for more SXSW coverage from people who were actually there, check out Rollingstone.com as well as MTV's concert blog.

Sia Plays Sold-Out NYC Show

Webster Hall was packed with a sold-out crowd Saturday night, those in attendance anxiously awaiting for Australian singer/songwriter Sia to take the stage. And she did, shortly after 9 p.m., with the “Rocky” theme song blaring through the speakers. Sia and her band came out in bright, neon cartoon-character-type outfits for her first song of the evening, “Buttons.” She had the crowd singing and dancing along to the fun, up-tempo song, a hidden track on her latest album, Some People Have Real Problems.

(Check out her performance of "Buttons" on Jimmy Kimmel Live here for more of an idea.)

Sia is by far the most energetic singer I’ve ever seen in concert. In between songs she’d be dancing with so much energy, always with a bright smile on her face. Her concert was very interactive, whether she was asking the crowd if it needed anything, taking notes from fans with song requests or reading messages from fans on her message board while dedicating a song to them. She even traded her own scarf — one she bought in Chinatown, she told the audience — for a fan’s scarf.

Sia played a 90-minute set of 15 songs, mostly tracks off of her new album, as well as a few old fan favorites, such as “Broken Biscuit” and the infamous “Breathe Me” — her hit from the final episode of “Six Feet Under” that “totally resuscitated my dying career,” she told the audience.

I was blown away by Sia’s voice on many songs. “Lentil,” one of her more emotional songs, was powerful, with her voice building up into a crescendo in the middle of the song and then falling to a whisper by the end. On many numbers, audience members would break into screams after one of her more powerful chords.

What was interesting to me is that Sia’s songs are a bit more down-tempo than you would think a performer with her amount of energy would perform, possibly even falling into the category of easy listening. She told the crowd that her next album will be more poppy and performed a song from her “future album” titled “The Codependent,” which was definitely more upbeat and seemed more of Sia’s style.

Possibly one of her strongest songs of the night, Sia dedicated “You Have Been Loved,” to “all the losers in love.” She preceded the song by telling the audience of how she and a friend were calculating the statistics of all the single people in the world. “I’d like to assure you that there are 1.2 million people you can find a soul mate in and not to worry,” she told the crowd.

Although she couldn’t perform every song shouted out to her, she encouraged fans to write requests on her message board a week and a half before the show so the band can practice them. “I try to make dreams come true,” she joked.

Sia had many in attendance singing along to her choir-y song “Death by Chocolate” while the crowd favorite of the night seemed to be her vocally powerful song “Breathe Me,” as screams and claps from the audience could be heard well after she finished the song.

The night ended with an encore performance of “Somersault,” definitely a crowd pleaser. Sia preceded the song by telling the audience that she hated the idea of an encore. “I used to have a non-encore rule, but management told me I have to do it,” she joked.

Har Mar Superstar opened the night and definitely put on an interesting performance, as the singer stripped down to his underwear. Screams could be heard throughout Webster Hall, either of pure shock or excitement I’m not too sure. Lead singer, Har Mar, jumped into the crowd, dancing with some concertgoers throughout part of his set, definitely getting the crowd energized while a few concert-goers seemed a bit disturbed, screaming, “Put your clothes back on!”

Either way, the mix of Har Mar’s pop/club music livened up the audience, and as the house lights rose throughout the venue at the end of the night and concert-goers were ushered out the doors, they definitely could not forget Har Mar Superstar’s intriguing performance or the sheer energy and amazing vocals of Sia.

Sia Interview Featured on Rolling Stone

You read it correctly! Part of my interview with Sia is featured in this week's Rock & Roll Daily blog on rollingstone.com. You can check it out here. Feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think!

Q&A with Sia

I love interviewing bands, hence why I started this blog in the first place. But what I love most is how, despite often asking very similar questions to each band, some musicians can be incredibly refreshing and give very unexpected answers. Australian singer-songwriter Sia Furler is a breath of fresh air in the music industry. Her quirky answers during my phone interview with her and infectious laugh throughout made it such a delight to talk to her. (Read on to find out what I mean!)

You can find the full interview with Sia below or listen to part of my phone interview here. In addition, you can read my write-up featured on Rolling Stone's Rock & Roll Daily blog here. Feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think! In the meantime, check out this stream of her performing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. For Windows. For Quicktime. She's playing a sold-out concert at Webster Hall in NYC Saturday, March 8. I'll be covering the show, so keep on the look-out for a full review sometime next week!

I love the colorful album artwork. Did you design it all yourself?
Well, we started out, me and my friend Eric [Spring]. I’ve been doing Apple Art on the computer for the website. I started for fun at airports when I couldn’t get wireless Internet to surf crap gossip websites. I decided to start for fun, matching art for the song titles because I felt we need a reason to sell C.D.’s. People just don’t buy music unless there’s something in the packaging that’s worth having. I thought it would be fun to do pictures, make flashcards for every song. Halfway through, because I’m an incredibly lazy fucker, I got tired of doing it, so then we engineered a competition for the fans, like 20,000 fans. It had to be cohesive with the cover, so we gave them the cover, which I did with my friend Eric in the Le Parc Suite hotel after breakfast in Los Angelis. A lot of people don’t really notice that on the cover art work there is someone who is being rained on, who is really having a bad day with a big frown. And then there is another person who is smiling but has no arms and legs. That’s what I meant when I said, some people have real problems and they’re not complaining.

How did you choose the title for your album?
We would make jokes about it all the time. During recording people would come in and complain about, I don’t know, like their coffee bang ditter or traffic, or that their cleaner didn’t do something. And I’d say, “Some people have real problems.” Like, they’re waiting for a lung or they don’t have a mum. When anyone would say a really, stupid, rich person’s complaint then we literally would say, “Yeah, some people have real problems” and it would be hilarious and it just stuck. I thought it would be a funny name for an album. And then I thought people would ask me about it a lot and if I were to get rich and successful I would remember to not turn into an asshole. But I am one, so it didn’t work. [Laughs] No it’s working.

Did you go in having a concept for your album?
No. I just wanted to make an album that didn’t really sound like it belonged to any particular era. I just wanted it to be . . . not really fashionable or anything. I wanted to make an album that had good songs and was recorded mainly live. That’s all. I had about 48 songs, ‘cause it had been a long time since I had put out my last record and I’ve been writing so much. So I just gave them to Jimmy [Hogarth] who was the producer and I said, “Could you choose the best songs?” He came back with 18 and then we ran out of money between 14 or 15 so we just ended up with those ones and then we chose the best out of those. The ones we were most attracted to, sexually [laughs] and that was it.

I don’t really have as much involvement in it. I like to just write the songs and then once I’ve written them and recorded them, when I’m in the studio I’ll know if I really hate a sound that someone uses. I like to trust all the musicians, all of them are awesome. Generally, they bring their own great thing. Jimmy has good taste and I trust him. I only really listen to them when I’m writing them and then when I’m recording them…I didn’t even listen to the mixes. I didn’t have any headphones so I listened to them through my Mac speakers and I thought they sounded good. There was only one thing that Jimmy sent me that I went back on. The horns were too jazzy and I didn’t like it. We had to redo the horns. I wanted them to be like a marching band. But that’s all, that’s the only thing we had to redo.

Do you have a favorite song on the album?
“Academia” is my favorite and then I like singing “You Have Been Loved,” it’s a good song to sing live. But yeah, I think “Academia” is my favorite and I like “Buttons” too.

I love the lyrics on “Academia.”
Thanks! That was like a vomit song. You know, when you just literally pick up a pen and they just go “bleup.” That took five minutes to write and then we researched it just to make sure all the words are right.

And you recorded that song with Beck, right? How was working with him?
Yeah. It was good. He came out for the day. I had a day where I gathered all of my friends to help me sing backing vocals. ‘Cause I wanted a big choir-y sound on “Death By Chocolate.” And then he came down and I asked him if he would sing on “Academia.” I had already asked him in an email but I asked him again because he hadn’t responded so I asked him in person. I was like, “Do you hate it? Do you want to do it?” and he said sure. That was a bit of a treat. But really, he’s just being really supportive. He’s doing me a favor. When people like you ask me about it and then you write about it and when people Google Beck, my name comes up. So he’s basically doing me a big favor.

What is your writing process like?
I write everyday. It used to be much more loose. I write with people, I can’t really write by myself. I mean I can, but it’s not as fun. I like to be part of a team. Mid-day we usually schedule one or two songs with different writers. Sometimes I have an idea and I just write it down and remember it, like one sentence and then I can build a song around that. Normally it happens while I’m in a room with another writer and it’s been scheduled, but it’s different every time. Normally the chorus comes first and then the music gets the feeling of the song from me and it just comes out and if it doesn’t come out then we move on and we start a different kind of song.

How do you feel this album is different from your previous albums?
I guess I’m in a better mood. I wasn’t in a good mood the last album. And this album I’m in a much better mood and I think that’s reflected in the times. And it’s hairier. A lot hairier. [Laughs] It needs a haircut actually.

I was curious about your song “Lentil.”
Did that title confuse you? [Laughs] It was a dog called Lentil, that was the first dog I ever fostered and I couldn’t take him with me back to London because he didn’t have the right rabies shots and it was in Australia. I had to go back to London to work and I had to leave him in Australia and I felt so bad because I loved him so much. I found him a really good home and he’s so happy now. I see him every summer. He’s a good boy.

In “Playground” you sing, “I don’t want to grow old/Bring me all the toys you can find.” I feel everyone can relate to that, is that a fear of yours, growing old?
Totally. Yeah, and also I just don’t want to stop having fun. I think it’s a decision to grow old. I saw my mum made a decision and she just got old over night. It was like she made a decision and it was like, “Why are you doing that?” She just reversed that decision. She came to New York for Christmas, where I live now. And while she was here she reversed that decision and I’m so glad. But yeah, I just don’t want to make that decision to grow old.

How are you staying young?
A lot of dancing, shopping, hanging out with good people. Dancing, more dancing. Singing a lot, good dating, a lot of good dating. Making stuff, fun stuff, crafting.

Were you originally a back-up singer for Jamiroquai?
No. I mean I was. I went down there and recorded some stuff and he paid me and everything. But then he said my voice was too distinctive and he never used any of it. It’s probably for the best. He was really nice to me when I was first starting out as a singer and he actually gave me a bunch of money to help me pay my bills. He was gonna start a record label and wanted me to sign to it but it never happened. And we never saw each other ever again.

And you’ve sang for Zero 7 too. How do you feel all these experiences and people have influenced you and your music throughout the years?
Well, a lot because I don’t listen to music. When I’m surrounded by those friends and musicians they play music constantly. So I guess I’m heavily influenced by whatever they’re listening to at the time. And of course by dynamics, band dynamics and friendships and all that sort of stuff. But yeah, I can’t do that anymore because I’m getting busy with the solo stuff so I’m not doing the next Zero 7 album. That’s sad because that was the best fun and I think my best work has been with them. But maybe one day we’ll be able to do some more. It would be nice.

Over the past 10 years, you’ve progressed so much. Do you feel your fans have changed at all?
No, I feel like they’ve stayed the same, but then maybe they’ve grown slightly. Like its’ expanded, like they’ve told their mums. [Laughs] That’s what I think. I know I have a loyal fan base because a lot of them have been on the message board for five years. But yeah, I think it has definitely gotten bigger.

How is your tour going?
It’s been amazing, people are so nice! They’re giving me gifts. They pass me notes while I’m on stage. I love it! It’s been really good audience participation. Like, sometimes there will be a note that says, “Could you dedicate the next song to blah, blah from blah, blah. We danced our wedding to this song.” It’s so nice. Other notes would just be like, “Show us your tits.” I’ve gotten presents; someone gave me a handmade scarf the other day. Other people gave me the most amazing toiletries and smelly bath things. Someone gave me so much beautiful essential oils. Another bunch of people gave me awesome joke presents, like silly masks, whoopee cushions, and suspenders. I think they all seem to know what I like, which is really weird. Nobody has given me a present that I’m not into. I’m becoming a really good receiver! [Laughs]

What was your inspiration behind Some People Have Real Problems?
It’s a long time coming. It was like four years of accumulated experiences. One of the songs didn’t make the last record another one was a song that didn’t make a Zero 7 record. One of them was one I was writing as a pop song for some other pop star. When I thought maybe my solo career was over, I started thinking I would try and write pop songs for big stars. Like Shakira and Paris and Britney. In the end, we realized I was going to make another solo record and so I collected all the songs I had been writing. There’s a few B-sides that we didn’t use and didn’t put on the album. It was a pretty simple process for me anyway. Probably not for all those poor fuckers at the management company and the record label and everyone who’s working their asses off to do the other stuff that I don’t even know about.

My life is so abstract. Like my life right now, I’ve done seven interviews before you and everyone’s been asking me, “So, you’re really blowing up right now. Your face is everywhere, how does it feel?” And I’m like, that is hilarious to me because that is so abstract. I have no awareness of it because my days are exactly the same. Every day I get off the tour bus in new city. I get into a hotel room, I take a shower, I get into bed and I do, like five hours of interviews, and then I get into a taxi and go to the venue, do a sound check. If it’s not catered at the venue I maybe will get to go around the venue to the closest restaurant to get some dinner and then come back to the venue, do the show, get back in the tour bus, drive overnight, wake up in a new city and do it all exactly the same all over again.

Yesterday was my first day off in 2 ½ weeks and I went on a mission to buy my love interest some underpants alone. I was like, I need a mission. I was so grateful for the mission because I actually left the hotel room even though I was still tired. I’m working really hard. But I was so grateful. I’m in Chicago and I left the hotel and went for a walk and it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t been for a walk or outside with real people, like humanity, not just working or in a venue or in a hotel room or in a taxi or in a tour bus for 2 ½ weeks. I went into a Starbucks to get a coffee because normally my manager will bring me a coffee while I do interviews or whatever. I don’t even do the normal stuff that normal people do, like stand at a bus stop with people, what I would normally do in real life.

It’s been so surreal. It’s so funny, because I go into a Starbucks yesterday and nobody recognizes me. I’ve been recognized once in Starbucks. I’ve still got jet-eye so nobody ever recognizes me if I’m walking on the streets. All the posters are down now, that was for the first week of the release, they had posters all over the streets in the cities or whatever. Now I’m doing all this promo and it’s in the papers the days before I get to the city that I’m getting to. But I don’t even get a chance to read any newspapers or anything like that, you know. It’s totally abstract to me, just totally surreal. I have no awareness because my life is me, in a hotel room with the shits. [Laughs] It’s so funny because I’m sure people think it’s really glamorous, like I must be living the fucking high life right now, doing the shows, traveling every night. It’s a lot of hard work. It’s just working hard. I guess that’s why the success is happening now.

Do you think your song, “Breathe Me,” being featured on Six Feet Under’s final episode was part of this success?
Oh absolutely. That laid the foundation for sure. Because I had a very small fan base in America thanks to Zero 7. But yeah, I think that really launched my solo career, absolutely. I have a lot to thank that music supervisor of Six Feet Under for.

What do you think you’d be doing right now if it wasn’t for your solo career?
I’d probably be making another record with Zero 7 or I’d be a dog rescuer, or video director. Yeah, I might be a filmmaker or something like that.

How would you explain your album to someone who’s never heard it before?
I have a standard response. I say its easy listening, just because it keeps people’s expectations low. You can’t really go wrong if you say that to someone. It is pretty easy listening. You either like my voice or you don’t. It’s definitely an acquired taste, but if you like it your generally gonna like it. It’s not going to offend you; it’s pretty middle of the road. It’s not really trying to be anything…its just doing its thing, existing. I think that’s normally what I say. Or I tell people its thrash metal if I want to confuse people. [Laughs]

What’s the most rock-star thing you’ve ever done?
It’s probably spending a lot of money on my dogs. On spending a lot of money having them looked after while I’m on tour and then having them flown to New York from LA at the end of the tour. I guess that’s pretty privileged. If you’re talking about getting drunk and hurling on a celebrity, like that kind of rock-star gossip, I haven’t really got any of those for you. I have a cache of successful friends, but I’ve never vomited on any of them or gotten pregnant from any of them.

Amy Winehouse or Britney Spears?
Whose baby would I like to have? [Laughs] Well, I’m rooting for both of them. I care about Amy. I care about her because I am a fan and I’ve met her a couple of times and I kind of stalk her. I’ve got her phone number and whenever I listen to her album and I love it I text her and say, “I’m listening to it again, it’s so good!” Or when I saw those pictures of her after they’d been in a fight and I felt really sad about it I sent her a text saying that I cared about her, and I wished her lots of love. She never responds. I know she gets them though because her manager told me. She doesn’t really respond to anyone, she doesn’t do email. If I had Britney Spears’ number I’d do the same for her. I care about people in pain, you know? You’ve got to be a careless person not to care about people in pain. I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs. I had total nervous breakdown when I was making the last album. The reason I care and that I write to Amy is that I can identify with people in pain, I guess. One of my fans told me he was in pain on the message boards recently and I gave him my phone number. I was like; “If you’re going to hurt yourself just call me.” I don’t know. I’m rooting for both of them. I don’t want to see anyone in pain. I don’t know about ridiculing people in the press, its mean and it’s dangerous.

Who’s the coolest famous person you’ve ever met?
Probably Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders. About seven years ago, I had a hit in the UK that went to number 10 and I was on this show called, Top of the Pops. She was on the show that night as well and she introduced herself to me and she just gave me a lot of great advice. She said don’t read press. If you believe the good, you believe the bad and there will be bad, it will suck you up. I’m a huge fan. I’ve met a lot of people that I admire. I’ve met Annie Lennox, Stevie Wonder, Ryan Gosling, Beck is a friend of mine. People who I’ve respected and I adored growing up and even more recently, people whose art I respect. It happens, its more and more common especially since I moved to L.A. for three years, it’s crawling with celebs.

Speaking of Beck, you’ve collaborated with him and Giovanni Ribisi on your album, how did those collaborations come about?
Well, Beck I met through Nigel Godrich, who produces all of Beck’s albums and Radiohead and Air and who was actually an original member of Zero 7. Then he got the Radiohead gig and he got really busy with that. I met him through the Zero 7 bunch. And then Nigel introduced me to Beck about five/six years ago. Giovanni is Beck’s brother-in-law. So I met him through Beck.

Working with them is always really fun. They’re really nice and really supportive. Any time I’ve ever asked them for help they’ve helped me. The thing is I’m opposed to thinking that everything is competition and that we should all be helping each other. I asked Amy Winehouse to do a collaboration and she said, “No way.” And I was like, “Why not?” And she said, “I’m intimidated by you. I’ve been listening to you since I was a teenager.” I was totally shocked because she’s my favorite contemporary voice. Her and Lauryn Hill. I just think that’s shocking to me and because we sound so different. I was just shocked.

Who else would you want to collaborate with?
Jeff Buckley, Elvis [Costello], Barr, this artist called Barr, I love him, he’s like a poet. Har Mar Superstar.

What was your favorite album when you were 14?
When I was 14 . . . I was like 11 or something when I first got into Terence Trent Darby and the Bangles. That was the first record I ever bought, the Bangles’ “Manic Monday.” I was listening to Soul II Soul when I was 15 and Malcolm McLaren.

What’s on your current playlist?
I don’t really listen to music; I’m going to be honest with you. I don’t have a playlist. I have a playlist that I made to deejay to this stand-in in Hollywood once. That has on it “The Macarena,” Billy Joel, “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “Candy,” “Madness”, “On the Wings of a Dove,” Blondie, “Hanging on the Telephone”, Joe Jackson, “Steppin’ Out.” Just fun, dancing around songs really. I dance a lot. If you go to my website, siamusic.net, you can see me dancing. I love to dance. I’m a big dancer, a big fan of the dance.

When do you think you’ll know when its time to retire?
I don’t know if I’m really that keen on getting a whole bunch of plastic surgery and anything like that. I think I’m just gonna do it for another couple of albums and then I’m gonna start doing movies, like directing movies. I’m writing one at the moment called Sister, which I want to direct in the next four years or something. But I think I should concentrate on the singing while it’s happening and just develop those movie projects.

So do you see yourself directing huge movies or more underground?
I think a nice fine line between indie and Hollywood blockbuster.

For more info. on Sia or for future tour dates, be sure to check out Sia's website or herMySpace