Kylie Minogue appears on the Zoom screen exactly as you’d imagine one of the world’s greatest living pop stars might: slightly confused about the time (her laptop mysteriously thinks she’s still in Australia), in need of a charger and with the lighting too low. A charger is eventually found, the luminance pumped up – and there she is, in her full, Kylie brilliance. Following last year’s ‘Padam Padam’-ic, she is at full throttle. New album Tension II is a “transition” – her words – between 2023’s brilliant Tension and whatever comes next. What started out as a bump-up for Tension – “some remixes, you know” – became a full album in itself. “‘Padam…’ did its thing, and I couldn’t say no to things,” she says through the screen. “But it’s not the next album,” says the woman who has released 17 studio albums, nine EPs, nine live albums, 13 compilations, 13 remixes and four box sets over the course of her 37-year career. “It’s just more of the Tension world.”
Hi Kylie. I’ve got some light questions for you this Thursday afternoon.
OK!
There’s a line in one of your songs about being a gemini. I’m a gemini, too, so I was wondering, from one gemini to another…
Oh, I feel for you. I feel for us. You know the boardroom in your brain that never stops talking. As a fellow gemini, interviews are not really my happy place. Because you have to have your opinion, and then as soon as you say something, you think, “Oh, on the other hand…” – and then there’s the other hand. There’s a lot going on.
What’s your most gemini trait?
Those less kind would say I’m indecisive. I am decisive – but then I’ll have another decisive moment, and they might follow each other in quick succession.
I think it’s OK to change your mind.
In the words of ABBA! I think it’s possibly helpful in this career, where there are so many different elements – and I’m curious about everything. I might not linger long on one thing… I don’t know, it’s worked for me.
It’s all you’ve got.
Exactly. You’ve gotta work with what you’ve got.
Perhaps this is a tricky question if you’re an indecisive gemini, but Tension II has some real, pumping classics on it. How did you know they were finished?
It’s never finished. It was only finished when they gave me no more choices. The only thing I would love to have some power over – which I don’t – is that you have to make decisions early because you need to give them time to get the vinyl pressed. You’re like, “Huh, I have to choose now but it’s not coming out for another however many months.” I would still go back and add things, or write another song. When is art finished? When you have to hand it in. The intention – pardon the pun – wasn’t to make Tension II. But Tension did so well, ‘Padam…’ did its thing, and so many doors of possibility were opened and great songs sent to me; I wanted to record everything and give them a hot shot. I spent a lot of time in the studio with some of my old favourite songwriters, and then Sia asked me to jump on their track, Orville Peck asked me to jump on, and the Blessed Madonna… It suddenly looked like a body of work.
I’m obsessed with ‘Someone for Me’. Has anyone ever set you up on a date?
No! Not a blind date, where you have to rock up on your own. I would want my wing person planted somewhere [laughs]. But yeah, it’s worked a couple of times, being set up. Someone who knows someone. A friend of someone who thinks you’d get on. And that’s all I’m asking for in the song – is that too much to ask for?
What are your thoughts on reinvention?
A lot of people don’t want to use the word any more! I really struggled with it. I would find in interviews that… I don’t know… I didn’t think of it that way. Logically, I get it. That’s how it looks from the outside: a year’s passed, and people have seen me go from being a teenager to a young adult, to an adult. To me, it’s evolution. We change. Pop culture changes. The world changes, and I enjoy those changes. It’s probably not a gemini quality – being happy in that. I found it quite hard having to explain that for a while. Maybe people get it more now that the world moves faster. You can press a button and change the filter, you know?
You go through phases as a woman, and I think as a musician, those phases are exaggerated…
Look, if you’re Slash, your wardrobe hasn’t changed a lot. That’s what I think from your comment, but maybe from a woman’s point of view. But everyone goes through periods of growth and change. When you mention women in pop, I think about wardrobe and look. Maybe Slash thinks he’s changed.
I asked Tom Rasmussen, who supported you at BST Hyde Park in London, if he had any questions for you. He wanted to know, have you ever kissed a girl?
Yes! But I won’t say who. Ha ha.
And also, what do you never leave home without?
Pen, paper, tape, washi tape, Panadol – it’s a practical bag! If you need something, I might have it.
There’s an interview you did many years ago that I always think about. It was probably in 2002. The interviewer asked questions that were lines from your songs. As a young consumer of pop culture at that point, it stayed with me. So today, faced with the opportunity, I thought I’d rip off that idea.
[Laughs]I love you bowing down!
It stuck with me! So what I thought we would do is ask you some questions from old interviews.
OK!
The first is from Stuff (US, 2002): Have you ever hung out with the ‘Material Girl’?
I have performed with her briefly. I don’t know if you saw it? I was transported to her dressing room pre-show so we could talk through the song; she got her guitar out, and we went through the lyrics and how we’d divvy up the song. I don’t know if that counts as hanging out? Everyone was in her dressing room – everyone. All holding hands and getting sweaty. That’s as close to hanging out with Madonna as I ever got.
2002 answer: The only time I met her face to face was when she wore the Kylie T-shirt. I was about to present an award and someone introduced us. And, well, she asked if I liked the T-shirt. I was like, “Er, yeah. Great. Thank you.” It was the most expensive billboard in the world.
From Smash Hits (Australia, 1997): Have you got any bad habits?
Yeah. Um, what can I share with you… If I was really honest with myself, I probably have a few. This is going to sound not outrageous, but one that comes to mind is not replying to people as fast as I should. I’m busy! That is my excuse.
You’re a pop icon, it’s fine.
I mean… late-night snacking? So sue me. There’s chocolate, nuts, whatever. That is a very solo affair. We all need some me time.
1987 answer: I pick my lips! It must be nerves. I try and keep my hands away, but then I do it with my teeth!
From TV Hits (May 1990): What’s the worst thing about being famous?
I’m probably going to give the same answer! What did I say back then – a lack of privacy? What would I say now? Balancing it. But real life is just there, you know? Mostly it’s good; it might involve a bit more organisation sometimes, but I think I’ve figured it out. I go about like either a 14-year-old boy or an 80-year-old woman. Just a small individual getting about, doing her shopping. I have tonnes of real life, in life.
1990 answer: The worst thing? Constantly travelling and having to live out of a suitcase – it’s not at all glamorous, and is pretty exhausting. I get quite lonely travelling too, and if it wasn’t for my manager, I’d get really homesick.
From Attitude (July 2010): Is there a creative conflict between you as an artist and what your fans want? Because the fans do make it clear what they want from a Kylie record.
They make themselves known! Yeah, sometimes there is. I know that sometimes someone will be really happy, and someone will be unhappy – everyone has their opinions. I try to remind myself that those comments come from a good place, and I can’t make something because of them.
It’s not conflict during the creative process, but there is management of it afterwards.
2010 answer: It’s harder to get both of them perfect, and I think with most artists, some albums work better than others. I think that depends what’s happening with you, what’s happening in your landscape at that time, what your fans want. With X, I don’t blame the fans, because having put all that positive energy out to me, and to get songs about kissing on the dancefloor [in return] might have been a bit of a letdown. To the public, me and my career path might seem like it’s all very straight, but actually, I think I have taken risks, and my hardcore fans like me to do that – but if I go too far beyond, I think I'll definitely know about it. I like that I get that reaction. Let’s call it passion
From Interview (June 2022):How does Kylie Minogue drink her wine?
Well, now she has her own wine. With friends, with family, with people. I don’t choose to open a bottle of wine myself. I have a couple of girlfriends who come over; I might put the kettle on and they’ll say, “Come on, we’re opening a bottle of KMW!” I drink it chilled. And this will sound pop star, but I also drink it from my own branded ice bucket after every show. We have zero percent, we have pink, we have white. I always travel with my branded ice bucket and corkscrew.
2022 answer: Pre-dinner, or after a long day’s work. Yesterday, I just wanted to wind down, so I had a little cheeky glass.
OK. Last question. From the very interview I’ve ripped off, in The Face (2002): Why do you think people like you so much?
Um. You’ve kept the best question till last! I could think very deeply on that. I don’t take it for granted, and I don’t know the answer. All I know is that it’s been over many, many years for a lot of people, and now there’s a new influx of fans. From ‘Padam…’ onwards. I can’t put it down to nostalgia, and people knowing me and watching me grow up and evolve alongside their life. I can’t put it down to history. I would hope people think I’m a decent person with good creative output. I imagine they can see that I still feel like a work in progress. My humanity is ever-present, in that a lot of what I do, you have to put on a front and get yourself on the stage and be that person. But I would hate to think I would ever reach the stage where it’s that, in a glass dome. I’d hate to be unrelatable. Maybe it’s that – I’m relatable. And I have great tunes.
And great wine.
I’ve got bops. I’ve got wine. What else is there?
2002 answer: I think people can relate to me, especially from whence I came. People got to know me in Neighbours, watching a two-dimensional version of many neighbourhoods. They’ve seen me grow up and they’ve seen me succeed and they’ve seen me fall flat on my face and stumble my way through growing up, and yet I’m in this position that people would dream about. Some people they see in that position, I think they don’t imagine them being human at all.
