Taylor Dayne: The 13th Floor Interview

Taylor Dayne is in Auckland this weekend to take part in 80s Mania at the ASB Theatre. She’ll be sharing the stage with Paul Young, Wang Chung, Cutting Crew and Go West on Sunday night.

Dayne is best known for her debut hit, Tell It To My Heart, which was released 30 years ago this week.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Taylor Dayne a few days ago about her plans to celebrate her 30th anniversary, which include new recordings, a memoir and more concerts.

Click here to listen to the interview with Taylor Dayne:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: You’ve just wrapped up one of these tours with another group of ‘80s and ‘90s artists, and you’re doing this one with a different group; is that right?

TD: These packaging tours – between the replay, I’m doing a freestyle explosion – I think it’s great for the fans. As you notice, summer months are when we all go out and tour a lot, and it’s great for the fans, because they’re getting hit after hit, song after song, and an experience; it’s like the soundtrack of their lives is going on! They’re great tours; they’re great shows!

MD: So, you enjoy cranking them out, and just whipping the fans up into a frenzy?

TD: Yeah! We’re playing these arenas, and we’re having a great time, and, for the most part, these are people I’ve toured with and know and shared many a radio station event with…. This is my twenty ninth year, and 2018 is going to be a pretty celebratory year for me; so yeah, it’s a good time to get out there: it’s the anniversary – thirty years – it’s the Tell It to My Heart release and a memoir release…

MD: Yes, I wanted to ask you about that. I read that you’re working on a new album and a memoir.

TD: Yeah! It’s the real deal! It’s revisiting a lot of years; a lot of tears, a lot of years, a lot of joy, and then some in between; yeah, it’s interesting. It’s amazing looking at some of those photos, and reliving and revisiting the past.

MD: Whereabouts in the process are you with the memoirs? Is it written, ready to be published, or are you still in the process?

TD: We definitely still have outlines for every chapter. We’re in the proposal stage now, and certainly, a couple of chapters deep, and certainly the outline, absolutely; yeah, very much so; presentation is ready.

MD: How are you looking at that, as far as a process for you personally?

TD: Well, it’s funny: I did a Ted talk this year, and it was a very emotional topic, because it was based on time – if anybody understands Ted talks, they’re generally thematically based – and I did Ted Women. I don’t think anything’s more topical than being a woman – our sexual orientations, and beyond that: what it means to be a woman; what it means to be powerful; what it means to be loved, celebratory, empathetic, compassionate and strong – and you see it across the entire board. We’re still here. It’s incredible for me. What my Ted talk really did was inspire me to really look at me as a woman in an industry. I never really took it apart that way. I never really saw it that way. I’ve just always known that I had to roll up my sleeves and get dirty and get in the mix; that’s how I knew it.

MD: Do you see the industry – in relation to gender and equality… – any different now, than it was thirty years ago when you started out?

TD: Well, we’re talking entertainment world, we’re talking fashion, we’re talking music, we’re talking theatre, we’re talking film; there’s a lot of double standards, because… there’s a lot of things that are based on being a celebrity. You don’t have to look any further than the paparazzi and what’s celebrated; and so, imagine if there’s a more powerful vehicle than that, because of the allure of fame and fortune, and that’s the business component, where it can shut it right down. People don’t understand what goes on behind the scenes is far more than what goes on in front of them, and that’s not just film and television, believe me.

MD: How much thought and control did you have over your own image during the… early ‘90s?

TD: It was a struggle, many times, to really decide. Is it called integrity, for a woman, when she holds onto it and fights for herself, or is it called being a diva or a bitch? It’s really a difficult fine line, because we’re still all struggling with how we want to be perceived in our relationships. We need to be loved. We all live to be loved and need to be loved and giving love and receiving love; and when we go to that place, what do we all have in common, as opposed to what we don’t have in common, that’s when you start seeing  everybody together in this. I have to say – women and men – it’s amazing what people will do to get love, or get a need met, as opposed to looking inside themselves and getting some help when things are really hitting the fan. Believe me, I look in the mirror everyday and I go, “Are you willing to do the work?” Well, when you’re real busy and you’re on top of the world, it’s hard to say, “I need to stop and do work on myself; there’s something not right here. Something’s taken over, and it’s ugly as hell.”

MD: A lot of people are thinking – with all the revelations that are coming out – that there really is genuine change that is going to happen within the entertainment industry. Is that a feeling you share? Do think that that’s possible?

TD: I just think everything is at our hands and feet; everything is at our fingertips right now. It’s just the way media, and everything, is being spurned the same way, and spun. I think it depends on the quality and the nature of people: if it’s just to talk crap, what’s going to change? Is it just to be topical? No, but I do believe that people are starting to understand, and I do see… what’s really considered okay. I mean, just watch any show you want on serial killers, or any series that shows you the way the mind…sociopaths, narcissists, psychopaths… how some… have empathy and conscience, and some people have no conscience, yet are great fakers. You just have to understand the psyche of human nature, and that how much we put on ourselves, right now, is because we’re just so demanding for financial and familial reasons. There’s a lot of demand, and there’s a lot of stimulation, and there are a lot of distractions. That, I know, because I’m talking as a single mom, as a working mom, as a woman. I mean, that’s three right checklists right off the cuff that go in the dumpster, you know what I’m saying? That’s not the highlights. It sounds powerful because we use it, but… you don’t walk into an office and people go, “Oh my god, she’s single,” “Oh my god, who’s going to take care of the kids,” there’s all that; “Is she good enough?” “Was she good enough?” “Why is she single?” you know, everything!

MD: You’ve got sixteen year old twins. What do you tell them?

TD: Not yet! Don’t push it! Marty, do not push it! I have two more months until they’re sixteen, and boy, will they let me know it!

MD: I’m sure they will!

TD: That’s when the driver’s licence… please! I’m just a squirrel trying to get a nut; just trying to live day-by-day! Yeah, I have a boy and a girl, twins. They’re fifteen going on thirty; you know the drill.

MD: Oh yeah. I’ve got two of them myself. They’re long past being teenagers, but I’ve been through that…

TD: Yeah, you’re laughing! Everybody does!

MD: Yeah, that’s because we know what’s coming.

TD: It’s literally a Halloween horror night every night, right?

MD: Oh, that’s right, it’s Halloween…

TD: Well, it’s Halloween for them. Literally, I go, “Do you guys know that I’m seven thousand miles away right now, and I’m still sitting here between you, nanny, girlfriends, boyfriends, figuring out how you’re getting  everywhere…” it’s unbelievable! They don’t care what you do: you’re mom, that’s it. It’s pretty funny.

MD: If I’m not mistaken, it’s thirty years ago, this week, that Tell It to My Heart was released; is that right?

TD: Maybe in Europe, yeah. Because in Europe, it did release first; that’s correct.

MD: I was hoping that you could take me back to the actual nuts and bolts of how the record was made. What were you thinking? It was recorded in a studio in Long Island, right?

TD: Yeah, we did it in Glen Cove with Richie Cannata and this guy, Clay. Richie Cannata was in Billy Joel’s band as the big sax player, and used his moneys and his earnings to build a beautiful studio out in Glen Cove. I was living in Long Island, and my partner at the time, Ric Wake, who’s from Birmingham… UK… – and he was about nineteen, I was twenty one – and we started making twelve inches and music…. I was working in a Russian nightclub on the weekends – really, singing every single night – and also recording during the week. I’d already been in two bands that were shopping deals, and had spent a couple of years in all the clubs in New York – and I do mean “all of them” – throughout the Tri-state Area, and really developing a sound; and by the time I got back to Ric, I go, “Please don’t put me in any other band ever again! I want nothing to do with it.” I go, “Where can I break a record? I don’t want five opinions, five voices; I want nothing to do with it,” and he’s like, “Well, I’m making records; I’m making singles. It’s called 12 inches and I think we can break you that way.” That’s, I think, when Samantha Fox came out with Touch Me and Alisha, All Night Passion – You’re talking ’83, ’84, ’85 – and I was hustling. I graduated high school, I met Ric, and I was working in a club – like I said – and then also working in a health food store – little Leslie Wunderman from Long Island had a vision; I had a dream. Ric and I… we borrowed that money from my father – but this was after we had released a couple of twelve inches. I went to high school with this guy that I saw on the West Side Highway – God, I feel for New York today – and he’s the one that put me in touch with somebody at Warner-Chappell; demo tapes later, we chose Tell It to My Heart from that, and we recorded it. I’m not going to say that the rest of it was history, but we were putting it out just as a twelve inch, and, I think, Arista heard it, or heard the single, and wanted to sign the single, and the rest is, kind of, history; backwards but forwards.

MD: Did you know, when you were singing it and when you were making that record, that it was going to be a hit?

TD: No. Not even close. Ric’s the one that said, “I like this song. Let’s talk to your dad.” I’m like, “We’re going to talk to dad?” Now believe me, I’ve played in every club; and now my parents: they knew there was no saying “no” – number one. I was already a twenty one year old girl, but at this point, it’s just a matter of “get out of the way”: they knew what was going on, and I was quite serious about it, and I was earning a living already. I don’t know if working in the clubs was what they envisioned, but they knew. I had an operatic background; I did study with my voice, and protect it; so, when I [said to my dad, he said, “I’m going to make you guys sign a little contract up.” I go, “Dad, we’ll get your money back from the mix shows… sell twelve inches for it,” and he knew we were good for it, and we got picked up, pretty immediately, before we even released.

MD: Once it was released, and it was moving along, what was that experience like for you?

TD: Well, imagine: there was no photo. On the first twelve inch – it’s a collector’s item – it just says ‘Taylor Dayne’, and it’s almost like this graffiti-esque cover; they didn’t want to put an image up of me. I don’t even think Clive knew what I looked like! They just signed a twelve inch – that’s it – with this big voice… but then they released it in Europe first. It started blowing up and dominating the charts in London, in the UK, in Germany, in Sweden; in every market. Eventually, it got to Australia, but not until the second record, which really took my album…. Well, they had no album in the can; they only had one single called Tell It to My Heart. Now, I was working on other material – I was the singer on Don’t Rush Me Already as a demo singer; I was…same writer for Tell It To My Heart… Prove Your Love – so, you can only imagine that they released this single with no image, and they’re like, “Get her in there,” and they’re selling single upon single, but that’s not the game; the game is selling albums – in 1988. So, boy, oh boy! Then there was a panic, because this thing starts taking over, it went, virtually, viral all over Europe. It was number one by 1988; ’89, I’m opening… for Michael Jackson, performing with Prince; it took over. Tell It to My Heart was that overnight sensation, but it doesn’t mean that that’s how it started.

MD: Yeah, they never do; they’ve always got years of work behind them.

TD: And then made a record as quick as we could, and that spawned four other hits: Don’t Rush Me, I’ll Always Love You, Prove Your Love.

MD: You mentioned opening for the likes of Prince and Michael Jackson…

TD: Prince, I ended up meeting and singing with. It was… going from – literally – a… little club from Brooklyn or Boston, then, all of a sudden, I’m in Europe, and I’m singing at Montreux as the breaking artist – trust me – to meeting Prince. I’m just saying this all took place within eight months.

MD: It must have been just mind blowing for you…!

TD: But that’s why you need to be twenty one when this goes down! You really do! But the other part is there was no internet; there were no cell phones. I literally showed up for every radio in retail. It’s kind of mind blowing, yeah! I was on two planes a day; and in Europe, two countries a day – not always – for sure.

MD: It’ll be hard for people to imagine the fact that there was no internet, and how… you did certain things, and get from ‘A’ to ‘B’, and plan these things out, and know what was going on all around the world at that point.

MD: That was the big business of record companies. That’s why they existed, and that’s what it was; and we sold a lot of records in the day. It was the machine. When the machine worked, the machine worked. If the machine imploded on itself, there’s reasons.

MD: You’re working on a new album…

TD: I’m working on my greatest hits and revisiting them, and collaborations on them; and that is going to be the celebration for thirty.

MD: How do you approach re-imagining these songs, and coming back to them after so long?

TD: Let’s just talk Bruno Mars… let’s talk DJ Khaled. That’s how I’m imagining it. Let’s talk Wyclef. Those are the collabs I’m talking about. Let’s change it. Let’s revisit it. Let’s talk Love Will Lead You Back. Let’s take it down. Let’s tear it apart and bring it back up.

MD: It sounds like you’re pretty excited about it.

TD: It sounds like I’m in the middle of it, yeah! It’s very exciting. I am in the middle of it, yeah. The music has been started, and it’s very exciting. And the book has way been started: the memoir is in motion, and… we’re chapters in. We’re proposal deep, and chapters in, and the thirty is coming, like it or not!

MD: I assume you’re going to be spending a lot of time on the road once that happens.

MD: If you’ve looked at my tour schedule from 2017, you’ll see that I did it anyway. I tour a lot, and I’m travelling a lot, and there’s much going on, and I like it that way; I really do. I love being a mom, and I love being a woman, and I love being the entertainer and the singer, and I love my voice. I love having this gift now – more than gift – and I love the opportunity to share it in ways that I never really understood before; and that just comes with looking in the mirror, and getting dirty with oneself; getting honest… like, “Why are you doing it?” Why do I want to do this, still, at thirty years? That’s the difference.

MD: Do you have to do certain things to take care of the voice?

TD: Yeah absolutely, it’s called sleep: literally stop talking.

MD: I imagine that that must be tough, because everybody wants to hear you twenty-four-seven.

TD: Obviously, I’ve mentored and spoken to a lot of vocalists. I am very blessed, and there are certain things I do always recommend, and one of them is – not to the degree of whispering; because whispering can be just as painful – I have to shut it down: I have to go into quiet…. Sleep is one way for me to do that; to just stop, and shut it down; because that’s the only repair time, really.

MD: Because there’s a lot of talk, folks like Adele have blown out their voices early in their career…

TD: All the time. I’m very fortunate: I did study classically by one of the greatest maestros in New York, at… New York Opera, and I have to just say that studying that way gave me a foundation to secure and maintain my voice; and I vocalise all the time when I’m performing, and that’s just the way it is.

MD: Warming up?

TD: Absolutely; while I’m doing my make-up and hair, usually.

MD: Might as well multi-task. That’s good!

TD: I don’t know one woman that doesn’t!

MD: Have you been to New Zealand before?

TD: No, which is amazing! I’m really looking forward to it!

MD: Do you get a chance to look around at all?

TD: I’m not really sure. You know I am going to do the Melbourne Cup as well; so, I’m all over the map. I do believe I’ll be there for the day – obviously, two days, doing the performance – but I do believe I’m going to be ‘skooching‘ on for the seventh, to do the Cup, as well, performing up at the Sensis Marquee; so, a lot going on.

Click here for more information and tickets to see Taylor Dayne and 80s Mania Sunday night.