{"id":29865,"date":"2016-06-01T07:00:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T21:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=29865"},"modified":"2016-05-26T18:06:06","modified_gmt":"2016-05-26T08:06:06","slug":"martika","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2016\/06\/martika\/","title":{"rendered":"Martika"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"martika\"<\/a>
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\u201cI always thought it was cool like after the record came out I went into an LA rock club and some of the big hair rocker dudes were like \u2018hey Martika that \u2018Toy Soldiers\u2019 is pretty cool man\u2019 and I was like yeah, the rockers think I\u2019m cool *laughs*.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: Whether it was her synth-dance songs or power ballads, there\u2019s no doubting\u00a0MARTIKA\u00a0<\/strong>(USA) was a great singer. At\u00a0TOTALLY 80s<\/strong>\u00a0she will perform all of her biggest Australian hits including the #1 smash\u00a0Love\u2026 thy Will Be Done<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(written by\u00a0Prince\u00a0<\/strong>no less), the almost #1 Toy Soldiers as well as\u00a0I Feel The Earth Move<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and Martika\u2019s Kitchen<\/em><\/strong>. This will be only the second time\u00a0MARTIKA\u00a0<\/strong>has toured Australia, the last time being 1991!<\/p>\n

Earlier this year we gave Martika a call to talk about the Totally 80\u2019s tour of Australia, the 80\u2019s resurgence, existing at the same time as the hair metal genre, Prince, and more\u2026<\/p>\n

You were due to come to Australia a few years back which unfortunately didn’t happen, but thankfully heading to see us in July,\u00a0what can we expect to hear on this run of shows?<\/strong>
\nWell you know I\u2019m gonna be singing my hits and looking as cute as possible, and apparently there\u2019s a band that\u2019s going to be playing with me that I will be rehearsing with in Australia when I arrive, and there\u2019s a lot of really cool other acts on the bill, like Berlin, and Katrina, and Limahl, I\u2019m sure you know all that. So I\u2019m looking forward to just being part of the extravaganza and just hitting the stage and bringing my energy and my voice and my moves, and just be myself really and take it all in and enjoy it.<\/p>\n

These kinds of tours are quite popular, have you toured with any of the artists before?<\/strong>
\nI haven\u2019t, no. I haven\u2019t been on a bill with any of these artists before, this will be a whole new experience for me, it\u2019s gonna be a lot of fun. I haven\u2019t actually done one of these 80\u2019s tours before, I know they\u2019ve become popular, so this will be my first one. I did one show in Santiago, Chile that was just a one night of 80\u2019s acts, so I got to perform with a few acts from that era, so this will be only my second time doing something like this. First time actually doing a tour so I\u2019m looking forward to travelling around the country.<\/p>\n

It’s also been around twenty five years since your first visit to Australia back in 1991, what are you hoping to get up to down here other than touring?<\/strong>
\nRight! I mean I\u2019ve been told I\u2019m gonna have some time off in travelling between cities because I\u2019ve only been to Sydney and Melbourne, and so I just want to take it all in really and enjoy the scenery, such a beautiful country, maybe meet some interesting people, check out some restaurants, cafes, I\u2019ve been told I must have coffee and wine in Australia so I\u2019m really looking forward to just enjoying it as much as possible, and especially having some down time there just to hang out.<\/p>\n

The 80’s resurgence has been massive over the last few years, what do you think it is about the music that people have never really let go of \/ gravitated back towards?<\/strong>
\nWell the thing that I hear a lot from people is that it just felt like a happier time in music, and so you know things have gotten much more serious and darker and brooding and it\u2019s not really cool to smile, right? *laughs* In the 80\u2019s we were just not afraid to be goofballs I guess is what it comes down to *laughs* plus I think all of the eras when a certain amount of time goes by people have the nostalgia to go back to a time when we were younger and didn\u2019t have as much responsibility, so it\u2019s just the soundtrack of our youth I guess. Even young people that I talk to who are into 80\u2019s music they tell me that it just has a happy uplifting vibe to the music from that era, so they even really enjoy it as well.<\/p>\n

As you know I\u2019m a rock music website, but I cover all genres, such as pop rock and hard rock etc, but at the time when you were big, it was also the big hair metal era of bands like Bon Jovi, Poison, Warrant, but there was a nice balance of it all back then\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah, I remember that too, and when I was making my record I think that\u2019s why \u2018Toy Soldiers\u2019 had a little more of a rock edge because I was into rock music and grew up listening to a lot of rock, so my big brothers were turning me onto rock and roll from the 70\u2019s and so I\u2019ve always loved it. It was cool because being in LA I\u2019d go and see rock bands on Sunset Strip in Hollywood and then go into the studio and do my electronic pop *laughs* and so I think that\u2019s where some of that edge bled in, but I always thought it was cool like after the record came out I went into an LA rock club and some of the big hair rocker dudes were like \u2018hey Martika that \u2018Toy Soldiers\u2019 is pretty cool man\u2019 and I was like yeah, the rockers think I\u2019m cool *laughs*.<\/p>\n

Well ‘Toy Soldiers’ for me was one of the best power pop rock ballads of the 80’s, a song that’s stood the test of time, what do you think it is about that song specifically that made it through the era to still be known today?<\/strong>
\n*laughs* Well thank you, I don\u2019t know it\u2019s hard to say. It was based around an idea of a nursery rhyme, maybe it\u2019s just that simplicity of it and then with the edge and the topics being heavier against the poppy drum machine groove and the children, something about that haunted me, I always wanted to put that kids choir in there, just something about the childhood aspect of it, I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know if people remember it or if it just had an impact, I\u2019m just really happy that I was able to work on something that people held on to.<\/p>\n

Plus it couldn\u2019t have hurt that Eminem picked it up and used a bit of it\u2026<\/strong>
\nWell hey, when you get a call that says \u2018Hey, Eminem wants to work with you\u2019 but how cool is that, I met so many young people that only know me from Eminem and they freak out like \u2018oh my god, you sang on an Eminem record\u2019 they can\u2019t believe it, it\u2019s so cool. *laughs*<\/p>\n

I have to ask in relation to you working with \/ using Prince’s songs… how did that come about at the time?<\/strong>
\nWell I was like a huge Prince fan when I was a kid, at one point I was working on some new material for the second album and I was in a meeting with somebody and something came up and they said if you could think of anybody you want to work with who would it be and I said Prince. He said \u2018ok\u2019 and he thought \u2018Toy Soldiers\u2019 was cool which was real cool and then he came up with \u2018Love Thy Will Be Done\u2019 and \u2018Martika\u2019s Kitchen\u2019 and a few other things based on some lyrics that I\u2019d written and I showed him. I was just really happy when I heard \u2018Love Thy Will Be Done\u2019 because I felt \u2018Toy Soldiers\u2019 had more of an impact than I would have ever anticipated so I felt a lot of pressure and could I have a record that would hold up to that? So when I heard \u2018Love Thy Will Be Done\u2019 I thought, ok, this will be something special, different, just a regular pop song, where \u2018Toy Soldiers\u2019 had more of a quirky, abstract pop thing about it, so it just felt like a good combo. So when I heard it I was thinking ok, this is the kind of record that I could do with a Prince collaboration.<\/p>\n

Plus that ended up being a huge hit down here as well\u2026<\/strong>
\nI know, right! That\u2019s just unbelievable to me. Thank you so much to everyone who embraced the song on that level, I was just amazed to hear it was such a success.<\/p>\n

It would be remiss of me to not ask if we can expect new music from you in the future… Are there any plans?<\/strong>
\nWell you never know, I\u2019m always creating stuff and you never know when I might just pop something out there. It\u2019s easy now you just upload it to the internet *laughs*<\/p>\n

You of course have been in the industry for years and years, and yes, I was guilty of watching you in \u2018KIDS Incorporated\u2019 back in the day. What is it like essentially being involved in music pretty much your whole life?<\/strong>
\nI mean for me it was the most normal thing and most natural thing, and now in hindsight I realise it was kind of a different reality to be able to be a professional child in an industry at eleven years old was when I actually got my first professional job in Hollywood, so doing voice over work and then working as a dancer and then getting into KIDS Incorporated was where I could sing and dance and act. So I just never knew a different reality, so for me it\u2019s just the most normal thing to be in show business, even though I only have one family member in show business and he didn\u2019t really live around me but I guess I still kind of knew that I could make a career doing this music thing, I must have just known that my whole life, my uncle is a drummer. So, the music is my passion and that\u2019s all I\u2019ve really known, so I can\u2019t help it. *laughs*<\/p>\n

Other side of that is that the industry is a much different place now than it was back in the 80’s, what for you has been the most notable difference in music today?<\/strong>
\nWell because music is supposedly free now really is a massive change because people just expect to not pay for music, so that\u2019s what I think is the most massive shift. I mean I know that the real hardcore fans will support and buy music still, but for the most part, the popular society on a whole at least here in The States, I don\u2019t know how it is in Australia, but I just think that everyone assumes that it should be free and I think the new generation assumes it, and so that\u2019s just completely different from what we all grew up with, right. I mean other than listening to the radio or watching MTV even then you could still record once the recordable cassettes came out, I mean who didn\u2019t record off the radio, right? Yeah you might make a mixtape and you might share it with a friend or two but now it\u2019s just the fact that it just goes out there on the web and everybody has access to it and it\u2019s just nobody really thinks twice about it anymore that it shouldn\u2019t be free right? I\u2019m not gonna pay for that\u2026 that\u2019s just completely different for me, don\u2019t you think? It\u2019s just that people don\u2019t realise the economics of going into the studio and making it and the time involved in doing it, so being able to do it full time is more and more difficult for artists and that\u2019s sad because that will probably make it so the quality\u2026 and I know so many people that have been in the business for so long who are just stepping out of it completely because they can\u2019t make a living, studios close and it\u2019s just not the way it was and it\u2019s really affected the whole industry. It\u2019s really hard to make a living,<\/p>\n

Lastly, let’s try and see if we can predict the future, so finish this sentence for me, the one thing Martika wants to do in 2016 is…<\/strong>
\nPerform in Australia, and eat *laughs*. Perform in Australia, that\u2019s Martika\u2019s main mission this year, I\u2019m doing a tour of your country and I\u2019m gonna bring fire, and energy and focus and just all of my talents. Really there\u2019s nothing more important in a Martika life right now than that to me.<\/p>\n

Totally 80\u2019s Australian Tour Dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tuesday 12th July –\u00a0BRISBANE<\/strong>\u00a0Eatons Hill<\/p>\n

Thursday 14th July –\u00a0GOLD COAST<\/strong>\u00a0Jupiters<\/p>\n

Friday 15th July –\u00a0MELBOURNE<\/strong>\u00a0Palais Theatre<\/p>\n

Saturday 16th July –\u00a0SYDNEY<\/strong>\u00a0Enmore Theatre<\/p>\n

Wednesday 20th July –\u00a0PERTH<\/strong>\u00a0Astor Theatre<\/p>\n

Thursday 21st July –\u00a0ADELAIDE<\/strong>\u00a0The Gov<\/p>\n

Friday 22nd July –\u00a0HOBART<\/strong>\u00a0Wrest Point<\/p>\n

Saturday 23rd<\/sup>\u00a0July \u2013\u00a0MELBOURNE<\/strong>\u00a0The Palms @ Crown<\/p>\n

Sunday 24th<\/sup>\u00a0July \u2013\u00a0MELBOURNE<\/strong>\u00a0The Palms @ Crown<\/p>\n

Wednesday 27th<\/sup>\u00a0July –\u00a0Revesby Workers<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Whitlam Theatre<\/p>\n

Thursday 28th<\/sup>\u00a0July \u2013\u00a0Newcastle<\/strong>\u00a0– Civic Theatre<\/p>\n

Friday 29th<\/sup>\u00a0July –\u00a0Penrith Panthers<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 EVAN Theatre<\/p>\n

Saturday 30th<\/sup>\u00a0July \u2013\u00a0Wollongong<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 WIN Entertainment Centre<\/p>\n

Tickets on sale NOW from:\u00a0<\/strong>http:\/\/www.metropolistouring.com\/totally80s<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Presented by Metropolis Touring<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0Chicago, IL, USA<\/p>\n

Band Members:<\/strong>\u00a0Martika<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.martikamartika.com<\/p>\n

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