(Credit: R.J. Shaugnessy/Hear Music)
But that’s Sia in a nutshell—playful, colorful, a bit childlike and defiantly weird. This is, after all, the woman who recently released a video (for “Buttons,” a hidden bonus track) that shows her face being covered by an increasingly uncomfortable array of household objects, from Scotch tape to clothespins to an inflated condom.
From her home in New York, Sia told us more about that memorable video, her latest album’s oddball title and why she’s forever indebted to the music supervisor of “Six Feet Under.”
How are you?
I’m good. I’m gonna do some oil painting while we’re chatting, if that’s OK with you.
Of course. Are you at home right now?
I am. My Mum just came over from Australia. She just got here. It was my birthday on Tuesday, and she flew in just in time for my birthday. We just went to an art store and I decided to try to be an artist. I bought a whole bunch of oil paints. My Mum’s an art teacher as well as being an oil painter and artist and art historian. So I’m trying to please her and get her approval.
She sounds like a woman of many talents, your mom.
Oh, yeah. She plays the bass; she’s a really good dancer. You know, she’s got the moves.
What did you do for your birthday?
I had a pretty awesome party. I got a magician and a penis puppeteer and a face painter.
A penis puppeteer?
Yeah. It was just someone I found on Craig’s List. He was like, “cock tricks.” That was his advert. It said, “Cock tricks. Need to make some spare money. Twenty bucks.” And I just wrote back to him and I was like, “So how many tricks can you do? And you’re really funny, right? Not creepy?” He was like, “Yeah, I’m totally awesome.”
And was he totally awesome?
Yeah. There were some pretty funny vibes the whole night. The magician got really drunk and was the last to leave and stepped in dogshit and stepped it all over the house. There was some really crazy dancing, too. What else? I’d say at least eight drinks were spilled on the floor.
So the title of your album: “Some People Have Real Problems.”
Yeah, not me, that’s for sure.
You’re not facing any real problems these days?
No, none at all. I had to remind myself—‘cause you know, I’m getting a bit rich and famous now, so I don’t want to become a wanker. So what I’m doing is, I’m just trying to be smart and remind myself about how some people don’t have lungs, or any rice. You know? Whereas my big problems are like, “Ooh, my latte is bitter. And traffic sucks.”
So it’s your way of giving yourself a little perspective on things.
Exactly. I just want to make sure I don’t become completely detached from reality.
And I guess you are starting to achieve a certain level of famousness.
I guess ‘cause of this whole Starbucks shit, I can expect to get a lot more famous. ‘Cause I’m not really famous now. So I’m trying to enjoy it…because, you know, I make enough money to live good, but I don’t have to deal with any of that [celebrity] crap. But I don’t want to get too…
You don’t want to be Beyonce?
Well, I probably wouldn’t mind. She’s pretty cool. It’s probably pretty cool to be her. But I like being me—I don’t want to lose touch, that’s all.
I think it’s fitting that your last album was called “Lady Croissant” and now you’ve landed on Starbucks’ Hear Music label.
Yeah. [Laughs] The segue-way is complete. All of the future of my music career will have something to do with food and beverages.
Did you know when you were working on this album what label it was going to be on?
No. I wasn’t really that fussed, because I like to keep out of that part of it. I was just concentrating on having fun making the album with my mates. I was aware that I was in a strong position. There were three labels in a bidding war and all that sort of stuff.
This was fairly soon after “Breathe Me” was featured in the final episode of “Six Feet Under,” right?
Yeah. That totally resuscitated my career and made me feel not really worried at all about what was gonna happen. So thanks, Gary Calamar, music supervisor! One day, if I’m really, really rich, I have plans to buy Gary Calamar a Ferrari or something.
I have to finish with a question about the video for “Buttons.” Was it as painful to shoot as it looks?
The only one that involved any real suffering was the [clothespins]—like having them pinned to my eyebrows. That was so excruciating that I literally had to take 10 minutes afterwards just to let the natural opiates take over. But the rest of it was a little bit [easier]. Like getting the stocking pulled up my head—that was like getting microderm abrasion therapy. The whole thing was great. And I garnered a whole new demographic of fetishists from it.
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