A permanent survivor of the ever-changing music industry, Ricki-Lee is one of Australia’s finest success stories.
An advocate for the independent music scene and an unapologetic lover of all things pop (sorry, she’s not sorry), she’s forging her own path with the anticipated release of her 5th album On My Own, the first under her own record label.
To coincide with the record’s release today (you can read our review here), Peter Gray spoke to the pop powerhouse about the longevity of her career, her love of pop music, and what she’s looking forward to when taking the album out for her fans.
I will say I have been a fan of yours for 20 years now. I was there watching that Australian Idol season thinking you were going to win. And then you didn’t win…it felt unnatural.
You felt attacked? (Laughs)
Yes! Do you feel in some ways it’s been better for your career that you didn’t win? You obviously have more of a say now into what’s released.
Definitely. I always think that going out the way I did, it created like a scar on people. I feel like that made people kind of connected to me. People have always supported me. And I think it’s because I went out how I did, and it really left an impact. I truly believe the reason why I have had a 20 year career is because people back me. “She’s my girl.” I feel like it’s an underdog thing, and they’re just rallying behind me. I think, maybe, they’re seeing themselves a little bit in it too. I try and think about what it is, but then when I do that it’s all too much to deal with (laughs).
I couldn’t tell you what my career would be if I had won and been signed to Sony. It might have been a hell of a lot easier, but I can’t say that I would still be around 20 years later. And I can’t say I would be as proud as I am of everything I’ve done. If I hadn’t been eliminated early, I wouldn’t have been able to forge my own path. When I came off Idol I was offered to sign with other labels, major labels, but I thought it was really interesting that the only label that asked me what I wanted to do, and let me explore who I wanted to be as an artist, was Shock Records, the independent record label. And that was something so special to me, even as an 18-year-old. I think back to that girl and I’m like, “Who the hell are you?” That was such a huge decision for me to say no to these huge record labels and say, “I’ll take the harder path.” I feel like I must have known something.
And I did forge my own path. I got to make my own way and figure myself out. Everything I did wasn’t always the greatest, but it’s because I was figuring out who I was as an artist and finding my feet. I look back at that first album (2005’s Ricki-Lee) and I think, “Oh my gosh, what was that?” That was a hot mess (laughs). But that’s who I was at the time. It’s exactly who I was. I wanted to be a little bit of everything, and that’s what that album was. It was rock, it was pop, it was funk, it was soul, it was R&B. But I’m really happy that I got to explore that, because it meant that I’ve also had to learn so much along the way.
Not being with the big labels with all the money meant I had to figure out how to do things in a more savvy way, or be a bit more crafty, rather than just relying on the weight and heaviness of a major record label. I think that’s what stepped me up to be exactly where I am today, where I am doing this on my own. I have a wonderful team around me, but I feel like I know this business and this industry so well because I have lived and understood every part of it over the last 20 years. It hasn’t just been handed to me. It never has. Even when I was with EMI, I delivered those albums to them written and produced, and then they put them out, but I was such a part of the release and the visuals, and even the music videos. I’ve always been such a part of (everything) that doing it independently isn’t that different for me.
I’m not going to lie, some of those tracks from that first album are still on rotation for me. “Can You Feel It?” is still a banger! And, like yourself, I’m an 80s baby, a 90s kid, a teen of the 2000s, and that pop sound of those eras will always stay with me. And I feel like that 2000s vibe is very much incorporated throughout the new album. I think that’s why it really is such a joyous listen, because it reminds me of the music I grew up with, but it still sounds modern too. And you’re releasing this on disc and vinyl. Have you found it difficult navigating between the digital and physical aspect of music now? Growing up, physical is all we knew.
It was everything for us, right? I’ve been in this industry for so long, and I remember when streaming didn’t exist. When I first started it was Napster, and all that weird shit (laughs). But I remember when it was all about physical. You had to physically go to the shops and a buy a copy of someone’s album if you wanted to listen to it. There was something about the ownership of that thing you had spent money on. You bought it, you put it in your car, and it was too annoying to change (the disc) (laughs). I think the value of that had so much weight to it. It was much bigger back then. Now, I feel like music can feel a little disposable. You have everything you want at your fingertips. And you can forget songs even exist. I know I have thousands of playlists!
I still have so many fans that buy physical copies of things. Whether it’s because they want to complete their collections, or they’ve got all my albums on CD, so they want this one too. I wanted to honour that and acknowledge that, and it does mean something to me. So I wanted to release a physical embodiment of this album. That was important to me. Initially, we were only going to do vinyl, because everyone’s doing vinyl now. It’s cool. And I’ve never released an album on vinyl. But then I had all these fans screaming at me because I hadn’t done CDs when we put the pre-orders up. I was like, “Oh shit, I didn’t think anyone would want CDs?” So we scrambled and we had them manufactured, and now they are outselling the vinyl. It’s crazy to see. Record stores don’t really exist anymore, so we’re only doing the vinyl and CDs through the website. It’s really cool.
I think because there’s that celebration of 20 years since I started in this business, there’s so much nostalgia to that, so it’s a way of acknowledging my fans and thanking them for the support. I wanted to make sure I had something that my fans could hold on to, and bring to shows and have them signed. There’s something so cool about that.
Listening to the album, I’ll say that “Dance Like Nobody’s Watching”…that post chorus “Wa-wa-watching…”
Isn’t it so good?!
I had to stop constantly playing it, because I want the streaming numbers to be up! But it made me think of how much you have an ear for pop melodies. Has that always been easy for you to write? And is there a pop writer that you look at as the pinnacle of the medium?
I mean, to me? It’s Max Martin. Max Martin is the greatest pop songwriter. I would even say the greatest songwriter of all time. Beatles fans, come at me! I don’t care. Like, Max Martin has created the soundtrack to my whole life. I was obsessed! I think back to Celine Dion’s “That’s The Way It Is”, and I remember singing that shit in my lounge room coming home from high school. Backstreet Boys. Britney Spears. Like, you can’t beat this guy. He has hooks on hooks on hooks. And it’s simple. It’s clear and it’s crisp. And it makes sense, even when it doesn’t make sense. That’s what pop music is. And I’m obsessed with pop music.
It’s been hard for me to write pop music over the years, because there just aren’t a lot of pop songwriters in Australia. I had to travel to the US or the UK. I feel like Australia generally leans into more alternative (music), and I’m not that bitch. I love pop music. Unapologetic pop music. Take all your clothes off, dance in the nude pop music! That is what I love. And I hadn’t met a lot of songwriters or producers who are that way. So many of my friends love that music, but I don’t know anyone else who likes writing that music. Everyone’s trying to be cool, and I’m not trying to be cool. I’m trying to write the best fucking pop songs ever! That’s what I want to do.
When I go to the Palms on Oxford Street, guess what they’re playing? (Sings) “Swing it, shake it, move it, make it, who do you think you are?” Like they’re not playing trap songs. It’s just not a thing. So that was, for me, the driving force of how I write music. I write music that I want to listen to, that I want to dance to, or that I want to put on and sing along to. Something I can sing along to when I’m sad, or pissed off…that’s what I’ve written.
Because I have travelled around the world so much to find these (pop writers) I think that’s why my previous albums haven’t been as cohesive. There was a bit of this and a bit of that, and it was because I was putting together a bunch of songs that I’d written with hundreds of different people, so you can’t expect a cohesive sound. So for this album, all I wanted to do was write with the same people from start to finish. I actually wasn’t allowed to work with DNA for the last, you know, 12 years because they were signed exclusively to Sony. When I found out they were out that deal, I was just starting to think of writing the album, and it felt too good to be true (that they were available) so we set up a session straightaway. There was every chance that it wouldn’t work. We had written together for my Brand New Day album, like 18 years ago, so there was every chance we could be on different pages. But we weren’t.
The first song we wrote was “Real Love” on the first day, and I was like, “Oh, my God!” The second day we wrote “Magic”. This is what I had been waiting for. They’re like me. We are cut from the same cloth. They are unapologetic about their love for pop music and hooky, catchy melodies. That’s all that matters. I mean, sometimes we went a bit far with some of the songs we wrote, and they were just full on cheese! They aren’t on the album, because they weren’t quite right, but it was just fun and freeing, and it was an incredible experience to be able to work with people who are on the exact same page. They share that love of pop that I have. I have never experienced that before.
And I think this album is such a celebration of that. It’s a celebration of the pop music that we all grew up listening to, and, like you said, it’s got those throwback, nostalgia feelings. “More Than Love” has a bit of Anastacia to it. There’s a bit of Whitney Houston there. All those divas that I grew up listening to. But that love and respect for Max Martin was always in the front of our minds the whole time (we were writing). They had to be hooky, catchy, and get you from the start. And I truly think we achieved that.
Is there a song you’re most looking forward to performing when you take the album out on tour?
I’m really looking forward to performing “What Do You Want From Me?” That’s my favourite song from the album. That’s going to be such a release to perform that on stage. I feel like every time I sing that I have to put it at the end of my set, because I know I’m just going to blow my voice out when I sing it. It has to be balls to the wall or nothing when I sing it. I think “Talkin'” is going to be really fun too. It’s a different sound for me, and I can be really sassy when I perform it, so that’s going to be fun on stage.
I’ve got my first show on Sunday, and I know the album will only be out for three days at that point, but I can’t wait to see what people latch on to, what they sing back…that’s always an interesting thing when performing.
And in the 10 years we had between Dance In The Rain and On My Own, we saw single releases, like “Not Too Late”, “Unbothered” and “Last Night”. Were any of those intended to launch album eras?
Oh yeah. I’ve been writing since Dance In The Rain came out in 2014. I moved to the US in 2015, and I lived there for a few years, and I was working on music. I kept bringing music back to Australia and sending it to my label, and they just weren’t vibing with any of it. Some of the songs sitting in the vault that we never got to release are incredible! They could be some of the best songs I’ve written. And that was, for me, the sticking point that we weren’t on the same page, me and my label. It just wasn’t working. I kept making music that I truly believed was amazing, and they just weren’t…like, (the label) wanted me to release “Unbothered”, and me being a team player I was always going to go along with it. They really thought they had something with it. “Unbothered” was where they wanted to take me and the album. And “Not Too Late” was also part of an album that never came out. And “Last Night” was the first thing that I released independently after leaving the record label, so that was the beginning of this whole process. I released that because I wanted to give people new music. I’d been holding on to music for so many years, so we released that to give the people something.
But this album, in particular, I’ve been writing for 2 years, but there’s been music I’ve written over the last 10 years that has just never seen the light of day. That’s why On My Own coming out now is so important and means to much to me. It validates every decision I’ve made. Doing this independently was always going to be a risk, but hearing your words about it, and seeing the success of the singles so far is validation I did the right thing and that I backed myself. I got there on my own. I reached the top of the mountain. It’s why I wanted to be on top of a mountain at the end of the music video, because it’s showing what I’ve had to get through to this point. I’m really proud and really excited. And I can’t wait for it to come out.
On My Own is available now. You can purchase physical editions of the album online at her official website.
