Anastacia interview: ‘I’d give Barbra Streisand a lesbian kiss’

It’s been six long years since Anastacia released her last album of original material, but now she’s returning to the industry better than ever with her sixth studio album Resurrection.

The Left Outside Alone singer battled breast cancer for a second time in 2013, and was forced to cancel her European tour dates. Following a double mastectomy that has allowed her to defeat cancer for good, Anastacia says she is itching to get back on the road to see her fans.

With her new single Stupid Little Things just a few weeks old, and the promise of a return to the sound of her acclaimed Anastacia album, we caught up with her in London to chat about everything from her new record to her enduring friendship with Sir Elton John.

Resurrection is being marketed as your comeback album – does that put more pressure on you? Or do you feel the pressure is off this far into your career?
I feel like I put a pause button on my career – although I put out a greatest hits album in 2005 – after the Anastacia album. Now I’m finally taking it off pause and saying ‘here’s another album, it only took ten years’. I’d done this great work on Anastacia, but at the same time I was battling myself because I was trying not to give in to cancer. This time I found out there was an opportunity to beat cancer and I decided to go for it. I definitely feel that accomplishing this album and beating cancer has given me a kind of euphoria. I felt empowered making this album. The surgery was much harder than the first time I went through cancer, it was seventeen times harder, but this time I beat it.

Based on what we’ve heard of Resurrection so far, it is very different to your last album of original material, Heavy Rotation. Overall, how do the two records compare?
Sprock is definitely back. Anastacia was ‘sprockalicious’, which had the quirky thing that I do. On the Heavy Rotation album I took a bit of a different direction to adventure into the producers my record company was suggesting like Ne-Yo and more an urban dance thing, but it just wasn’t my vibe. It worked so well with Rihanna and that’s where music was going so I tried it. I attempted to go with music, but I’ve always been the type of person to go against the grain and it’s worked for me. I don’t care about what is being played on the radio. It’s not that I like to be so different; it’s just that I beat to my own dream and it works for me that way. My fans like that and that is how I got my fans.

Now I feel that I have evolved and that is showing on the new album. I Don’t Want To Be The One is completely dedicated to my fans. I miss them so much and they would have to be the ones to say its over and then I’d still be like ‘I’m still in love with you’. I have a genuine respect and love for my fans. I’ve never experienced anything like that. I can’t even put it into words what it’s like to have such a strong base of people who get me. I think they get me because the music I do they can relate to and I’m only saying how I feel. We completely relate to each other without ever having met each other. It’s really trippy. I never really had that with an artist myself so experiencing that as an artist is really intense.

Everyone’s been wondering about Left Outside Alone Pt.2 – can you tell us a bit more about that?
It’s a new interpretation of the song and the reason I chose it was because when I wrote it ten years ago I’d just been diagnosed with cancer. Ten years later, I’m putting out an album and I wanted to revisit that song. I gave myself an opportunity to do that. I loved it and it’s a completely different perspective on the song. If you didn’t know that’s what I was starting to play then you wouldn’t know what it was. You hear the words in a different way. It was an experiment that I did on a few songs, but Left Outside Alone was the one I decided to pick.

You’ve spent a lot of time in the UK over the years. Does it feel like a second home to you now?
It really does. I’ve lived here before and it really works for me. It’s a no-brainer. I know the tubes, although I don’t really know the bus system. I’ve been up on the bus and people don’t expect me to be there. I’ve been out of the public eye for long enough that it isn’t on their radar. I’m not sure how easy it will be when all my stuff is out there and playing on the radio, but I don’t take myself seriously. When I’m hanging out I’m very laid back.

Do you have any favourite spots or rituals while you’re over here?
I’m actually a big yoga person so I hunt out the Bikram classes around the way and I go. We’re so excited to go to Waitrose for the apartment. I got here two days ago and it’s just been schedule, schedule, schedule, but the next two days I have off. I already saw Lulu and she came and hugged me. I’ve spoke to Elton already. I haven’t seen Duncan [James] yet, but I’ll see him. I’ve got my peeps that are here and peeps that I really do love that I want to hang out with.

Sir Elton was such a vocal supporter of your career in the early days. Are you still as close today?
He still is. He’s my fairy Godfather; literally that’s what I call him. He keeps pumping out lovely children that I envy and the Christmas cards keep getting cuter and cuter. I’m excited to see them actually. Hopefully while I’m in town there’ll be a moment I can share my new boobs with him. I have to show him, because he gets to see. Not that he’s really caring, but I flashed him my other ones so he has to see these ones too. He has to see the new set.

You’ve always had quite a strong gay following. What is it about your music that appeals to gay people?
My mum was in musical theatre so I would always hang out with her and her friends. My Aunts would be John and my Uncles were Sally. There were women that I wasn’t quite sure what they are and men that were like ‘oh my god’. It never registered [that they were gay] because it was so normal. They were flamboyant and wore make-up. I wasn’t allowed to wear any of that though.

We were in a club recently and Left Outside Alone came on, and the reaction was amazing. It’s ten years old, but still it gets a great response. Have your gay fans been there throughout your career?
I would love if ten years from now that if my song were like I Will Survive it would be so awesome. To know that my song is standing the test of time and that it’s making people feel good, I love it. I’m all for gay rights in every way and I’m so very happy to see so many positive things happening. I didn’t know that gay marriages weren’t legal in the UK yet. I totally thought you were ahead of the US. Holy gayness! I need to get on my Twitter and post about this.

You might get invited to perform at a few gay weddings…
I have absolutely no problem with that. My songs like I Belong To You or I Ask Of You and other love songs [would be appropriate for a wedding]. I got asked to perform at a wedding once and they asked me to perform my hits. I was like ‘all my f**king songs are about break-ups!’ Left Outside Alone, Sick and Tired, I’m Outta Love, I said ‘they are going to break up within the first five minutes of my show. I don’t want to give them a divorce!’ But they actually met to one of my songs and they were fans.

You did quite a famous interview with The Daily Mail in 2008 where you were quoted as saying you’d never liked music and that you found it “irritating”. Everyone thought you must have been misquoted – were you?
That’s the problem with quoting. I didn’t listen to music growing up and it wasn’t in my house that way. I didn’t have posters on my wall and it wasn’t how I grew up. I didn’t start trying to be a singer until my early 20s. If I’d had music around me I would have probably noticed that I wanted to be a singer much earlier. My mum had Barbara Streisand and Elton John, those were the albums we had. I remember looking at the Superman cover with her and her little white shorts and f**king afro and thinking ‘she is so beautiful’. If I ever met her I would possibly give her a lesbian kiss and turn just for her.

Those [Daily Mail] quotes were taken out of context. Once they put that in the paper, people questioned me. I didn’t have social media to defend myself and I didn’t want to blow it up any more than it already was at that moment. Sometimes you’ll do an interview and they want to hear something that you didn’t say. To me, it’s not worth a lawsuit, because I prove what I do through my actions. Whoever wrote the article, people can look back and go ‘shame on you, dude’. I don’t even need to have words. I should get an Oscar, because I’m really good at pretending to like music. Actually, I’m the best at it. I may have had egg on my face when they wrote it, but who has egg on their face now?

Anastacia will release her sixth studio album Resurrection on May 5.

Watch the music video for Stupid Little Things below:

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x67trYfuzV0[/youtube]