Killing Time With The Mastermind Herself, Tina Cousins
By: Kage Alan

PART TWO

KA: How did the new album, “Mastermind”, take shape?

TC: Well, mainly, the first thing was finding a manager.  I’d always managed myself, which is a good thing because I learned a lot about how much they buy in, where they’ve got shelving space, all this rubbish that’s so complicated and I think a lot of artists miss all that.  I don’t think they realize quite how much is done for them.  The guy I found, Sil Wilcox, he looks after big bands, nothing like me…The Stranglers, people like that, very sort of old school big bands.  I met him and we hit it off straight away.  He was wonderful and he owns his own studio up in Bath in Bristol, just outside of London.  You go into the studio normally and it’s this horrible padded tiny cell in the middle of nowhere and it’s really quite depressing, but his is like…you look out the window and “Oh, my God.  It’s a cow!” It’s really bizarre, but the best place to go and do a vocal or write a track.  It’s so calming and that was the start of basically this because I’d started doing stuff with a guy named Louie Nicastro, who wrote “Mastermind” and lots of the other tracks along with Tom Maddicott.  We also co-wrote some bits and pieces.  He’s just really great and we had time to do it.  We took probably a year and a bit, he got to know how I like vocals to sound, I got to know how he liked it to sound and we just worked together really well.

There’s a track on “Mastermind” called “Tomorrow’s Tomorrow” that I played for my mom and yes, she did cry.  (laughing)  She balled her eyes out, bless her.  I’m just really pleased.  In all honesty, there aren’t as many dance tracks on here as were on “Killing Time”, but I’ve grown up a bit now.  I’m 31.  I was like 26 then, so I’m a grown up woman now and I felt like a girl then.  The lyrics are a bit more in your face.  I feel it’s a bit more ballsy, this album, so I’m really happy with it.

A lot of people ask me about the videos, too.  Since I’ve basically funded this myself, I own the copyright to everything, so I also own all the videos.  That being said, I’m probably going to do a release where we have the videos on the CD as well.  They’re really hard to get…hard for me to get much less anybody else.  (laughing)

KA: You have a couple of remakes on the album.  I’m curious about “Pretty Young Thing”, which was done a few years ago by Lene (the lead singer of Aqua) on her solo album.

TC: Do you know what?  I had absolutely no idea.  I met the guy…he came to us, actually, and said “I’ve got 4 tracks…whatever Tina wants, she can have.” I thought “Wow!  That’s great.” And I heard this track, I really liked it and I had absolutely no idea it was a cover.  So I recorded it and actually didn’t find out until the album had just been released in Australia.  I was looking at a website and it said “Tina’s covering ‘such-and-such’” and I was like “What?  Oh, my God.  It’s a cover!” I paid the guy (for the song) and it’s a bloody cover!  (laughing)

KA: It might have been nice if he’d mentioned it.

TC: Yeah, cheeky monkey.

KA: I noticed something else between the two albums.  You have “Pray” on the first album and “Hymn” on the new one.  It seems like you have a motif of sorts going on between the two.

TC: I hope so.  We did a little bit of trickery with “Mastermind” in that we wrote “I’m just killing time” in that song, which goes back to the song “Killin’ Time” on the first album.  I absolutely adore that song (“Mastermind”).  The bit at the end when I go “I’m a mastermind…”, it’s just so fab to do live because you can really let rip.  I’m being very quiet on the phone, but normally I’d be doing it very loud!  (laughing)  The thing I’m really looking forward to again and I’m praying with everything that it goes as well as it did before, it would be really good to come back to America and see what the reaction will be.  I don’t know what to expect.

KA: Speaking of not knowing what to expect, have you run into Billie Piper lately?

TC: She’s…I mean, God forbid, I have no idea what she’s like now.  We got on so well when we did that Abba tribute with everyone else.  It was a real camaraderie and everyone got along really well.  They’d already been rehearsing the whole day and I’d just flown in from Sweden and I only had an hour.  I’ve never had a dancing lesson in my life.  I didn’t come from a dancing college, I’ve never been to acting school…nothing like that.  So, for me to have an hour to learn a really big routine where there’s going to be 8 million people watching is slightly intimidating.  I had to have a girl teaching me separately and I’m like, talk about giving me the difficult bit.  They give me the bit where I have to swing around in a chair and then sat me next to Billie Piper, who at the time was 16 years old.  I’m thinking “Thanks, guys.” (laughing)  Great.  But, we had a really great day and she was lovely.  Then, about three weeks later, I’m at Top of the Pops, we’re all getting ready, we’ve come down, are about to do the recording and she just went “Oh, my God.  What are you doing here?” Really looked me up and down, a really disgusting look.  I thought, talk about a difference.  I said “What do you think I’m doing here?” and she asked “Well, when are you on then?” I told her “I’m on in about half an hour” to which she replied “I’m on in 10 minutes.” I asked “Where are you on the charts then?” And I think she was at 18 or something like that and I went “Well, never mind, I’m at #2.” (laughing) I’ve told that story so many times…it probably sounds so boring, but it makes me laugh every time I tell it.

KA: It was like karma coming back to bite her in the ass!

TC: It is!  She was lovely on the day and then when I saw her…I don’t get that.  I’ve met lots of people in the time I’ve been doing this and, to be honest, normally the people who have been doing it a very long time, like the big artists like Bowie, Tina Turner, they are really lovely people.  Even though you’re a little dot in the ocean compared to what they’ve done, they’ll always give you the time of day.  They’ll be polite.  They’ll say “So, how are you doing?  How’s it going?” They’re really like that.  Normally, the people who are more difficult and aren’t actually very nice are the people who’ve had one hit.  And they’re sorta young, though that’s not the case with everybody, but I just find that it tends to be the people who’ve been doing it a long time and have been through it and realize how it works, tend to be a bit nicer.

KA: I read you enjoy making out to Nat King Cole.

TC: (laughing)  Yeah, Nat King Cole.  I mean, the man has got a voice!  The other people I like are George Benson and Luther Vandross, which is terrible what happened to him (Luther).  They just have these velvety voices that you just…like that track “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye.  They just have that quality in them and they’re just…sorry, I’m going to be really awful now, they’re just shagathon music!  (laughing)

KA: Has anybody ever said they make out to your music?

TC: Funnily enough, just recently when I was in Australia.  Yeah, they did.  And I found that really…I was like “naaa”.

KA: Because I’ve made out to “Angel”.

TC: (laughing) You have not!

KA: It’s a fantastic song to make out to.

TC: Wow.  That is brilliant!

KA: I may have to leave that out of the final edit.

TC: There’s nothing wrong with that.  I think it’s great!  It makes you feel good when you think someone’s actually made out to your music.  (laughing)

KA: What do you have coming up in the immediate future?

TC: I’m due back in Australia in November.  I’m presenting at the Australian Fashion Awards, which is great!  They have a very big designer named Alex Perry and he’s designing a dress for me, which is gorgeous.  I’m such a girly.  You have no idea.  Anything like that, I just love it.  I got asked once “So how do you feel about all the transvestites copying your dress?” (laughing)  I took it as a compliment.  I like glitz, glamour and bits like that.  I think it’s quite nice to dress up.

KA: And going to back to Australia, “Mastermind” was already released there.  Where’s the next place?

TC: Yeah, I mean obviously it’ll come out in the UK.  It’s the same as America in that it’s a very hard market.  In Australia, you have more time, you can go in at #40 in the chart, gradually work your way up and have people gradually get to know the record.  Here, as I’m sure it’s the same in America, you’re in and you’re out.  It’s really so fast and, I don’t know, Europe has always been really good for me.  My first ever release was in Sweden and Finland funny enough.  The best thing about that was when I met the most gorgeous Swedish men.  (laughing)  Six foot with long blonde hair and blue eyes…fantastic!

KA: It’s good to enjoy your work!

TC: I know this sounds corny, but I absolutely adore what I do.  I have great fun with it.  I have the time of my life, I get to do what I love and I get to pay the bills at the same time and if I can carry on doing this forever, then I will.  Otherwise, I’ll be one of those little old women in the Bingo Halls calling out the numbers and then singing in between.  I think now, the unfortunate thing a little bit, is with all the Idols and the Pop Star programs they have, I think that they’re making being a celebrity just about being a celebrity.  It’s all about “I want to be famous” and not about “I do it because I get a buzz out of singing”.  It’s all become a little bit contrived and a little bit…people doing it just to be famous.

KA: It’s a product.

TC: Yeah, and I think it’s a real shame because I don’t do it because I want to be famous.  I do it because I absolutely adore it and the best bit in the world…and I’m repeating myself, because I always do on this bit…  I have to say it cuz it’s true!  The thing is if you’re reading an article about a person and they give different answers to things all the time, it means they’re making it up.  But if you really believe in something, you really think it, that’s what you say.  I absolutely adore what I do.  I’m very, very lucky that I’ve had the chances that I did and I’m actually very lucky that I got a second chance.  I’m 31 years old, which is considered OAP (Old Age Pensioners—Ed Note) in the Pop industry, so…

KA: Don’t say that!  I’m 35…

TC: I know.  Isn’t it awful?  We’re in our prime, darling.  We’re not that old.  (laughing)  Do you know what?  My boyfriend is older than I am!  heh heh heh  You have no idea how much I rub that one in!

KA: Men are more mature at that age anyway.  They’re not like little kids.

TC: Exactly. With him, I actually met him on a video shoot.  I got to do the casting!  He’s in the “Angel” video.

KA: Which I’ve yet to see, so I’ll have to wait for the special edition CD with the videos.

TC: Damn…  We did two videos so far for this album, the dancy dancy video for “Wonderful Life” and then we’ve got a ballad, which I wasn’t quite sure how it would be taken.

KA: It was beautiful.

TC: When we did the video--and this was the first video I’d shot in a long time--we’re on the roof of a skyscraper and we had a string quartet, I’ve got a long black dress on, very sort of sophisticated…and they played live.  The sun was setting and it was just the most amazing thing because…this is going to sound so corny, it was just like “Yeah!  I’m back!” It was a real moment, I have to say, and I did get really quite teary then.  It was my first track being back after five years and I actually prefer that video to the dancy video.

KA: Okay, my last question.  Fans tend to see their favorite singers as larger than life and don’t always get a chance to see below the surface at the person underneath.  What you would like your fans to know about you as a person, as a woman and as an artist when they think of you?

TC: Good question!  I’ve never been asked that before.  In all honesty, when people meet me, they…whatever I say is going to sound big-headed and I don’t mean to sound like that.  It takes a long time before, as a person, you realize you are a nice person.  I think with everybody, you have to feel good about yourself before you can feel good about other people.  And I’m a nice person, I’m nice to people and I don’t like hurting people.  And I am the sloppiest git you’ve ever met in your life!  (laughing)  I am very sentimental, I cry at the drop of a hat…and I love what I do.  I hope that even singing dance music, that it comes across in when I sing something that I’m very passionate about what I do.  I’ve had the chance of a lifetime to get the opportunity to do it and I hope that comes across in the bits that I sing. 

A huge thanx goes out to DJ Ron, webmaster of www.TinaCousins.com, for helping me get in touch with Tina and, of course, Tina herself.  It’s been a while since I’ve laughed that much and you made it very, very easy.