RS: Speaking about sexy, your imaging seems to have changed radically. With the first single "Put The Needle On It", it was very glossy like your last album, but then with "I Begin To Wonder" and "Neon Nights", your artwork is very like Calvin Klein, slice of life, like a bedroom photographer. Was there a real conscious decision to be more basic with the photography or the imaging?
Dannii: Put The Needle On It was done from one photo session and then when we did the second single and we knew the album was coming out. So then we did all of that photography at once, the "I Begin To Wonder" and "Neon Nights" cover, and basically we didn't have really a projected theme, we just went in the studio and shoot. I'm really nervous of having my picture taken, even though no one believes me, because it's something I have to do all the time. I said to the photographer look, I'm a really nervous subject and you've just got to make it fun so that I can calm down because I get really stressed. So, I think that's why it turned into a really laidback shoot and he had four cameras and I said bring your small cameras so they don't look like big, scary professional cameras. He did and he just snapped stuff with those smaller ones and I think that gave it that kind of feel.
RS: Awesome. I've got some questions from other people that I wanted to ask you to finish off the interview. One is from a die-hard fan and he talked about how it was everyone's dream to see a Kylie - Dannii duet. There was a rumor that you were in the track with Kurtis Mantronix for the Body Language album for Kylie, did that track ever come to fruition or what happened to it?
Dannii: There was never a track. We want to write a song together, but we haven't had the opportunity to go in the studio and do that yet. I heard that rumor also, and it was the first I've heard about it.
RS: I thought this was a great question, how do you as a real and talented singer/artist compete with the seemingly endless array of manufactured pop that comes from all the TV programs over there?
Dannii: I like those shows and I can get addicted to watching them. I didn't watch the first few Pop Idols, but this current series that's on, I'm watching in the UK and I really love the American Idol. At that stage when it's in the show, it's not manufactured because it's up to those kids to just do their best, take the comments onboard and try and use them to improve themselves because each performance counts. That's what it's like when you're out there, because you get people around you and it's very much about you pulling it all together. What songs you are going to sing, what your image is going to be, how you are going to present yourself, how you are going to sing it, and you use singing teachers and stylists and all of that, but at the end of the day it's you. So I think that part of it's very real, I think the bit that's not is that they sign contracts before they go in to say well, once you go on this show then you're committed to being with this management team. The management team might say well, this is what we want to do with you. Then it becomes manufactured because they're telling the artist what to do. I like the artists that have been discovered and break away to do their own thing. There's a really cool girl that just left, I think it was on Fame Academy, called Alex, and she's got a song called "Maybe That's What It Takes" which is a phenomenal song. I think that she's got the strength to be a great artist.
RS: I hear you did a radio program for a while, were you announcing or were you DJing as part of it?
Dannii: Yes, I was hosting the radio show but I didn't press any buttons which is great because I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to that. I was on the air for an hour every week, take in my record collection and play stuff that I liked and I didn't have to stick to any format of station songs. We named this show Neon Nights, the same as the album, because I wanted it to be a flavor of the album. I played one of my tracks per show and I made it similar to Neon Nights where I played retro songs, current songs and bootlegs and then get people involved in going ah, is that where that sample is from? It was kind of educational because, Neon Nights is all about mashing it up with old retro sounds and samples and kind of mixing everything.
RS: I was wondering if the DJ bug had bitten and you'd become a celebrity DJ like Boy George or something.
Dannii: I've got a lot of DJ friends and they make it look so easy. I've only tried going on the decks once but I'm quite uncoordinated. It would take a lot of practice, but its probably something I could with a lot of practice. I absolutely loved the radio DJing because it was like being on the phone and chatting to your friend. Even though you're going out to millions of people, it feels very personal.
