Sommerzeit

Date
25 August 2010
Channel
ORF (Austria)

Interview with Kim Wilde about her new album. She is introduced with images from the Rockumentary that was produced for the promotion of ‘Come out and play’, but with an Austrian voice-over. After this introduction, she is interviewed in a garden in Vienna.

And here is Kim Wilde in our garden. I just told her we met each other 18 years ago in Wurlitzer [tv programme] when I still had hair. Is your visit to Vienna just work and stress, or do you have time to see some things?
Sadly I got here last night and I’m gonna be flying to Zurich this evening to present my album. Unfortunately I don’t have time to see Vienna, it’s so beautiful here. I’m gonna come back here with my children.

You’re doing a promotion tour for your new album, which we’re showing here, and also a tour early next year.
Yeah, I’ve got a new album out called ‘Come out and play’, I’m very proud of it. It really rocks and it’s got the essence of what I was doing back in the Eighties but with a fresh input to it for the 21st century. It’s a long journey, it’s been 30 years now and I’m gonna be 50 this year, and the album is a real celebration of what I think has been a fantastic career and I’m just loving it.

When I knew you were coming I have sung all your songs all afternoon, remembering the Eighties. Is the new album a memory of that, or is it totally new?
Well, they’re all new songs, they are influenced a lot by the original sound of the early stuff, the ‘Kids in America’ days, ‘You came’ songs, certainly all the influences from that time but it sounds very fresh when you listen to the album a few times. People said to me it sounds really up to date. There’s lots of Eighties references. I’ve got Nik Kershaw from the Eighties doing one of the songs, and Glenn Gregory from Heaven 17 if you remember them.

Yes, of course. ‘Kids in America’, you were 20 then, and since then you have sold over 20 million lp’s and cd’s.
Yeah, it was an amazing start to a wonderful journey, which I’m still on, and it’s still really good fun to sing that song. I was singing it just a few weeks ago at the Danube Festival with Billy Idol, singing ‘Kids in America’, to 80.000 people here in Vienna, I want to thank everyone for making me feel so welcome. Yes, it’s still a great song to sing.

I also heard something new about you, that you are also a garden architect. For some time now.
Yeah, I’ve had a long time working in horticulture, you can see my garden here, and the trees, I’m just looking at them, it’s my wisteria, it was in flower in May… beautiful plant, you’ve got some nice plants here. You’ve got my favourite tree over there, it’s beautiful.

So you say our garden is great?
I think your garden is gorgeous, yeah! It’s so important to have an outdoor space, just full of green and flowers, it’s good for the soul and the spirit, it puts out oxygen, absorbs all the bad things in the atmosphere… Gardens rock.

I believe the project Kim Wilde is a real family project. Can you say it like that? Father and mother were musicians, your brother has produced your lp?
Well you know, on the new album my 12 year old son Harry plays electric guitar on one of the songs, I’m so proud that he’s able to do that. I can’t believe I’m actually saying it that my son is on my new album, that’s so bizarre. It’s beautiful.

Was he a Kim Wilde fan earlier on?
My son? Kinda. He loves Metallica. But I love Metallica as well. Everyone loves Metallica, doesn’t it?

I want to thank you with a special flower, a small present.
That is so sweet, because sunflowers are a special flower for me and my husband. When I first met him he was wearing a sunflower on his shirt. They’re a very special plant for me.

It will be a good omen for the tour in 2011. Have you changed your style a lot over the years? Your hair colour, for instance?
I don’t think I’ve changed too much. I mean, obviously I’ve gotten older but I’ve always been a bit of a tomboy. I like wearing leather and I’ve been a bit of a rockchick if I can get away with it. I’ve always loved blonde hair though I didn’t have blonde hair when I was having my babies, then I really missed it. I like being blonde. Does this make me a shallow person?

No, no, it’s wonderful, it’s wonderful. Thanks for your visit.