Anastacia is back with a brand new album appropriately titled ‘Resurrection’.

As the powerhouse singer headed into the studio to record the album she discovered that her breast cancer had returned. The revelation had a big effect leading the singer to create her most personal work to date, and a collection of songs distinctly different to her previous work.

- Advertisement -

OUTinPerth spoke to Anastacia from her home in California.

Your new album is quite different to your previous works with your voice very much ‘front and centre’, it’s very much a vocal album.

“I think the interesting part is that throughout my career I always thought that people could hear my voice, but when I sing live people would be like, ‘Oh My God! That’s so much better than the record!’, and I would think, ‘What do you mean that’s better than the record?’ When people would hear me without the background or something like that.

“There was a previous album I did to this, not really to sell it or promote it, but really just for my own artistic desire I did an album of covers, and by doing that it really did excise the ‘real rock’ in rock songs, which is about the voice.

“It breaks it down so much more, so when I went to write I ended up writing songs that didn’t have a lot of choruses. They may have strong choruses, but not the ones that need all these background singers. It was interesting, I didn’t really expect to do that, and I’ve never done it before because it’s always been a producer that has been involved in all those thick backgrounds on most of my hit songs. This was different.

“This was being a storyteller, with age and wisdom, all of those things are part and case of growing with your music.”

You found about your cancer returning as you headed into the studio. Cancer is devastating experience to go through once, were you more prepared for it the second time?

“Believe it or not, it’s really weird. I was more prepared for it, because I had said to myself, and also investigated with doctors, ‘If it comes back I want a double mastectomy if I can and I want to get rid of it for good. I don’t care, I’m not going to do all the things I tried to do the first time. All the chemo and the radiation. If I have the opportunity to continue saving my life, I can’t be that vain – just take care of it and do what I got to do.

“Really, these days, as opposed to back in the day, all of the cosmetic stuff lets you look amazing. With all the suffering you have to go through, and all the time, it’s really a road less traveled by a lot of women, there are a lot of positives and they’re bigger than the negatives. The biggest positive is that I never have to deal with breast cancer ever again.”

Not a lot of women travel that road, but it’s great you can share that experience.

“It’s great to just let women know it’s not the end. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have a life after that, but you do have to let yourself go through the process of acclimating again. There are a lot of people out there who lose limbs and things change, or you might lose your eyesight. You just have to learn to adjust. Is it the end of all your dreams? No, but you do have to learn to live your life differently.”

There’s a bonus track on your new album, you revisit your song ‘Left Outside Alone’ what made you go back to that song?

“That was a song that I wrote on the first bout of cancer and it just had such an impact with me the first time round. So when I thought about doing a remake of one of my old songs that was one of the hardest songs for me to sing back in the day. Back when my radiation was going on, I was really weak. I didn’t have good retention with my memory with all the drugs. It just was a hard song for me to accomplish.

“So I wondered if I could reinvent it, and it was so easy. The words sound different, and the vibe was different, because I am different. So I just allowed myself to take it somewhere where I’d never gone and it’s just a beautiful song. It’s really nice and I wanted to make sure it went on the deluxe version of the album so the fans could have it. I knew that they’d like it and enjoy it.”

You made a big appearance at the Pride Festival in Manchester this year.

“Yes! It was so awesome! There were so many people.”

Have you ever seen drag queens do you?

“I have definitely had drag queens do me, in front of me. I’m a little bitter, they really have much nicer legs which isn’t fair, They have these legs that go on for days and then these shoes! They are so much sexier than me. I don’t even ooze that much sex appeal. I wonder how I go on stage later after a sexy diva. I don’t even know how to have that much sex appeal in my thumbnail.

“I’m always honoured though, it’s a goal to be someone that drags love to recreate. It means that my interpretation of who I am, and what I’m doing is memorable. I really appreciate that.”

Well a lot of performers aren’t worth impersonating because there is nothing distinctive about them.

“I never realised that I was that distinctive until I saw drag performers doing me on the Idol shows. Then I though, ‘oh maybe I do – do those things. Maybe I do move my hips like that.’ and then I thought, ‘Oh My God, the glasses and the hair, that is totally my thing!’

“I didn’t realise that all those things were such signatures things for me, I didn’t do that on purpose.

You’re about to head off on tour, are you looking forward to getting back in front of large audiences?

“I really am. My tour starts in just a few days in Belgium and it’s just going to be really lovely to be back at work on stage, doing the tour thing. I’m looking forward to being on stage and not doing promotions, or one off performances but actually being on tour. It’s really special to be back in the arms of my fans!”

Anastacia’s brand new album ‘Resurrection’ is available now, or you could head to the giveaways page here at OUTinPerth and try to win one.  

Graeme Watson, image: Ralf-Strathmann

Subscribe to OUTinPerth’s E-Newsletter and keep up to date with the latest news.Sign up now.