British singer Paloma Faith: Why I don’t like selfies

SINGAPORE – British singer Paloma Faith has had an eventful year. For example, her last album A Perfect Contradiction, which spawned hits such as Only Love Can Hurt Like This and Can’t Rely On You, picked up a slew of awards, including Best British Female Solo Artiste at this year’s Brits Awards.

She was also asked to perform the theme song for this year’s rugby World Cup, which attracted much controversy in the UK. Interestingly, she was in Singapore for another sports-related event: Performing at the celebration of the best in women’s tennis at the Singapore Tennis Evening, the gala event of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global last Friday.

Here, she dissects her life and career as she talks about what it’s like for her to be famous and the best and worst things about being Paloma Faith.

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST LESSON YOU’VE LEARNT ALL THESE YEARS? The more you are yourself in this industry; the more success you’re going to have. When I first started, I was trying to guess what people wanted of me. It was strange because I never thought I’d be a commercial musician — I only did it as a hobby. Then I got this record deal and I felt like a big spotlight was on me. I was like, ‘you can’t waste an opportunity like that’ and I was trying to guess how to be a pop star and all these things that I hadn’t planned for. As time has gone on, I’ve found that the more I become relaxed about it and sing what I want to sing about, the more popular I’ve become.

YOU ARE ACTUALLY VERY ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN THE RECORDING PROCESS, AREN’T YOU? HOW MUCH OF WHAT ENDS UP ON THE ALBUM IS YOU AND HOW MUCH IS THE PRODUCER? It’s common for me to be involved in the production process, I don’t just sing and leave. We’re here because I do a lot of talking about women’s rights and it’s funny because in the music industry, a woman is often less credited for her input than a male artiste. Like quite a lot of male artistes will get credit for co-production; and I’ll literally be sitting next to a producer in the studio late at night talking about the sound that ought to go on the album and I never get a production credit. If a man was to do the same thing, it would.

DO YOU FIND IT EASY TO TRANSLATE THE EMOTION OF A SONG ON STAGE EVERY NIGHT? For me, I find stage performance a lot easier emotionally than being in the studio. I tend to feed off people in the room and it’s always a lot more emotional for me to be singing about personal experiences to other people. Whereas in the studio, I feel that I have to find that emotion within me, and I’m literally looking at the wall. It’s not inspiring like that for me.

WHAT’S THE BEST OR WORST THING ABOUT BEING PALOMA FAITH? The best thing is that I feel very comfortable in my own skin. It took a long time. When I was younger I didn’t feel like that. I always saw myself as an outsider who didn’t really fit in. But now I’ve created my own world around myself, in a way, I do fit in!

The worst thing is that I’m always juggling time. I want to take every opportunity I get to spend time with friends and family. I love cooking and I want to see all the films at the cinema. But I don’t have time to do all the things that I want to do. If I had a super power, I’d want to make more than 24 hours in a day. Or pause time when I sleep.

WHAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING A ROLE MODEL AND PEOPLE WANTING TO SCRUTINISE YOUR EVERY MOVE? I’ve had a lot of people tell me that I’m a good role model! A lot of mothers bring their daughters to my shows. They say that I’m strong and career-driven, but not vulgar. I’m not half-naked on stage or that sort of thing and I’m quite anti-drugs.

I struggle with celebrity because I’m a thinking person and I cannot relate to this psychology of celebrity obsession. I have an old-fashioned acceptance of my idols. I want to keep some distance or mystery about them. I don’t want to know what they had for breakfast. I would like to believe that they weren’t normal, but enigmatic and mysterious.

I feel the whole selfie culture is very strange to me. Everybody has a camera on their phone and people aren’t really existing in the moment any more. They’re just taking a picture of the moment and their memories are based on what they saw through the camera than the actual feeling of what they’re experience. Everything is documented in such a way that’s so impermanent, because in the digital age, it’s easy to lose everything. In the past, when you had a picture, you had it for generations: I have pictures of my great-great-relatives. Now, it’s like, ‘well I have this on my Facebook’ but in 10 years it wouldn’t exist any more.

It’s strange, and the paparazzi feed into it, and I’m part of it and I have to accept it because it’s a consequence of the era that I live in. But I think eventually, when I’m too old to be a pop star, I might do a PhD about it, about where this psychology comes from. And the word selfie sounds like the word “selfish”, to me; and people who ask for selfies are selfish because it’s about them. They have no consideration for how the other person feels. People are shocked when I say I don’t like my picture being taken. They’re like, “You picture is everywhere”. But when I’m having it taken, I feel very anxious and I want to do as few as possible.

WHEN CAN WE EXPECT YOUR NEXT ALBUM? I’ve started writing but I’m not intending to put anything out unless I’m 100 per cent happy about it. I’ve often rushed to meet deadlines and stuff, but now that I’ve won the Brit for Best British Female Solo Artiste, I feel under a certain amount of pressure to articulate why I won that award with this next album. I’m working very hard on it but I’m not going to rush it.

Pressure is quite positive though. I feel like I do my best work when I’m under pressure. I love pressure. I feel lost at sea when I don’t have any pressure, sometimes. I do like deadlines sometimes. It makes me work harder.