To be sure, a good deal of music listeners the world over owe a debt of gratitude to Belinda Carlisle even if they aren't sure why. The longstanding songstress started out as the frontwoman of everyone's favorite '80s girl group The Go-Go's and launched an equally impressive solo career after the excessive train ride of the new wave movement saw the disbanding of many of our favorites only a few years into their careers.Much is made of Carlisle's wild youth and her subsequent battles with a variety of issues, but the focus for fans remains the music, which has endured decades and still stands up fully on its own. March 19th sees the release of ICON, a greatest hits package from Universal Music. ICON contains the much-anticipated new track "Sun," her first English-speaking pop release here in the States after a lull of 15 years.
First and foremost, let's start off talking about some exciting news that on March 19th we'll see the release of ICON, featuring all your top solo hits and a fabulous new single, "Sun." What inspired you to include something newly recorded?
It's great, isn't it? It's funny. I had no real desire to do anything new, to be honest. I mean, my last album was in 2007, I think, and it was all in French and it did really well. I'm just kind of interested in doing stuff that is unexpected and so English-speaking pop didn't really interest me. My son kept pushing me, saying "Come on mom, you've got to do something" and I was thinking "No, no, no." So I said if something really good comes along, then I might. So my son actually found this song--a friend of his wrote it--and played it for me, and I went, "Oh my god, this is really amazing." I recorded it and it's catching fire actually. It's really weird, I mean, you know, weirder things have happened. So I love it and coincidentally, Universal was putting out... well, they wanted to put out a collection of my hits from the eighties and early nineties and make it part of the ICON series, which is different artists like Cher and Tina Turner and Sheryl Crow, and I thought, "That sounds kind of cool," so it worked out timing wise and here I am talking to you about it.
It's really hard to believe it's been something like fifteen years since your last pop release in the US.
Yeah, English-speaking pop release. It might actually be longer. I threw fifteen years out there when talking about it. I think it was in 1997, maybe? I'm not actually sure.
People are talking about you returning to the pop arena but because of the impressive size of your back catalog, you never really left. I can't turn on a station without hearing you some days.It's funny, I have no desire to get back on any hamster wheel or be anywhere near where I used to be. Where I am now, it's great and I love it. You know, if something great happens then I'm just enjoying the ride and having fun with it as opposed to how I used to be so stressed out and so attached to what the outcome would be. Now, whatever happens is meant to happen and I'm just going to have fun.
That's a healthy way to approach it. You were an expat for a number of years, living in France and also in India.
Yes! And I still am, actually. Part of the time in France and here. I was part of the year in India, another part in France, a month here, and another month going wherever. For the past five years I've been doing that. I've got gypsy blood, I can't be in one place for too long.
