News : Ke$ha : “I want to be f**king perfect”

It’s been a busy couple of years for America’s filthiest pop gal Ke$ha. Since unleashing her worldwide breakout hit ‘Tik Tok’ in ‘09, she has gone on to release a string of boozy party hits, expanded her debut album Animal into the meatier Cannibal, and is responsible for Britney Spears’s biggest worldwide hit since ‘Toxic’. With her ‘$leazy’ tour arriving in the UK this month, we phoned her up to find out what fans can expect from her live shows, as well as that all-important second album.
Will there be any changes to your ‘Get $leazy’ tour when you bring it to the UK later this month?
“No, it’s going to be just as sleazy. Actually, I feel like I could get a little more sleazier in the UK. You guys are kind of more cool with more s**t than America is. I do dismember a person and drink blood from an actual heart.”
So are UK audiences the best in the world?
“Honestly, every time I’ve ever played in the UK people just go so f**king mental, it’s amazing. I live for that. That’s why I play shows – to give people a place to go and go f**king crazy. In the UK, and especially my London shows, people definitely take advantage of that. We’ve had police and firemen called mutliple times to my shows here and everyone just comes dressed as wild animals. I love it.”
Are you planning to release any more singles from Cannibal?
“I would love to release ‘The Harold Song’, but I actually don’t know what the next single is going to be. It’s all being discussed at the moment. I wish I could tell you, but I don’t actually know yet.”
Have you thought about what a music video for ‘The Harold Song’ would be like?
“I have actually. I’ve written the video treatment, but I can’t tell you! It’s very dramatic. I’ll keep you guys posted. I think I’m going to make a video for it either way, because I have a really beautiful video idea. Whether it’s a single or not, you can definitely be looking out for a video.”
How is work going on your next album?
“I’m writing constantly about all my crazy experiences across the world, so I have a lot of music I’ve already written. I haven’t turned that material into a record yet, but it’s definitely coming along. No final decisions have been made.”
How many songs have you written so far?
“Oh God, I have so many songs! Songs will leak and I don’t even remember writing them. I’ve written about 200. How many songs have I written recently? I honestly couldn’t say.”
You recently revealed that you were making a ’70s rock record; what did you mean by that?
“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been listening to a lot recently and I think it’s so ballsy and I love that.”
Has that been inspired by your flamboyant stage shows?
“Totally. I’ve been playing a lot of guitar and so it’s quite exciting to think about threading that into the new material and just making it better and better.”
What ’70s rock artists have you been listening to for inspiration?
“I’ve been listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and probably the one CD I haven’t taken out of my record player in a long time is Iggy Pop’s The Idiot.”
Are there any other sounds you would like to play around with?
“I definitely want the next record to be experimental and I would love to play with all the different sounds of the music I listen to. I really want some dirty guitar and I wouldn’t mind if there were elements of blues.”
Have you decided which producers you would like to work with yet?
“I haven’t yet. Of course I’m going to work with Doctor Luke and Max Martin on some songs, but I would also love to work with some maybe not-so-obvious producers.”
Anyone in mind?
“I’ve been trying to get the Dust Brothers (Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys) on board for a while now, who have also done a lot of Beck records. I was also speaking to my friend Paul Nicholls last night, who is a DJ and also an amazing producer, so I really want to work with him – he’s really talented.”
You wrote Britney Spears’s last single ‘Till The World Ends’; did you get to meet her?
“I didn’t get to see her record the track, but I have met her and she’s super sweet. She’s the queen of pop music, so it was quite a compliment that she wanted to record it. For her to then put it out as a single is f**king amazing. That song was written specifically for Britney – I put my brain in Britney Spears land and wrote that whole song for her.”
Are you going to try to get her to return the favour and appear on your album?
“Totally, I would f**king love that. She’s an icon!”
Are you writing for anyone else at the moment?
“I get approached a lot to write for other people. Right now I’m just being bizarre and writing about my experiences, so I don’t really want to give them to somebody else because it wouldn’t be true to them. If I write for someone else I want to make it personal to them and I don’t really have the time at the moment to focus on somebody else. I’m obsessed about my tour and the UK shows at the moment. I’m a little OCD with what I’m doing now – I just want to be f**king perfect.”
Have you written a song and thought it would suit another artist more?
“Yeah, there was a song I wrote for myself and for whatever reason it didn’t end up on the record and somebody else really wanted to record it – so I let her, but usually I don’t like doing it that way. It was for Miranda Cosgrove.”
Ke$ha kicks off her ‘$leazy’ tour at Manchester’s O2 Apollo on July 11.