Date: 1 June 1982
Originally published in: Jugend (Switzerland)
Written by: Thomas Küng
Celebrated last year as perpendicular starter, Kim Wilde is committed to becoming an established rock/popsinger with her second LP.
Only 21 years old, Kim has already been around the world. “There is probably not an airport in Europe, that I haven’t seen, and not a television studio where I haven’t sung one or two of my songs.” With all these tours and interviews Kim has collected loads of experience: “I know what I can say, I know what I want. My private life is nobody’s business.”
But it’s her private life that most magazines prefer to write about. I talk to her about this. “And you believe those stories? They have to fill up their pages with something.”
But still: Kim Wilde is not just the mean, highnosed singer, who has dipped her toe in a pool of fame and doesn’t want to speak to anyone anymore. She tells a lot about her family: “My father was a very famous rock and roll singer. He writes the lyrics to my songs, my brother composes the music.”
Doesn’t she want to make something of her own?
“Yes, I’d like to sometime. But I still have time. I have already written lyrics. But until I can write really good songs, some time will pass. I don’t want to get on stage with mediocre material, as long as my father and my brother write excellent song.”
Until now the young woman worked only in the studio with an eclectic band. When will she start doing concerts?
“That won’t take so much time anymore, not as much as it has taken me up until now anyway. First I will do a tour of interview and television performances, because my album is now selling in the USA as well. Then the rehearsals for a concert tour will start. I’m looking forward to it already.”
A good band has already been put together. One of the members of the band says: “It is weird. When we had our own band, no-one wanted to know about us. Now that we are working with Kim Wilde, we are suddenly in demand, even if we still play the same as before.”
That it’s fun for the three musicians to rehearse the stage show, is obvious: “A good song repertoire provokes us naturally.”
Just recently the new hit “Cambodia” has made some waves. Kim: “The song is about a woman, whose husband dies during the war in Cambodia. I don’t mean to criticize the war in Vietnam. I just want to make clear what it means to lose one’s partner.”
Kim is conscious of the fact that it’s easy to read a political statement in this song: “I have tried for a while to explain what my songs are about. I have given up on that now. It’s no use. Everyone will always keep hearing in it what they want.”
Kim does know that it’s impossible to change people’s opinions through music: “I don’t believe that rebellious music, like Punk, has made people rebellious. It’s quite the opposite. Rebellious people seek out the music that fits with their mood.”
Already for almost two years Kim can make her living in music. What has she done before? “I have worked in a hospital, have worked in a flower shop and I have done several different jobs, but never for longer than two months.”
Although Kim’s father doesn’t enjoy the high taxes in England, Kim doesn’t want to move out of the country. “I like it there. Nowhere in the world can you hear so much different music. In America the radio always sound like more of the same. In England one hears everything.”
