Kylie Minogue Brings the ‘Tension II’
Kylie Minogue, pop music’s impossible princess, was asked the other day if she’s always made authentic music. “I said, well, I think so! Even if it wasn’t authentic to me, the music was authentic, because that’s what I was going through at the time.”
We’re catching up over Zoom ahead of the release of her highly anticipated follow-up to Tension, Tension II. She laughs and adds, “Perhaps I wasn’t being authentic to my true self, but I was being authentic in trying to discover who I was and what my limitations were. Or, what could I discover, and who could I be?” It’s one of a few answers that force me to stifle the urge to jump in and gush.
The tattoo I have on my collarbone of lyrics from Impossible Princess (“some kind of bliss”) also poses a unique quandary to my generally steadfast professionalism. I hesitate before showing her. She gasps. “Oh my god, thank you!” The tension, pun intended, instantly unwinds.
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She’s eager to discuss the new material: a collection of songs that came to her after the enormous success of Tension, itself being the second act in her recent dance music renaissance post-Disco, in 2020. “It could have been called Intention, More Tension, Hypertension, Extension, who knows! But Tension II just made sense, and the symbol of the two is the Gemini symbol.”
Indeed, the album follows in the footsteps of the previous, but with much more solid ground to walk on, Kylie and her collaborators taking bigger swings. Like the instrumentation of the sonically dense “Taboo,” the album’s standout alongside single “Edge of Saturday Night” with The Blessed Madonna, or the balearic nods on my personal favorite of the new material, “Someone for Me”.
Like so much of her dance catalog that came before it — “Get Outta My Way” or “In Your Eyes” immediately come to mind — the song balances the core tension between romantic yearning and her deeply etched individuality.
Read our full conversation below, spanning the shores of Ibiza to the Met Gala afters and even back to the clubs of the ’90s and Minogue’s relationship to her early music.
I’m so excited to be talking to you! I’m such a huge fan.
Look at your lush locks!
Thank you! I was actually inspired to go red after the “Tension” video, and then Dua went red. It felt right, energetically.
I’ve thought about going red!
It’s such a fun color. I feel like you were the trailblazer.
I was really, really red in 1994, or something, which was a look. I wish I could do that again, but then it kind of faded and went a nice strawberry blonde.
So let’s talk about this new album, Tension II. You called it Tension II, rather than its own name and it features entirely new songs. What was the inspiration behind that?
Originally, it was just okay, as Charli XCX said, the same, but with three songs. That’s what a repack is, and that’s what we thought we were doing, but for different reasons, I just had a bunch of songs. Three of the collaborations had come to me anyway, because they were for Sia, The Blessed Madonna, Orville Peck, their albums, and they graciously said I could put them on mine as well. So they’re the extras. Then the songs like “Light, Camera, Action,” “Taboo,” they felt very much like an expansion of the Tension world. I just had a list, and the list was hard to narrow down to three.
So, I spoke with my A&R, and I was in Australia, and said “What do you think? Could we just do another album, but not the next album, because the next album will be different?”
You mentioned Charli previously. What do you think is in this moment right now, where we have artists like Charli, or FKA Twigs, or your recent work with Disco and Tension, making music about the club, or their relationship to the club? Do you feel there is a hunger from people to party, to connect? I feel like the reception to “Padam Padam” showed that people really want to dance — to that song in particular!
And I’m so glad they did! I mean, look, the Covid era probably feels a little ways away, but it actually wasn’t. The amount of artists that are touring, the amount of people going out to see shows, something must have happened, and I don’t have the answer to this. I’m just shooting the breeze here. But potentially, dance music, I think, will always have its place in pop. The nature of pop music will change, and it will morph depending on what the zeitgeist is, and what’s happening. Charli hit upon something, “Padam Padam” hit upon something. No one could predict it. For sure, none of us can predict what’s going to resonate with people, and resonate with a lot of people. I don’t think that’s something you can know. I mean, the Grammys introduced the first category for Pop Dance Recording, which didn’t exist before and I got it, which is amazing. It’s a happy place for me as a genre.
On that note, “Edge of Saturday Night” has become something of an unofficial PAPER anthem. I cannot get enough of the song. Talk me through that music video’s filming process, and how it came to be.
The song came to me through the official channels. I loved it when I heard it. Embarrassingly, it took me quite a while to get back with vocals, just because I had to adapt some of the lyrics so that it made sense to me. That it was authentic enough to me. It’s a slamming track. It’s just got a heat to it. It’s got the energy, and Marea (The Blessed Madonna) is amazing. All I did was put my vocals on it!
The video was super fun. It was pretty much: what you see is what it was. There were shots that needed to be considered, and there were some scenes in Freddies, which is the club in Pikes Ibiza, that had all our invited guests and extras. Then Marea was actually DJing later in the night, as The Blessed Madonna and it was real! I thought it was supposed to be, “Everyone hand in your cameras. You’re here as a guest, and we’re still filming.” But no, we didn’t have the cameras away. So I’m pulling out all these moves because I’m thinking they’re our cameras! We were shooting on different formats, some phones, MiniDV, proper camera, different formats. So there I was, feeling safe in this world that is kind of controlled. That’s partly why I went as nuts as I did, but also that’s been known to happen, anyway.
You mentioned tailoring some of the lyrics. I’m curious if you can tell me which ones, if you remember, that you retooled to suit you?
God, I’m trying to remember now. Oh, something like, “got my hair back” would have been “pull my hair back,” yeah? It was more specific to the writer, and I believe that Ray had written that part. So it just had to be believable from me, so it wasn’t too much, just also adapting and learning how to get that syncopation right.
There is a lot in the music about partying, dancing and going out with Tension and Tension II. Really, the Tension era. What is a memory you have of a specific party, recent or from the past, that you think of as the perfect night? The perfect party?
Well, because I’m in New York, I’m thinking, oh gosh! Not even a year ago, after the Met Gala, going down to the Loewe party. I remember saying, what? How far is it? Because we’re not running 40 minutes per party and having to come 40 minutes back. And someone googled it, and it said 12 minutes, and I said, okay, I can give 12 minutes to this to see what it’s like. And I really wanted to meet Jonathan Anderson, and you know what, it’s a vibe, isn’t it? So we got there, it’s in a club in a basement. The further I got down the stairs, and the more “doof doof” it got, and the smoke, and red light, I was thinking: “Oh, I don’t know that I’ll be here very long. Like, three to five minutes, do a lap.” No! This typically happens, I’m the last one there. The music’s good, the company was good. And I just felt really liberated! That was my last “just dancing for hours” night.
I remember seeing photos come out the next day, and the party looked incredible. I had someone there who told me it was the best vibe ever.
There’s one point that, because it wasn’t too big, people are cool enough that some phones come out once in a while. I did have this feeling that I would always want to go back to having a semblance of, a tiny bit of a feeling, like it’s the early ‘90s. That was my club heyday. There was a moment at the back of that party, where it was me, and probably Jonathan Bailey, busting moves. It’s not about looking cool, it’s just enjoying. There was some smoke. I didn’t drink. It was just good vibes, and I thought, okay, this is taking me back. This is cool. I feel like we’re all here. And then side note! A bit of me thought, this is a bit like Patsy and Eddie (Absolutely Fabulous) in their kitchen having a kitchen rave.
What a great image.
There’s nothing to be mad at! That’s brilliant. You know the scene I’m talking about, yeah? They’re just being so wild and having the best time, and it pulls out, and it’s just them in the kitchen.
You’re talking about the ‘90s, and I’ve been listening to the album Kylie Minogue quite a bit, from 1994 I believe. And also Impossible Princess, which among my peers, has had a sort of critical re-evaluation and new audience. Do you see any similarities between that time in your career and now, with the things you’re trying or the music you want to make?
Maybe in that I don’t feel like I’m being funneled into one direction, or doing that to myself. I feel pretty open to all sorts of things, but I heard some of Impossible Princess the other day, and I would like to do something like that again. I don’t know what that means, because you can’t have that time again, but definitely, we’ve got the code right for the songs that are working now. “Padam Padam,” “Lights Camera, Action.” I want to share them with people, but there’s a bit of me that’s thinking I would like to think outside the box a bit. Have a swim in less formulaic waters, just to do it. That’s a mindset and a space. I’d like to have some of that feeling of that time back, just to get it out of my system. There might be something great. There was just so much creativity, and really, a lot of lyrics from my core that were poetic or esoteric. I said what I wanted to say, which isn’t a smash pop song, but perhaps there’s a world for it now.
The other day, someone asked, “Have you always done music that’s authentic to you?” I said, “Well, I think so!” Even if it wasn’t authentic to me, the music was authentic, because that’s what I was going through at the time. Like Impossible Princess, the influence that was all around me at the time was Shirley Manson, Garbage, singing wild and not being perfectly in key, and being a bit less cookie cooker. It’s hard to say this economically! Perhaps I wasn’t being authentic to my true self, but I was being authentic in trying to discover who I was and what were my limitations. Or, what could I discover and who could I be?
Photography: Charlotee Rutherford
Kylie Minogue, pop music’s impossible princess, was asked the other day if she’s always made authentic music. “I said, well, I think so! Even if it wasn’t authentic to me, the music was authentic, because that’s what I was going through at the time.” We’re catching up over Zoom ahead of the release of her…