Perfect Timing

Absolutely everybody knew about her when she hit the music scene as a teenage pop sensation. At just 18, Vanessa Amorosi was the first female Australian artist to hit number one on the ARIA chart and her voice has taken her around the world performing along side the likes of Jimmy Barnes, INXS and most recently KISS.

Eight years on, she returns more mature and confident with the new album Somewhere In The Real World. The time feels right to re-enter the spotlight. “With this day and age, a lot of people think that you don’t have the time to grow up; you don’t have the time to make sure it’s right…and my attitude was there’s no point going out there if I wasn’t confident and I was going to fail,” she says.

Naturally as this life experience broadens, her songs progress and tackle deeper issues. “The first album that I started writing as a kid, it was about the experiences I wanted to go through and interpreting how it would feel like. But now it’s stuff I have gone through, so vocally I have got the scar on there and I know what I’m talking about lyrically because I have gone through it.”

But the rock vibe has always been within. “I was in rock bands as a kid, and did pop music because people didn’t quite understand why I sounded like I did and I didn’t look the (rock) part because I was so young…I was like 14.”

Between releases, Amorosi developed her production knowledge and spent time working with various producers and engineers as well as writing songs for other artists. But she always intended to come back to the stage. The sight of an empty microphone was just too tempting. “I found myself wondering to it, (and suggesting) let me do some background vocals, let me do this, let me do that.

“It’s the only time I’m really content with anything. I’ve spent so many years on stage, it feels awkward not being on it and I feel like I’m missing part of my soul without it.”

She consciously pushed herself out of the comfort, which meant recording the album overseas and working with writers who where unaware of her previous success or who were successful in their own right. It was a “scary mission” in the beginning to even get through some of their doors, but she has since developed a close friendship with these writers.

“Now I can laugh at my first impressions when I walked in there, (thinking) am I going to impress, will I be good enough? I’ll sit there now and ramble off ideas and we’ll have a laugh and either love it or hate it,” she says.

She co-wrote second single “Perfect” with Australian song writer David Franj and they each brought a different perspective to the theme of love, resulting in a powerful tune. “He was in love with his girlfriend, so his take on it was she’s perfect, everything about her is so magnificent. And I’m the other side of love where I’m like that’s obsessive and there’s hard work in love and what you see as perfect is not necessarily going to be perfect in 20 years time.”

There was a clear vision for the video clip which sees Amorosi walking along a desert road getting rid of the things that money can buy. “All those crazy things that women do to themselves, including myself, and just be left (as) me and be cool with that. Because when some one goes to love me, they are loving me for the fact that when I come home I wash all that off.”

Combining two completely different lifestyles – living on a farm and working in busy cities as well as travelling overseas– helps her remain true to herself as well as being a well known artist in an attention driven industry.

One of the tracks on the record, “Send Me the Manual” reflects on how at times, it’s difficult to find her way through the challenges life throws up. “I’d love to have a book that would explain how to get through certain situations and survive through them a lot quicker then trying to work it out yourself,” she says.

On a lighter note, first single “Kiss Your Mamma” was inspired by time spent with her friends and discovering the right kind of guy. “My girlfriends and I always joke about (how) you know the man when you see how they treat their parents. So every time they’d be a new guy on the scene, there would be the lecture from the girls, ‘Well have you seen him with his mother, has he got respect or is he rude?’” she laughs.

Vanessa Amorosi will be touring in the coming months to support the album release, and it’s the live gigs that mean the most. Sales and figures aside, this is where she aims to connect with the people who appreciate her music. “I hope they can really feel what I’m going on about in songs. So they go away taking a bit of me really.”

Somewhere In The Real World out May 24.