Kristine W is a staple in the LGBT community. Since she burst onto the music scene with her first hit, “Feel What You Want,” the former Vegas showgirl has performed at LGBT Pride events around the country—including Orlando’s Come Out With Pride. She has also performed in clubs in Tampa Bay and Jacksonville.
Her high-energy music, soulful vocals and work with the Human Rights Campaign have earned her legions of fans and her newest hit “Be Alright” is sitting comfortably on the top of Billboard’s Dance/Club Play chart. It’s the ninth time she’s topped the dance charts in 13 years.
Her new album The Power of Music (Fly Again) is fueling her newest tour and she makes a special stop at this year’s Headdress Ball in Orlando on Oct. 3. The disco queen talked to us about her new album and the surprises in store for listeners, including a rock attitude.
WATERMARK: There is an electric guitar slung over your shoulder on the back cover of “The Power of Music,” and combined with the rock edge of “Be Alright,” would you agree that this is your most “rocking” CD?
Kristine W: There’s more guitar on this CD than ever before. I was just trying to fuse more live music and I have this amazing guitar player (Tommy Cameron) who tours with me. He’s really great and he wrote the single “Be Alright” with me. And he worked with me on “Never.” My band and the guys I perform with are an integral part of my creative process and I wanted to bring them more into the mix.
Are there any rock bands that you listened to during your formative years that your club music fans would be surprised to learn about? For example, were you head-banging Metallica fan at one point?
No. When I was little, Heart was really big in the Northwest and I’m from Seattle. It was all about Heart all the time when I was little. I think maybe that had a huge impact on me.
You sing about the power of music in the title track. Can you give me an example of the power that music has had in your life?
I was raised by a parent who was a musician. My father passed away when we were all little kids, between the ages of two and six. He was a big, 6’5″ cowboy and he and my mother met through music in Walla Walla. During their romance, they used to sing together on the front porch. After they got married they started to work as a duo called The Humdingers. Then my godmother joined them. The two girls flanked him and they toured around the Northwest. It was a comedy/country western/standards type of show. All of these people were brought together through the power of music. When my father passed away, my mother couldn’t find a job and she survived by being a strolling musician in a restaurant for almost a year. Basically music saved our family.
Speaking of childhood, the song “Not So Merry Go Round” makes reference to the child’s game Ring Around the Rosy. What is the inspiration behind this song?
We lived in kind of a rough part of town; a single parent with four kids can’t really afford much. When my dad died, we were forced off the farm because my mom couldn’t afford to keep the hired hands and she didn’t know any of the business side of farming. She lost the farm and we moved into (laughs) an interesting section of town.
There was a merry-go-round in the front of the park across from our house. It was really dilapidated. We used to do everything to go around in circles. I think I started writing it when I was nine or 10. My mom remembers me starting the song (sings), “I want to get off/Got to get off/This not so merry-go-round.” That was the inspiration for it. It was never a song, it was a verse and a chorus and it evolved over the course of many years.
Let’s talk about love, it’s something that is very much the subject of the song “The Boss,” which you cover on the disc. Was it daunting taking on “The Boss”?
You know, it really was. I had performed it live in Vegas during my shows for a couple of years. People used to come up to me and say, “That is the coolest song, man! How did you write that?”
Oh, no!
Everybody thought that it was my song. Unless you were a Diana Ross fan or had a parent who was a musician like mine, you wouldn’t have known that music. It was interesting to think that they thought that it was my song. And I’d be like, “it’s not my song. (It was written by) Ashford and Simpson.”
I did “The Boss,” and the message seemed timely. It was the election year and people were scared and weirding out and I could feel it at the shows.
I needed to tell everybody not to be preoccupied with all the drama they’re creating on the news. Love is the boss and it will prevail and it will lead us.
While we’re on the subject of remakes, you remake yourself by rerecording “Feel What You Want.” Why that song?
Because there have been so many bootleg remixes of it lately. None of which I was really comfortable performing. Some were good, but none of them captured the kind of energy that I need for my shows. [Remixers] Love to Infinity nailed it. At first, it started out that I was going to have them remake it for my live show. Then after I heard the track Andy [Lee] e-mailed me and said, “Are you sure you don’t want to redo your vocals on this and put it on your album?” It was powerful when he sent it back to me that I couldn’t figure out a reason not to.
You make reference to the Cheap Trick song “I Want You to Want Me” in “Do You Really Want Me.”
Not many people picked up on that. Very good!
There appears to be a trend going on because Gretchen Phillips of Two Nice Girls fame also makes reference to the song on her new album, and the song is also featured in the new movie Bandslam. Why do you think that song is undergoing resurgence in popularity?
Because it’s so simple, (sings) “I want you to want me.” Everybody has tried to make music so complicated with all of the technology and production and blah, blah, blah. Every production gets busier and busier. I just listened to the new Mary J. Blige and whoa! They threw everything but the kitchen sink in that production. People are getting carried away. They don’t have musical ears anymore.
If it’s a good drum loop, a good beat and some guy yelling in the background, “get up, get up!” they’ll buy it. I think that the corporate side of the music industry underestimates the ears of the public. These songs that we do—sure it’s dance music, but it’s musical.
You can sit and read a chord chart on any of these songs. It’s real music, with real transitions and verses and choruses and bridges and breakdowns.
We don’t just go, “Okay, give me a four-minute loop.” That’s what they’re trying to sell. People buy it for a while, but it’s not anything that’s going to be lasting and I don’t want to do anything that’s not going to be lasting. I got into this business because I admired people that made timeless music—music that will be something that people will want to listen to in 10, 20 years.
