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"You can tear me apart, you can rip me to pieces/ Try breaking me
down, but I'll never be beaten / You can say what you want, but I'll
never believe it/ Because I can't be defeated."
Anastacia, 'Defeated', from the new album Heavy Rotation.
Anastacia is back. And since she's never been a woman to do things
by halves, when she talks about a fresh start, you can be sure she's
going all the way. New look, new sound, new label, new management,
newly wed - but the same powerhouse of a voice that has already sold
more than 17 million albums in Europe and Australia alone.
"If it doesn't have a bit of fear in it, it's probably too safe for
me," smiles the little lady with the big voice. "If it gives me
butterflies, then it's my kind of thing." And right now, those
butterflies are fluttering overtime. "I'm excited. It's nice to know
that you still have a chance to do anything you want to do. If you want
to live your life, just do it!"
The Anastacia you see today is radically different from the one who
last toured in 2005. The hair is softer, short, more natural. The
trademark tinted glasses are no longer necessary, since she's had laser
treatment and can see well without them. "I love the fact that people
don't really recognise me right now. Until I start to sing, they're not
going to know who I am when I come out on stage, half the time! It's
been fun putting it all together, and starting to rediscover who I am.
It's exciting to feel like I'm starting again."
Anastacia Lyn Newkirk was born in Chicago in September1968 but moved
to New York in her early teens with her mum, sister and brother after
her parents' marriage ended. Being diagnosed with Crohn's Disease
didn't stop her realising an ambition to be a dancer, and soon she was
a regular on Club MTV and appearing in videos with rappers Salt-n-Pepa.
After showcasing that throaty, soulful voice on the MTV talent show The
Cut in 1999, she signed to Epic and released her debut album 'Not That
Kind' a year later. The first single 'I'm Outta Love' established her
as a major star across Europe, Asia and Australia, and her follow-up
album 'Freak Of Nature delivered the same hi-octane mix of thumping
dance beats, massive pop hooks and passionate vocal performances while
showing her growing maturity as a writer.
But then in 2003, everything changed. The lump on her breast showed
up while preparing for a reduction operation. In January she was given
a definite cancer diagnosis, and the story leaked to the media before
she'd even had time to tell her friends, giving her no choice but to go
public on her illness. At the time it was traumatic, she says, but it
all turned out for the best.
She responded well to radiation treatment and was given the
all-clear in June 2003. Continuing to be free of cancer, she has
offered a very public example of the advantages of early detection, and
since her illness, she has raised serious sums of money to encourage
this through her Anastacia Fund. "I feel great now," she confirms. "I'm
really lucky that I was given the opportunity to walk through the eye
of something so terrifying. Although at points I was crawling!"
In retrospect her illness explains why she went for a rockier sound
on her third album 'Anastacia' in 2004. "I felt like I needed to fight.
So I chose guitars and instruments with attitude because it was me
laughing back in the face of it, spiritually."
There was a time when she thought the power and range of her voice
might be compromised by the treatment, but as the songs on 'Heavy
Rotation' show, she now has her energy back in full, and that awesome
voice on full power. "My voice feels fine now," she confirms. "But
the music feels different to the Anastacia album. This album is more
soulful. I feel more in touch with my inner self, my inner soul. I feel
like I've come out of the other side of it all now, and found real
peace. I've realised that life doesn't have to be controlled by me, in
every way. And it's been fun, letting go, realising I don't have to be
such a perfectionist."
Ironically, she's also more in control of her career than she's ever
been, with a new management team, a new label, and opportunities to
hand-pick the people she wants to work closely with. Things are
changing fast in the music industry, she points out, and she had to
watch while her record company merged with another, while people she
liked and trusted lost their jobs. When David Massey, the man who'd
signed her to Sony, moved over to join Universal as head of Mercury
Records in New York, she felt it was time to move on too, and
negotiated a move to the Universal-owned label where she could remain
under his wing. "I'm really lucky to have a consistent A&R person
throughout my career," she says, but luck doesn't really come into it:
when Anastacia wants something, she goes for it.
It wasn't until April 2008, when she officially signed her new deal
that she began to write the new album. "It's been such a fast album I
had no idea of what it was going to sound like, what I was going to
say. I figured there would be a couple of love songs, but I didn't
realise that most of the album was going to be as happy as it is. Even
the songs I didn't write myself, that I chose, are all positive. Not
'Left Outside Alone' and 'I'm Out Of Love', but songs like 'I Can Feel
You' and 'Heavy Rotation'."
As ever, Anastacia has worked with an A list team for the fields of
R&B and pop. The album's title track was was penned by Grammy
award-winning songwriter Rodney Jerkins, and Robbie Williams' old
writing partner Guy Chambers worked with Anastacia on several tracks.
Def Jam artist and talented writer-producer Ne-Yo contributed two
tracks ('I Can Feel You' which he co-wrote with Chuck Harmony, and
'Never Gonna Love Again' which he produced himself). She also worked
with producers Lester Mendez (Shakira, Nelly Furtado, Dido); JR Rotem
(Rihanna, Lil Kim, Leona Lewis); and The Heavyweights (Missy Elliot,
PussyCat Dolls).
"I called the album 'Heavy Rotation' because it's a phrase that DJs
like to use a lot," Anstacia explains. "And also for me the meaning is,
life can be heavy, but it all turns around and goes into something
else. It seemed to be the perfect title for where I'm at in my life."
One of the biggest shifts in her life has been her marriage last
year. When Wayne Newton first walked into her life, it was in a British
Airways lounge at Heathrow. He was her new bodyguard, there to escort
her to Germany where she was meeting her boyfriend. When they shook
hands and said hello, she smiles, "I didn't know I was looking into my
future husband's eyes. Are you kidding me? I had no idea!"
"We are really good mates," she smiles. "We're very much alike and
we have a lot of similarities that bring us closer as best friends as
well as husband and wife.
"I'd say this album is a softer piece of me, a gentler side, even a
more feminine side. I've come into embracing my sensuality as a woman,
finally. I'm like wine. It's taken a while, but my reserve is quite
popular right now! I'm just really happy inside, and I think that's
reflected in the music. Sometimes that comes with age, and sometimes
just with what you've experienced in your life. So both of them
together are why this is going to be an exciting record for me to
promote. It's very thrilling, to have so many new chances, new
opportunities. And I'm ready! I'm ready to do whatever it takes."
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