It’s 2005 and Concetta Kirschner has come up with a concept album to end all concept albums, with this futuristic release. We’re taken to a world with only one ruler, in the form of a svelte, busty, Princess Superstar and her 10,000 strong hoard of devoted duplicants. Princess Superstar is the be all and end all of our entertainment, she has the monopoly over celebrity as we know it, as she struts her stuff on our catwalks as the only supermodel, pierces our airwaves as our only pop star, hijacks tv stations as the only weather girl and if you think you’re safe fleeing to the movie theatre, forget it, she’s also our only actress. Is this a likely scenario in actuality? Does this girl’s ego need to be seriously checked? Or should we just shut up and give in to the ride for all it’s worth? Semone Maksimovic caught up with the supreme-being herself in the lead up to My Machine’s release to chew gum over her new form of celebrity, costumes, catfights and collaborations.
Born in New York City (after a brief stint in Philedelphia) to a Sicilian/American mother and Russian/Polish Jewish father, both of whom subscribed to the hippy ethos of that time. She was exposed to the likes of Earth, Wind and Fire, Zepplin, Bowie and Pink Floyd blaring over the stereo system, but it wasn’t until hip hop hit in her early teens that Concetta really sat up and began to pay attention. Getting off on the likes of the Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Kurtis Blow et al, but still not quite convinced of taking that path as a career choice. The real calling came a few years later as she strummed away on her guitar, it began as a joke, rapping to make her friends laugh. Little did she know, those friends were to witness the start of something unique. “I originally did not set out to be an MC, not at all! I made my friends laugh and they were like ‘You have to do this’ and kept at me about it, so I did.”
Being from New York, it really wasn’t hard to get the gigs, as long as she was cool with playing in dodgy venues and spaces, with sometimes even shadier sound and surrounds, for the first few months as she cut her teeth on the scene. “They were really small, crappy gigs where things would fall down on my head and gear when I was playing” laughs Kirschner between bubble-gum pops. It wasn’t until her last album, her fourth studio effort ‘Princess Superstar Is’ that she hit our consciousness in a big international sense, with her UK chart topper ‘Bad Babysitter.’ Since then, things have been hectic for the Superstar, she’s been busy touring, DJing and between everything else, has spent 3 years traipsing back and fourth across the globe teaming up with a dream team to construct this fabulous concept album.
“There was good and bad about recording while I was on the road in several different countries. The good was that I could call people up that I wanted to work with and be like ‘Hey, I’m in London, you wanna go into the studio and do a track?’ like I did with Jacques Lu Cont and Arthur Baker. But then on the other hand I’d have the urge to just sit down and write, but then realise that I had to go to Norway or somewhere and didn’t have time to run with the writing flow while it was there.”
Which was an important and not so reliable flow this time round for Kirschner, who wrote of her frustrations, as she suffered from writer’s block, plagued by pressure to write another hit, on her new track ‘10,000 Hits’, making fun of the situation with an amusing hint of bitchiness. Whilst on the subject of bitchiness, I decide to prod her about a few little rumours I’d heard “Umm, me a bitch?” enquires Kirschner before employing an innocent, syrupy, butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth voice “Never! I’m nice as pie” somehow I’m not so convinced “Oh okay, I did used to have a little feud with Trevor Jackson. It wasn’t like a real feud, we used to call it an ‘electro bleep’, it was more of a playful competitiveness, a loveable hate, but it’s all cool now” she admits.
It seems she’s learned to get along with her fellow artists now, she’s tossed her competitive streak and replaced it with one of support. Which seems to be outlined by the amount of exciting collaborations done to get this album to the point of release. It seems the dance community banded together and gladly helped the Superstar get her creative juices flowing when she hit a wall of writer’s block.
“Junior Sanchez has always been a champion of mine, but I really do owe a lot to him for this release. He knows everyone in the dance music world, from Arthur Baker [who acted as Executive Producer on My Machine] to Jacques Lu Cont – who I’ve always wanted to work with. Jacques and Junior had been friends for years, they were both DJing by the time they were 17. So Junior hooked up that and made it happen, I’ve loved his [Jacques’] work for ages, he’s amazing, I mean he’s only like 25 and already done a lot of cool stuff for Madonna. He’s just such a talent, he’s huge in the dance world, it’s only a matter of time before he makes it big in every world!” gushes Kirschner.
The collaborating hardly stopped there for the Superstar, it seems like she had just as many people binding together to take this whole spectacular on the road, as it did to make the record. She’s got The Sneaker Pimps’ Liam Howe in charge of visuals, a costumer designer (who’s also in charge of designing costumes for a Broadway version of The Lion King) to design sexy outfits in the Ziggy Stardust, futuristic style. She’s also had a little help from Fischerspooner’s choreographer for the visuals you’ll see behind her onstage.
“It’s going to be crazy stuff, like for example when I address my clone army, there’ll be thousands of my clones behind me on the big screen. I’ll also be doing a lot of interaction with myself on the screen, because I’ll be playing the clones on the visuals and of course I’ll play the Superstar live. I’m also going to have three major costume changes and a really excellent band of boys I’ve assembled.”
Her new, brand-spankin’ live band is going to consist of a guitarist, drummer, keyboards and of course a live scratch DJ to bring a bigger and fuller sound to her shows than she’s had before. It’ll be quite a sight to behold, but will the world be ready for a takeover of this degree? We’re soon to see.
Princess Superstar’s album ‘My Machine’ is out now on !K7/Inertia.
