Interviews

Interaktiv with Kate Ryan on VIVA (28/06/2004)

Klaas:	Hello Kate, how are you?
Kate:	Fine. I'm a bit tired, but entirely ok.
Klaas:	Because of the dancing here?
Kate:	No, I traveled a lot the last time and I had appearances and so on.
Klaas:	You also started making music very early.
Kate:	Yes, I grew up with music and began to play guitar and piano. In my family, there are also some musicians and so I also started making music. And at the age of 14, I appeared in the café of my parents with my guitar and then I wrote my first songs and "Scream For More" etc.
Klaas:	That means, first of all you were a fame in Belgium, where you come from, or mediated there your first successes. When did you start with all these things?
Kate:	My first two singles were in Belgium and in Spain, and then I made a cover version of "Désenchantée", and then finally I travelled in whole Europe.
Klaas:	So first of all you only travel in Europe or also worldwide. Is that your aim, or do you do that already?
Kate:	In one week I'm in Poland, then in Estonia, in Hungary, in Germany, in Bulgaria... Actually I travel everywhere.
Klaas:	So you started playing guitar very early, don't you? Yes, that was your first kind of music that first you learned an instrument.
Kate:	Yes, I still play piano and guitar. And Dancemusic, I also find it great, but I also like Pop and Rock. I like different sorts of music.
Klaas:	OK. How is that? You make Dancemusic now. And there isn't anything with guitar. Would you like to make that again, or are you also satisfied with this music, is that also a kind of music which you like very much?
Kate:	Sometimes that is already a little strange, because when I write my own songs I always start with my guitar or my piano, and then I give that my producers and say to them: "Come on, make something with this.", and of course he makes something different of it. But I hope that I will be able to make a bit Pop/Rock. In a few years maybe. But of course I cannot begin with this until tomorrow. That is clear. But at this moment I'm also organizing a rather big live-concert with live-musicians where I also can play guitar and piano and can show to the people, what I also can yet, except for Dance.
Klaas:	When you also tell something about your songs now, that you make and compose with the piano or the guitar. The songs which you release, and what the people also know, are still cover versions of already well known songs, actually.
Kate:	I made 3 coversongs.
Klaas:	Yes, actually "La promesse" is also "The Promise" of Cock Robin.
Kate:	Exactly, Cock Robin. "Désenchantée" and "Libertine" are also cover versions.
Caller:	1. Why do you usually sing in French? 2. What are your musical plans?
Kate:	I sing in English and in French because for me it's a challenge to use both languages. Some songs are better in French I find and other songs are better in English. And what concerns my musical plans, there I planned a live-concert in the future. In October/ November is that. The first will be in Belgium and the second in Spain, Germany, France etc.
Klaas:	You already said, you will make a live-tour now. And then also with a band or differently?
Kate:	With a band of course.
Klaas:	One day you said you've made something with a band and then you won't do other things anymore.
Kate:	I try to find the right combination, because I also like standing on the stage only with my dancers. But if I stand with my band on the stage, with live-musicians, it is also great. I also can play guitar and piano then. When I sing "Libertine" and "Désenchantée", I also will appear correctly. Well it is different.
Klaas:	Who are your idols, musically?
Kate:	Since I was a teenager, I am a big fan of Madonna. She is unbelievable new, she invents herself again and again. That is great. Super artist.
Klaas:	So you also would like to come there where Madonna is now. Would you also like to act anytime? Madonna also does this, althought not so successful, but she does it.
Kate:	When I was young, at school they always said to me that I should become an actor because I always imitated somebody. Perhaps I make that sometimes. In a few years maybe.
Klaas:	How old are you now?
Kate:	Next month I will become 24.
Klaas:	Are you virgin?
Kate:	Yes, of course.
Klaas:	Yes, me too.
Email1:	How should your dream boy have to be or did you already find him?
Kate:	No if you look at my T-Shirt, then you know enough, because there is written: "Boyfriend lost". And I think that it is difficult for me to find the correct boy, because I always do a lot of travelling, rather tired then, and then I am perhaps 1 or 2 days at home and so it is not so easy. The correct type if he exists, he should be... I don't know how he should be. I don't have any special type.
Klaas:	There is also written: "Boyfriend lost". Did he go away or did you lose him somehow in the quantity?
Kate:	I had a boyfriend, but because of my job, I lost him unfortunately.
Klaas:	Didn't he come clear with that?
Kate:	No.
Klaas:	So the life changes. How do you come clear with it otherwise?
Kate:	My life changes a lot. I'm still the person I was 4 years ago, when all these things began, but unfortunately I don't see my familly and friends very often. That's a pity, but it belongs to this job.
Klaas:	When people say to you, you also make dancemusic now, which also often comes in discos, and maybe where you are dressed a bit exciting, and when people reproach you: "Only the optic is important and the music is second-rate." When people say this, what do you say then?
Kate:	I think in dancemusic people have a special view, and if people see then: "Yes, sweet, blond girl on the stage, very nice. But Dance... perhaps a little fake, not so real. Everything comes out of the computer.", then it means for me that I would like to go on live-tour in order to show them exactly, what I can. Playing my own songs, I can show them that I can play piano and guitar and my other sides. I don't want that people put me in a box and say: "She can only Dance and otherwise nothing."
Klaas:	I already saw now, you have a new tattoo. That shined. I thought, you stick it on out of a notebook, but that's a real tattoo.
Kate:	No, it's a real one. I made it on Thursday.
Klaas:	Here, in Germany?
Kate:	No, in Belgium. And I also have to put cream on it every hour, because otherwise it dries out.
Klaas:	Do you also have more of them?
Kate:	Yes, on my back.
Email2:	What would you do if one day you could be a boy?
Kate:	The first thing I would do is making pi pi. Of course in standing.
Klaas:	It was very nice that you were here (Kate: Yes, it was very nice here), of course that we spoke here, also that you were on the stage. Thank you very much.
Kate:	Thanks.