Op de avond van de albumrelease van haar nieuwe album Ketevan heeft Katie Melua tijd vrijgemaakt om ThePostOnline te woord te staan voor een exclusief interview. Melua, gekleed in zwarte top en spijkerbroek, is hartelijk en onverwachts eerlijk, zeker voor een ster van haar niveau. Ondanks al dat succes is ze bescheiden en we durven zelfs te zeggen een beetje nerveus.
Sommige mensen verdienen succes door het vele werken. Anderen verdienen hun succes omdat het gewoon aardige mensen zijn. Bij Katie Melua is het een combinatie van beiden. Katie Melua compleet: sympathiek succesvol.
“You don’t need to be a rebel to get media attention. I think I might look a bit more clean cut than I am because I have never done any big ‘tell all’ interviews all about what I get up to.
“I’ve always just focussed on the music, which is perhaps why people look at me the way they do. But it doesn’t bother me. Every person has more than identity to them; people are more than one dimensional. That is human nature.
“It doesn’t bother if people see me as a rebel or not. I think you have to disconnect the person from the songs anyway. As long as people like my songs, and I get attention that way, then I am happy.”
“I don’t know, I don’t think I’m not too rock ‘n’ roll. Although I do enjoy a bit of vodka and I’m partial to nice bottles of local wine, that’s always nice when you are on tour. I am a bit of an adrenalin junkie, though. My husband (James Toseland) was a superbike world champion. I do love the thrill of the race track – it’s a really unique environment and there’s so much noise and speed and danger.”
“Mike has been phenomenal for me – as a songwriter, as someone to throw ideas off, as a good friend. I loved being back in the studio making Ketevan with him, it was such a great feeling. When you are working with Mike, who is one of the best songwriters you will ever find, then it is always going to be great. He has written some timeless songs on this album.
“But I don’t think I need a muse, though. If I wanted to simply put my feet up for the rest of my career and sing great songs that he has written like Closest Thing to Crazy and Nine Million Bicycles, that would be a very easy path to take. But there is this other side of me who loves to write songs. It’s such a fantastic creative outlet for me, just like playing sport or reading a book might be an outlet for someone else. So songwriting is an important part of me maintaining who I am.”
“Oh definitely. I have had a strange upbringing in the sense that I have experienced relative poverty in Georgia, where even having a bath was a thing of true luxury. Of course, you don’t realise poverty until you move away from it, and much of my time in Georgia was about avoiding the dreadful conflict that was going on there at the time.
“Moving to Northern Ireland was so simple in comparison, and what we had, in contrast, was luxury. Of course, you quickly adapt to your new surroundings, but Georgia has influenced me hugely because I have seen the other side of the picture, so to speak.”
“I do, but I think I miss the experiences rather than the place itself. I miss the memories – my mum playing the Moonlight Sonata on the piano. That was a special moment where I knew music was going to be the path that I took.
“I think as I’ve progressed my music career I’ve been afforded more licence to look back into the roots of music in Georgia – the folk strings, the rhythms and the harmonies. To now reflect that properly in my music, and what I call my music [Ketevan is Katie’s extended Georgian name] is something really special for me.”
“It was a painful time and many millions of innocent people suffered. Whatever the political situation now, all I really ask if that those people who suffered have found some sort of happiness.”
“I would love to explore Georgia more than I have, partly because of the culture, but also because one day I really want to make an album that is written in the Georgian language. I don’t really get to explore much on tour because we usually arrive at the next hotel late at night and then I have to sleep until lunchtime to get my energy back up for that night’s concert.
“I was in Georgia a few years ago, and I had a wonderful time. I had a lovely moment swimming in the sea, where I felt the happiest I’ve ever been.”
“I really believe that being gay or straight does not define you as a person. It is not your whole identity, it is just one aspect of you as a person. It is 2013 – I think in the 21st century the questions about your sexuality are not out of date as such, but I think it matters less. I don’t think questions of sexuality and where the lines are between gay and straight are very clear, it is a more complex issue.”
