Legendary pop songwriter Sia Furler recently gave two very rare interviews, one with Zane Lowe and one with Jo Whiley for BBC Radio 1. PopSlutz tuned in to hear every word, here are the highlights…
Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kanye West, Jay Z, 12 million sales… but you prefer life out of the limelight. What was so damaging about the fame when it came along? How bad did it get?
I even got just a tiny bit famous and I didn’t like it, it’s not for me, I can’t deal with it. I didn’t have anything left over for my true friends. Also towards the end of when I got most famous, I also got an illness – hyper thyroid – my adrenal system was so shot I just felt like I was a hunted animal. They gave me Zanex, got hooked on those, before you know it 6 months passes and I’m a veritable junkie sitting in a chair for 3 months without leaving the house. Eventually it all fell apart and I got clean, and I thought I have to change my life. I’m just going to write pop songs for pop stars, I found a manager who really listened to me and knew what I wanted to do.
Did it take you by surprise this sense of pride that you got out of doing something that was so out of what you were used to when it started to roll?
Yeah, well it was weird, actually. One of the first things my manager set me up with was going in with ten David Guetta tracks and I wrote Titanium. They said they needed a song for Alicia Keys and David Guetta but she rejected it, so he had Mary J Blige do it. For some reason he took her vocal off, and put my vocal back on the track, and it was my demo vocal but he never got my permission, my dream was to retire into oblivion and just disappear. I found out on Twitter. At the time I was furious, this was not my plan, I was actually really upset about it. But when a million dollars comes into your letterbox its amazing how anger just disappates so quickly. So I’m grateful at this moment I’m so grateful for that mistake.
The people you’ve written for recently, it’s ridiculous, Celene Dion, you’ve done the single for her?
At one point I had a song on Kanye’s record that he then dropped but that was right when I found out Celine was doing my song and I though OMG. From Kanye to Celine I just couldn’t believe my luck.
Do you get upset when tracks get dropped like with Kanye?
Nah cos then Jay Z picked up the same track and then he dropped that. It’s very interesting, now I’ve changed it all up and done an entirely different thing on the topline so now I’m trying to get it to Kendrick. So when you know a song is good, and you know one person was into it and another was into it, you know the track is good, it’s just a matter of whose album it fits on.
What’s the secret with the co-writing? Eminem, Katy Perry, J Lo, so many different people. What is it that you can do that so many other people can’t do?
I have no idea, but I guess I’m understanding, I listen to what the labels say, and I only listen to pop radio, and not very often I have to stay, for study. I’m nice also, people like to work with me. I’m irreverent, I’m not scared of celebrities. They like that, cos they like to work with people that are easy-peasy. And I’m fast. I wrote Diamonds in 26 mins and recorded it in 22 mins. I know that because there was a car outside waiting to take me to the airport. I know that Titanium I wrote in 40 – 45 mins. Wild Ones, 15 or something. Most of the songs that I write, I write really fast, and so I’m productive. And that’s why I probably have so many singles out, I write one or two songs a session. One out of ten will hit, perhaps it’s a numbers game for me.
When you work with Katy P or Celine, are you in a room physically with them?
Not always. With Katy yes, with Celine, no. For the most part, Katy just rejects everything that I suggest. I’m really more there for the company . Her and I we write together but in very different ways
For those people that are writers and have an interest in that, what are some of the key things you’ve learnt since you’ve been in that world.
Keep it simple. The simpler, the more easily assimilated it is by the most amount of people. Strong title, that’s what the record labels are looking for, something you can Google. And usually something repetitive, something with multiple hooks. But you know what, I play with a little formula, but the fact is sometimes when I don’t play by the formula that song gets cut too. So I really think it’s some sort of universal luck.
Finally, is it true that on every session you write on, you start with the introduction ‘I’m Sia and I only write hit records’?
Yeah pretty much. I just say ‘that doesn’t sound like a single, so let’s move onto the next song, cos I only write singles. That’s my focus.
PopSlutz 