GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Having spoken to Diana Anaid a few months back about her new CD, Live At The Bush Theatre, we thought it was time to catch up with her again to chat about her new single, Cheatin' On Me, her current tour, as well as how it feels to run her own record label.

GQ: So how have you been?
DA: I've been really well ... I've been preparing for the tour, so rehearsing, doing a lot of press, getting the street ads together and my Street Team, and getting everything all together on Myspace, so it's been great. I've been fitting in a bit of songwriting as well ... it's been crazy! I need a clone, cos my little boy (Diana's son, Stone, age 14) has taken up drama lessons, circus lessons and he's a soccer rep for his region, so yeah ... it's crazy, but I couldn't be happier, it's a great time to be getting back on the road with the band is definitely a highlight of my year ...

GQ: It'd be a bit different to performing solo, wouldn't it?
DA: Yeah, it's totally different. It's very intimite when it's solo and acoustic, and very up-close and personal, and then, with the band ... I still put my heart and soul into it, but the audience get a much different, you know, electric rush. For me personally, I have a real comeraderie with my band, so I have a fantastic time, I'm not as lonely travelling around, and it's more fun up on stage. That's a good thing to be able to share with my audience, on the flip-side of doing a beautiful acoustic solo gig.

GQ: How much preparation actually goes into a tour like this?
DA: Um ... a fair bit for me at the moment, seeing as I'm looking after management myself, so there's a fair bit. Most of the time, I do tour management as well, cos I learned how to do that really early on, and I'm really comfortable taking hold of that position. There's a lot to do, you know, there's a lot of rehearsals going on with it, the gigs have been booked in for months, so there's a lot of press and a lot of promo to do to make sure that everyone knows that I'm coming to each place. It's great having something to promote, you know, like Cheatin' On Me (the new single) which is out through my own label, you know, that sort of stuff. The live CD released in March was the first release ever for Forola, and it was just for me to really cut my teeth on, but now we're really getting stuck into the real business of releasing records, and that's challenging and rewarding, and very very exciting. It's been out now for about 6 weeks or so, so there's a lot more to do.

GQ: With Cheatin' On Me, was that inspired by somebody, or just totally fictional?
DA: It's a little bit of both, but it's also on both sides of the story, in that I definitely know the feeling of being cheated on, and someone regretting that they had done that, but I also know the feeling of cheating on someone as well, and wishing that I hadn't, and knowing that I'd made a big mistake. It's a personal song in both those ways, and very emotional. I don't know which point of view I was writing it from, it all sort of just flowed out of me, but it's definitely from personal experience.

GQ: It's a bit of a different sound to what people would know from you, like Perfect Family, I Go Off, and Last Thing. Is that a new direction you're heading in, or just the way the song turned out?
DA: Well, it's definitely open to interpretation, cos I've had 50% of the people say it's keeping in context with the last two albums, and then the other half say it's an interesting new direction, but fundamentally, it's working with the same producer who produced Last Thing, and pretty much the same players as well, although there's a new drummer on there, and it's just taking one of the most intense songs that I had written, and keeping it acoustic-based, and then really soul-searching to find the parts that brought out the song in the most authentic, keeping with what I wanted, rocking, individual angst that didn't cover up the essence of the song.

GQ: The video clip was inspired by Cheaters from TV, that looked like lots of fun ...
DA: Oh, absolutely. I wanted to have a competition on Myspace to get ideas for the film clip and lots of ideas came through, and when we were in America, we had this running joke about how many reality tv shows kept on coming out over there, and how television was just becoming filled with them, and sometimes you couldn't watch any channel without there being a reality show ... reality cooking, reality dating, you know, reality everything ... and we were counting them and laughing when we got to over 50, you know ... "oh my god, that's the 56th one that they've added since we've been here" and so we really related, and Cheaters was one of our absolute favourites as well, a real gas, like it's really funny to watch, and the host is like from some old show like America's Most Wanted or some alien show or something, I can't quite remember ... but it's just so funny, and because I knew the show so well, it was easy for me to talk to the director and actors about it, and really give it 110%.

GQ: In the video, the boyfriend ended up getting with 3 or 4 other girls, didn't he?
DA: He did, and that's the tongue in cheek thing about it, cos in Cheaters, you only bust the guy or girl cheating on you with usually one, ONE person, and it'd be a really good show if they busted them with 2 or 3, but we just took it to the extreme. We got some great actors in it as well. The boyfriend is a model from Sydney, the first girl that he cheats on me with is a friend who has been in the modelling industry as well for a long time, and the other two are a little bit more well-known, from Channel 9, and from the Bondi Blonde competition, so it's great to pull in all those favours from people that I've known over the years. It was a real gas to make.

GQ: I did a search on Youtube recently, and noticed that all your videos are different to each other. That's something not a lot of artists do these days ...
DA: Well, I did have a strong admiration for people like David Bowie and very alternate artists in the past who always went with a different look, and who weren't particularly taken to showing their face, or their bright white smile, or their glistening new hairstyle on the cover of their cd's. It was much more abstract and hard to recognise, and that's what I went for for pretty much all my film clips up until the last two, but they all have a different theme, even if I look similar.

GQ: How long has it been since I Go Off was released? Was it '97?
DA: Yeah, it was ...

GQ: And that was your first single?
DA: Yeah, and it was on a full-length cd that I recorded in a week in Byron Bay, and it was very spontaneous. I had the songs ready to record, and someone graciously lent me $8,000 at a party, so I went in and recorded with that $8,000 literally the next week and just whacked down the song, just spat them out, and I sent the CD to Triple J. I Go Off was the first song on the CD, and after it got heavy rotation, I got signed up to a very independent label in Sydney, and we released the single straight away and re-worked the album, and released that a few weeks later.

GQ: You were also saying before you have your own label now?
DA: Yeah, I do. I was signed to a small indie in Australia for 8 or 9 years, and during that time, I was also signed to an indie label in the states, Five Crowns, and that was a fantastic learning experience for me, and I'm really really happy and satisfied with the 3 albums I released from that, and the fans, and just the way that I got to conduct the business, and conduct my professional life. I learned so much from it that I was able to take this step, go out on my own, and look for the perfect next step in my career. I really couldn't falter on that, I just really wanted to make sure that there would be no ... I mean, it's not like anyone told me what to do, but I just have to be really careful at this stage in my career that I'm just really happy with my steps. Of course, I'm shopping for a deal, but I'm not holding my breath, cos it's got to be the right one. The same with a manager, I'm just really happy with the way that things have gone anyway, and that I've been able to make the move that I liked, and that I haven't been shelved. That's always been my biggest fear, like someone's biggest feart might be snakes, mine is like "don't shelve me ... I just want my music out there!" I mean, it is, cos you write songs, and you don't hang out with family or friends for like two years cos you're writing, and you're in a studio, stuff like that, and if someone doesn't release it, and they own the rights and it just sits there rotting for like 5 or 6 years, it'd just be the worst. So I'm very blessed, so now I own Forola, and have friends that I trust around to help, and I'm learning a lot from the steps that I've had to do, but I know how to do them from being with Origin and Five Crowns. It's just difficult of course pulling together film clips and photoshoots and tours and press and everything, but I know how it's done so it's a pleasure. Plus we got our own little Forola booth at the Arias next to Sony and all the major record labels, so there's perks to owning your own label.

GQ: So when are we going to see you at the ARIA's next?
DA: Well, I did get to walk the red carpet this year, and since I didn't have to present an award or perform, so I just got to drink like a fish, so that was great, but I will be gunning for an ARIA nomination, or a nod next year. I've had 5 nominations there, which is incredibly humbling and is just kudos. I just think, well, Kylie Minogue beat me one year, and good on her, I mean she's fucking HUGE! Kasey Chambers was another, and again, another great act, it's cool. Natalie Imbruglia ... you know, it's all good.

GQ: Do you ever do covers in your shows?
DA: I was going to cover Sweet Child Of Mine once, but then someone else came out with it. It's always the way isn't it? It took 8 years for my management to convince me to add a cover to my setlist, and we worked on it and we were just about to add it when Sheryl Crow released it, and I just thought, "oh that's just so hilarious, how about I go back to my original plan and you can stick the covers up your you-know-what?" I just saw Chris Cornell play and he did a cover of Billie Jean by Michael Jackson, and I was just telling my hardcore guitarist that, and I was like "Even Chris Cornell did a cover of Michael Jackson", and the whole audience just went nuts with cheering, so I was like "maybe I need to add a cover ..."

GQ: You should throw some Veruca Salt in there!
DA: Oh yeah, people have been saying for a while that I sound like Veruca Salt, but how's this, I've never even heard any of their songs ... I'd better have a listen, cos I'm late with everything. I'm just getting into The Breeders now ...

GQ: Well get listening to Veruca Salt then!
DA: I will haha!

GQ: Well, I'll let you get back on your way to Sydney now that the rest of the band have caught up with you ... did you have anything you'd like to say to our readers?
DA: Just that there's a Josh Abrahams remix of Cheatin' On Me on the single so enjoy that ... every week on my website, for everyone that joins my mailing list, there's a new unreleased b-side put up there ... and I'm off to the States in February for the International Folk Federation Alliance in Tennessee, and that's for a special showcase that they've invited me for, so that's beautiful ... and the band are really excited to get down there to rock!!!

Cheatin' On Me is out now through Forola Records, and is available at the following stores:

NSW
ACE Music - Narellan Town Centre NSW
JB HiFi - Macarthur Square
Richmond Records - Richmond Marketplace
The Music Shop - East Gardens, Pagewood

QLD
Sunflower Music Store - Pacific Fair Shopping Centre, Broad Beach
Rocking Horse Records - 245 Albert St Brisbane

VIC
JB HiFi - Burke Street, Camberwell

SA
Krypton Discs - 34 Jetty Road, Glenelg
Chart Topper - Steetockland Mall, Merrylands
JB HiFi - Marion

NT
Casuarina Sounds of Music - Casurina Square

TAS
Wills & Co - The Quadrand Mall, Launceston


Also, be sure to check out Diana's tour:

29 Nov 2007 10:00 P The Pub Bendigo Bendigo, Victoria
30 Nov 2007 10:00 P Hi Fi Bar Melbourne, Victoria
1 Dec 2007 10:00 P Peninsula Lounge Moorooduc, Victoria
2 Dec 2007 10:00 P The National Hotel Geelong, Victoria
5 Dec 2007 10:00 P The Brass Monkey Cronulla, New South Wales
6 Dec 2007 9:00 P Queens Wharf Brewery Newcastle, New South Wales
7 Dec 2007 10:00 P Bar Broadway Sydney, New South Wales
11 Dec 2007 10:00 P Pushworth XMAS party/private function Brisvegas, Queensland
13 Dec 2007 10:00 P Spring Lakes Hotel Springfield Lakes, Queensland
14 Dec 2007 9:00 P Bar 388 Brisbane, Queensland
15 Dec 2007 9:00 P Wallaby Hotel MUDGEERABA, Queensland
16 Dec 2007 8:00 P Hoey Moey Coffs Harbour, New South Wales
29 Dec 2007 8:45 P Peats Ridge festival Glenworth Valley, New South Wales
10 Jan 2008 9:45 P Byron Vista Social Club Byron Bay, New South Wales

For more information on Diana, visit her website, or her Myspace. Click here to view Diana's video clips.