Project Description

Interview with Martika

After 25 years, Martika is coming back to Australia for Totally 80’s. AMNplify’s Pauli Dee spoke to the 80’s pop princess about 80’s music, today’s music, what can be found in Martika’s kitchen and ended up making a breakfast date with the star when she hits Australian shores in July…

 

Pauli: Hi Martika. Thank you so much for talking to me. Happy New Year! Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? 

 

Martika: Ummm… Just to be better! Hahaha

 

Pauli: Hahaha I made that same resolution! In regards to anything in particular?

 

Martika: Just in all areas of my life!

 

Pauli: Well good luck with it. Hey, we’re SO excited to hear you’re coming back to Australia for the “Totally 80’s” tour. How did this come about?

 

Martika: Yes! I’m really looking forward to it… Ummm I don’t know how it came about. You know it’s like “their people and my people” have been talking for a while now & you just find out one day that it’s actually happening and I’m so happy about it!

 

Pauli: It’s been a while since you’ve been here, 1989 being the last time. 
What are your memories of Australia?

 

Martika: All great memories. It’s such a beautiful country & the people were so nice to me & we just had a really great time. I have only great memories!

 

Pauli: Can you do an Australian accent?

 

Martika: NOOO, no way, I’m not even going to dare put myself out on that one!

 

Pauli: Hahaha You’re only going to be here for 10 days. Do you plan on getting out and doing some sight-seeing? Or is there anything in particular you want to see while you’re here?

 

Martika: Apparently I will have some free time on the tour, so I’m just starting to put together a “wish list”
I have to look at the tour and see where we’re going to be & when we’ll have time free to explore & then figure it all out from there. But yes, when I get there I definitely want to soak up as much of the Australian energy as I can and bring it back to the states with me.

 

Pauli: I presume we’ll hear all your big hits from the 80’s & 90’s on the tour, but are you bringing any new material with you?

 

Martika: Well because this is an 80’s retro extravaganza with all the other acts, we’re really looking, on this particular tour, to do all the hits from that era. I do have new material, but I won’t be presenting it on this visit, maybe some other time I’ll come back and sing some different songs, but right now for this particular tour, the focus is to bring to life “Toy Soldiers,” “I Feel the Earth Move,” “Love, Thy Will Be Done” and probably a few others

 

Pauli: Did you ever imagine back in the 80’s that in 20 years, you’d be coming to Australia to sing those same songs? That’s amazing!

 

Martika: Hahaha No! Honestly, at the time I was caught up in the whole whirlwind of the moment… It was my youth! …and all of our youths right? And that’s the cool energy of this show; to relive a simpler time before the mortgages and the high-pressure jobs and the kids! Let’s all get out & just escape for a little while!

 

Pauli: How do you think the music industry is different now compared to 20 years ago?

 

Martika: Well it’s completely different. Obviously we didn’t have the internet, we didn’t have social media, it was just completely different. At the time that I was out, independent record labels were still not hagging and going through all that era. It’s so different. I think branding and all of this wasn’t something that people were as familiar with & now it’s just a whole different attitude & the younger people coming into it now just approach it so differently & in a different way.

 

Pauli: What music are you listening to at the moment?

 

Martika: I listen to everything from classical to hip-hop & everything in between. I’m always looking to hear new stuff but I’m always digging way into the past to listen to things that I may have missed. I’ve missed so much music that’s been recorded! So between turning on to things I’ve missed & checking out what the new artists are doing, it’s just everywhere. I’m very eclectic, so I’m just listening to all of it really!

 

Pauli: I know you still perform live quite regularly; do you still write & do any recording?

 

Martika: Yeah occasionally. Not much in this era but, it’s still something that I do & even if I’m trying not to think about working on music, I always end up working on music anyway! Things just pop into my head and I can’t seem to lose my passion for it, so…

 

Pauli: So if you couldn’t sing, what would you be doing?

 

Martika: Ummm, if I couldn’t sing? I’d probably still be trying to do the same thing anyway!
I like cooking a lot!

 

Pauli: Oh really? What do you like to cook? What would we find in Martika’s kitchen? Hahaha

 

Martika: Hahaha I like experimenting with different cuisines like, I’m really good at Bibimbap, which is a Korean rice dish. You put them in a stone bowl and they stay hot for like 2 hours! I can’t imagine why we don’t all use stone bowls every day! So that’s really good and some good pasta’s, soups & pizza & Cuban food.

 

Pauli: What did you have for breakfast this morning?

 

Martika: I know it’s the most important meal of the day, but I never have breakfast! I’m never hungry that early.

 

Pauli: So you never have breakfast?

 

Martika: No, I really don’t! The only time I’ll have breakfast is if someone feeds me breakfast! Like if someone said “C’mon, let’s go for breakfast” or even cooked me breakfast, then I’ll eat it, but I just want to get up and get into stuff, work up a hunger & then I’ll eat later. I know we’re supposed to do it in reverse, but I just can’t get used to that!

 

Pauli: Well when you come to Australia, I’ll make sure someone is here to cook and bring you breakfast, OK? I’ll get my people to arrange it!

 

Martika: Hahaha Alright, OK… I’ll take you up on that. Don’t forget!

 

Pauli: I won’t forget, I promise! Have you got any other plans for the rest of 2016?

 

Martika: Sooo, I think I might be moving to another location, so I’m trying to deal with packing and this and that so that’s always a big deal to move, but enough of my personal life, that’s boring stuff… What am I doing that’s fun? Ummm, I don’t know, I’ll probably record some new music this year & planning the Australian tour. I’m not sure what other shows I’m going to have coming up later in the year. I have a few things I’m working on. I like to stay busy and productive & just enjoy life, you know?

 

Pauli: Sounds good. I’ve gotta ask; you sort of shied away from a global music career for a long time, why do you think NOW is the time that you’re touring, you’re coming all the way over here again, are you consciously coming back into it?

 

Martika: Yeah, I guess the timing was right for me to put together a set of my material, the “Martika” catalogue. I’ve had the time to focus on it in the last few years, to sort of ramp up to be able to get out there & do shows. There’s always been opportunities available, but I was into other things & so it just worked out that I thought  well this is a good time to make it come to life so …it’s just a good time for me to do it at this point.

 

Pauli: And I never get sick of hearing hits like “I feel the earth move” or “Toy Soldiers” but do you ever tire of singing songs from 25 years ago?

 

Martika: Well I think most performers wouldn’t want to admit it, but sometimes it can be tedious to sing the same songs. I always tell young artists, when they ask me, “Do you have any advice” and I’ll be like “Just make sure whatever you record & release to the world, be ready to have that as a part of your life for the rest of your life” and first impressions are really important & how you present yourself to people & I mean that’s true in real life as well as your career, but for me, because I didn’t spend the last 25 years singing these songs, it became more of a fresh experience. As opposed to “Man, I’ve been singing the same songs for 25 years” Now it’s been a long time and it’s fun because it’s like “let’s revisit your youth” The people that are going to come out to these shows, they want to revisit their youth & a time in their life, it’s like a soundtrack to your past, which is what it always is, so for me it’s a similar experience… & it’s good to tap into your youthful self, you know, because there’s a lot of youthful energy in that!

 

Pauli: You’ve done some of these 80’s shows with Debbie Gibson and Rick Astley and a lot of other people. Who’s YOUR favourite 80’s artist?

 

Martika: From the 80’s? hmmm, I gues going back to the EARLY 80’s, there’s Pat Benetar…

 

Pauli: Oh you toured with her in 2004, didn’t you?

 

Martika: Yeah I toured with her for a long time, with Pat & Neil (Geraldo – Pats husband) and that was pretty awesome, that was So awesome, I was really into it and then later in the 80’s I was just becoming a teenager, you know when MTV came out, so all the pop stars from that era really had a huge impact on me because every generation has their own music, but in the end of it all, you know Michael Jackson still to this day; the music & the performances and Whitney (makes a crying sound) Argh! I can’t believe they’re gone…

 

Pauli: Well their music is still very much alive.

 

Martika: Yes! It is and it always will be and that’s the beauty of recording that that will always be there for us to discover, but I’m just blown away that Rick James is on the other side, Teena Marie and OH INXS.. they were amazing in the 80’s, I’m pulling out the Aussies now… Midnight Oil, Colin Hay, Men at Work…

 

Pauli: You have great taste in music! Do you remember what the first cassette that you bought was?

 

Martika: My first cassette… Wow… I can’t remember my first cassette, but my first CD was Aretha Franklin – “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?”

 

Pauli: Prince co-wrote your 1991 hit “Love, Thy Will be Done” Have you had any contact with him since?

 

Martika: No, I have not. I haven’t run into Prince again. We didn’t stay in touch. The last time I saw him is when I played him “Martika’s kitchen” at Paisley Park (Princes home/studio) & he loved it.

 

Pauli: What’s Paisley Park like? I have to ask. I’m intrigued.

 

Martika: It was pretty cool and I went when it was winter. It was all snowy and it’s all very white, it’s stark white and then you go inside and it’s so cool. I really like the fact that he has a sound stage right there on the premises, so when I went, they were rehearsing a tour and it’s just like a recording artis or video artist’s dreamland, like they really made a dreamland for him because you can go into the studio and record, then go onto the soundstage and rehearse or film or shoot videos or make movies, I mean who wouldn’t love that, right?

 

Pauli: Unreal, sounds like Neverland.
So what about acting? You started your career in “Kids Incorporated” Is acting you’d concider doing in the near future?

 

Martika: I don’t really have any aspirations to be a big movie star or anything! Hahaha You never know that… I would do it if there was a role that I wanted, but to be in the machine of going out to auditions & doing all that, I sort of stopped doing that as soon as I went into the studio and started recording, so it’s a completely different life, I mean I don’t even know how I’d go about doing that… I’d have to have like Quinten Tarantino wanting to put me into a movie with a call out of the blue to get my attention…

 

Pauli: So it’s not in your blood like music?

To hear Martika’s answer to this and much much more, click below

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