On Saturday Luciana returns to Australia for the fourth time in 2010. It's another lightening fast trip for the dance icon but I'm hoping to catch up with her again at the Fat As Butter music festival in Newcastle. Last time she was here I managed to pin her down for an interview but held off posting it until the article was published. A couple of weeks ago it unexpectedly turned up on the cover of the Southern Star Observer in Melbourne - so I guess it's about time I shared it with you! I'm really proud of how it turned out. Luci spills the beans on her US record deal, talks about writing for Kylie and comments on her ongoing love affair with Australia. Oh and she mentions that lady boy from Girls Aloud but I won't hold that against her. Enjoy!2010 is turning into something of a banner year for Luciana.
After years of lending her signature ‘shouty’ vocal to a seemingly endless string of underground dance tracks, the UK’s reigning club queen has finally crossed over to the mainstream and carved out a niche as the go to woman for dance music’s hottest producers.
In the past twelve months Luciana has scored 4 big hits on the ARIA club chart – she currently has two (“Go Go Go” and “I’ve Got My Eye On You”) in the top 50 - including her double platinum top 5 smash hit collaboration with Static Revenger and Richard Vission, “I Like That”.
The prolific diva is still shocked by the song’s popularity in Australia.
“It got to #2 or #3. We got platinum discs. It’s crazy. Australia was the first place to take it and now America is just starting. So hopefully that will happen and England has just signed it as well,” she told Star Observer.
The local success of “I Like That” even helped Luciana score a record deal with Interscope Records – the home of pop heavyweights like Lady Gaga and Gwen Stefani.
“The funny thing is we went to Interscope… a year ago and nothing happened. I was like ‘that’s a bit weird’. Flew us out there, wanted to meet me, nothing happened and now here we are. [I] just got signed and am working on an EP and writing for other artists.”
One of those artists is Australia’s own Kylie Minogue. Luciana wrote the track “Cupid Boy” for the pop icon’s latest album “Aphrodite” – a career highlight for the self confessed Kylie fanatic.
“Oh my god! [I’m] an ultimate Kylie fan! I absolutely love her. And I wanted to get on the last album and that didn’t happen,” she explains.
Happily, she had more luck this time around.
“We got [“Cupid Boy”] from Sebastian Ingrosso from Swedish House Mafia and we were like ‘this is such a fabulous backing track that we need to make sure that what we do over it is amazing’ and we worked and worked and edited and edited… and then right at the last minute they chose the song. Oh god it was a moment. Honestly, I cried and called my mum. My mum was crying with me!”
Luciana has even been called back to write songs for the impending re-release of “Aphrodite”.
“We submitted a song called “If I Ruled The World”,” she reveals.
Apart from Kylie, the hit songwriter has been busy collaborating with some of the biggest pop stars in America and the UK.
“I’m actually writing with Sarah Harding at the moment from Girls Aloud. She’s down the studio. And she’s lovely. A good time girl. She’s got a great voice and we’re just writing some tracks together. And when we go to America we’re gonna do some stuff with Nicole Scherzinger.”
Given the way “I Like That” is catching on in America (already a top 40 hit on pop airplay and rapidly the iTunes top 200 countdown), Luciana could be spending a lot of time stateside.
“I’m moving to LA at the beginning of September for 3 months to write and hopefully promote the single. You know depending on what’s happening. It’s just got added to MTV Hits, so that’s a really amazing thing. These little things are starting to happen but fingers crossed it’s all going to work out.”
That doesn’t mean that Luciana has forgotten about her Australian fans. She is returning to Australia – for the fourth time in 2010 – for a tour in December and even plans to move here permanently.
“Yeah what I’m thinking is – have an album out, then a child, then move to Australia. Put some flip flops on. Hang. It’s all good!”
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