Whigfield
Whigfield (aka Sannie Charlotte Carlson) is on board for the Vengaboys juggernaut coming to Australia for one massive tour taking in all major capitals. Whigfield has had some major hits with Saturday Night and Sexy Eyes and whilst she has done plenty of other stuff it’s the old stuff that continues to fascinate. Across The Ocean got to chat to Whigfield about all things old and new and this tour.
How far back does the connection with the Vengaboys go?
Yeah it goes back to the nineties where we were touring a lot together, so much so that it felt like they were more like family. People say it will be like a non-stop party on this tour but we’ve slowed down a lot. When you’re in your twenties your body can handle quite a lot but now it is nice to have an early gig. In Barcelona I played this gig at four fifteen am and that was pretty tough. I just really want to come back to Australia and I don’t want to sound corny but I really feel at home in Australia. I don’t know if it is because I’m Danish but the people are down to earth and such chilled place to be.
What do you think about the line up?
I think it’s a great line up as it has a bit of everything rather than just all one type of act, different types of artists with different types of music always makes it interesting.
I speak a lot about nostalgia with these artists that are making a massive resurgence. Do you find it quite staggering that essentially what is old is new again?
I see it a bit like fashion, maybe it’s not the old stuff coming back but certain parts of the old stuff is coming back. Look at House Music, it is coming back but it is being mixed up with dance music and pop music. As musicians we always tend to go in and take and bits pieces from these songs. It’s not the same now though, we don’t really create artists. Music gets made one week then it is out the next. Now with free download everyone can make music compared actually putting time in to cutting the tracks. People like Justin Bieber become famous just by having music on YouTube you know. Record companies now go and see how many likes you have before signing you.
Do you find that sort of thing a bit frustrating?
I think you just have to live with evolution. I got signed earlier this year with a label called Armada and releasing music under my own name Sannie which is House Music. For me to get that deal was so hard as so many artists throw themselves at record companies. They don’t really invest the same amount of money in someone else as the money is different. In the nineties there was a lot of money in the music industry with labels spending loads of money on videos. Now you have to reinvent yourself every day which is interesting I feel, all part of the changes going on. In the old days the record sales were quite important, now there are a lot of new doors opening for live music. I still think about how many years I’ve been touring and I still do quite a lot. I have to say one thing that the money involved in touring has changed and has actually gone up. We’re kind of not making the same but we are but we do have to really work hard now and get music that’s eight years old in advertisements which is tough.
Did you ever think that the song Saturday Night would be so enduring and take you all over the world?
Not at all because it took so long for the song to actually be released because no one wanted it, no one wanted to finance it. If anything when I got to Australia I was really confused when I did a gig in Sydney and when the music started people just stared at me thinking what the hell is that! I thought people knew about in Australia which was pretty funny.
Is it hard always being judged against that single regardless of what else you put out?
I have done so many things ever since, writing music and producing music for other people that it’s funny when I launched this project at the start of the year and all they wanted to talk about was Saturday Night. I was like that’s fine, we’ve done that now can we talk about this? It’s only natural…
Are these projects the future direction you want to go?
Absolutely, I’ve done different projects and I like to do a bit of everything. I think I could have fun writing children’s songs, like really funny ones with all the fart words, just really silly children’s songs. I think that you just can’t sit still. Even with the Whigfield stuff, the last album in 2012 didn’t take off and I was devastated because I really loved that work. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t and I don’t really know how to do anything else. It’s not for the money and definitely not for the fame I just like to write songs.
Whether it is rummaging through vinyl at record stores such as Clarity and Title finding hidden gems to scouring the internet to find that album by the next big thing or chasing bands to get that elusive autograph and photo his passion is music all the way.
- Aversions Crown - January 27, 2017
- Sick Of It All - January 19, 2017
- Refused - January 11, 2017
