Kesha talks trash
LOS ANGELES — Becoming one of pop’s top-selling acts over the past two years hasn’t changed Kesha much — the girl who got famous by celebrating the trashy life is still revelling in it.
On her new album, she sings fondly of warm Budweiser and gives a thumbs-down to Champagne. One track is about sex with a ghost. She drinks bottom-shelf Taaka vodka.
And before a recent photo shoot, Kesha let out a massive belch that sent her busy prep team into an awkward silence.
“I still love having really terrible house parties,” a relaxed and reflective Kesha said during a recent interview. “I still don’t live my life with my happiness being dependent on name brands or how much things cost or some sort of VIP club … I still love being kind of scummy, to be honest.”
Her Warrior, released this week, flaunts the same uncouth attitude that propelled her debut Animal and EP Cannibal up the charts. Like those albums, Warrior is filled with upbeat, living-in-the-moment anthems like current single Die Young, now No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
But while Kesha isn’t courting respect, she’s getting it — and from an elite group in the industry. Warrior features an expansion of collaborators beyond musical overseer Dr. Luke, the hitmaker who discovered and signed Kesha when she was 18. Among those on the album are Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Iggy Pop, Nate Ruess of Fun, Patrick Carney of the Black Keys and Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips. Last year, the sometimes reclusive Andre 3000 did a verse for a remix of her track Sleazy.
Kesha said she pushed herself to put her “heart on the line” by reaching out to the musicians she admired.
“And then when they respond and they’re down to collaborate with you, it’s scary as an artist because you don’t want to get into the room with somebody that you adore and have them think you suck,” Kesha said. “You never know how good you’re going to be on a certain day or what they’re going to think of you.”
Kesha says she “stalked” Iggy Pop “because I’m obsessed,” but the other musical partnerships came through mutual friends. They serve as a reminder that she’s a hardworking songwriter at heart, not a label-manufactured dancepop star. She began her career in the industry writing for others, and co-wrote Britney Spears’s hit Till the World Ends.
“It was nice to know that people that I really love wanted to collaborate. Because I feel like when you collaborate with somebody, there has to be some element of mutual respect. Because you’re putting your name with their name for the world to judge,” she said. “So I’m really happy I pushed myself to reach out to these people.”