The Return of Nikki Webster

It’s been a hectic few months for Nikki Webster. After finishing up the Sydney season of her musical The Wizard of Oz, she headed straight to the studio to record her second album, before jetting overseas to promote her first single “Strawberry Kisses”. Now she’s back home and not only is she starring in Oz in Melbourne, but she’s also releasing her brand new single “Something More Beautiful” . . .

How far off is the new album?
I’ve finished recording it, it’s in the stages of mixing now. They’re getting it all together and putting in all the drums and stuff. It’s an exciting time, but I haven’t heard much of it yet!

How have you managed to record it while juggling everything else?
I did it at the end of The Wizard of Oz season in Sydney. I went into the recording studio about two weeks after. We’d blocked out three weeks, but it only took a week to do the whole album. We did about three songs a day which is pretty good, and then I went off to Europe, and now I’m doing The Wizard of Oz in Melbourne!

What can you tell us about the new single “Something More Beautiful”?
It’s written by a Swedish writer and I guess the title explains itself. “Something More Beautiful” is about a boy, really. I guess everybody thinks, “It’s not good enough, I want something more”. She wants to get something more out of the boy. The clip is set underwater, but I’m not actually swimming, it was done with green screen. So there are 3D objects and lots of colourful fish and I change my girl dancers into boy dancers because I want something more beautiful! It’s definitely a lot older, I mean I’m a year older than when I did “Strawberry Kisses” so I think I’ve grown up a little bit. It’s not really boppy but it’s kinda half-way between being boppy and a ballad. It has a great tempo, great word and a great tune.

Do you ever get to school anymore?
I’m doing tutoring all the time, but I try and pop in every now and then, even if it’s just to say, “Hi”.

You’ve just launched your music overseas. What was that like?
I was away for about seven weeks. I went around Europe; to London, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Finland and places like that. A lot of Scandanavian countries. When I was here I was thinking what it would be like in Holland, you know windmills, clogs, but to get over there it’s like, “Oh, it is a real country and there are people here!” Places like that were great to see and travelling really opened up my eyes and I got to see the world and come back with a different perspective. It was great to perform for kids that didn’t really speak your language that well, but they all still bopped along to “Strawberry Kisses”.

Was it odd doing European TV shows?
It was weird, they’d go, “Diddle-iddle-iddle” in their own language and then, “Nikki Webster”, and I was like, “Is that me?” And when I did interviews the questions were in their language and then in English as well, so it was different, but it was fun. I got to meet so many beautiful people and could all speak such good English … I wish we could all speak Swedish or something like that! I spoke a few words, “Hello” and “Thank you”. They’d ask me what Australia was like and I was like, “Oh, we don’t speak many other languages, but our weather is good and our beaches are nice!”

You were compared to Holly Valance and Kylie Minogue in the press over there. One paper said “Forget Holly and Kylie – it’s Nikki!”
(laughs loudly) No! But to have Holly go to No. 1 [in the UK] when I was there was just amazing. I like the song, and I wish her all the best. She is doing really well and she was on everything. I hope I can do the same at some point, to be an Australian and just to make my country proud as well. To have so many Australians doing so well over there is good, but it’s definitely a different market. They have so many pop groups for young people over there, we just don’t have as many.

Did you catch up with Kylie at all?
Yeah, I was lucky enough to catch up with her when I was in London and I watched a bit of her concert that she was going to do in Europe just before she shot off. So that was great.

Did you buy her a birthday present?
No … but I will!

You forgot!
I did know sort of … it’s the 28th. Wasn’t it? Yeah. It’s my grandmother’s the day before.

How do you feel about moving to Melbourne for The Wizard of Oz?
I am looking forawrd to it. It’s a bit sad because some of the cast aren’t travelling, but we’ll meet a lot of new people. Bert’s [Newton, who plays the Wizard] wife Patti is going to be in it and that’ll be great to have them together. She came to see the show quite a few times in Sydney and she was great. I’m going to Melbourne with my grandparents who have just come from England with me, and my family will visit as well.

What happened to your film Vanilla Gorilla? Is it still gonna be made?
Not at the moment. Well, after September 11 and all the terrible things that went on in America, it kind of put a hold on a lot of things. I mean, we’re still in contact but if that film doesn’t go off hopefully another will. I want to be an all-round performer, I want to give everything a bit of a go.

Source: Big Hit magazine
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