Kim Wilde has spent the past nine months in self-examination while her career stood still.
‘The more success I’ve had, the more vulnerable I’ve felt’, explained the 22-year-old singer, guest artist tonight on Channel 4’s dance series HOT FOR DOGS (6pm). ‘You realise you have got so much more to lose. Because of that I was taking things a bit too seriously. I’ve always been self-critical, but it was beginning to be a pain in the neck.’
Kim’s insecurity and depression led her to a desperate reassessment of her fame and success. Why, after all the acclaim and the gold discs, did she feel such anticlimax? She even attended the mind-bending Erhard Seminars Training, against her father’s wishes. ‘I’ve always expected to much from life, so it’s hard to take when you get a knock’, Kim explained. ‘But I was making such a big thing out of everything that it was a barrier for me to express myself.’
She admits she is an inquisitive person and because of it, expects to make mistakes. ‘I don’t always hold myself infallible. I’m really glad I had nine months to think about what had happened to me over the previous couple of years. It made me realise that the gold discs weren’t just there to look good and decorate the house. Instead of doubting myself, I also realised how strong I was.’
She has bought herself a flat in north west London and left the comfortable family nest in Hertfordshire. But she will continue to record with her father, Marty Wilde, and brother Ricky, who produced her current hit Love Blonde.
‘I’m going to start making life a bit more comfortable for myself’, Kim added. ‘I don’t think I really know how to live. I needed a base of my own – somewhere to develop my songwriting. In the past I wasn’t accepted as a person who was making music. All the Press stories were about my father, but most of that has disappeared. After two-and-a-half years it has sunk into people that I’m actually about making records. I make good records and I’m here to stay.’