After claiming last year that she was going into semi-retirement, Sia Furler has been confirmed to be working on a new album.
The Aussie songstress tweeted in February that she would no longer focus on touring and promoting her own music, rather she would take a backseat and write music for other performers. “I’ll make music and put it out eventually, just without touring or promoting it,” she wrote at the time.
The move came about after a run of bad health that caused Sia to cancel tours for her last album, 2010’s We Are Born, her fifth studio album. But according to Rolling Stone, Sia has been hard at work writing and laying down tracks with producers Diplo and Greg Kurstin.
Sia hasn’t been completely out of the musical spotlight, as she wrote upon her semi-retirement, “i’ll make bank writing pop songs for pop starz!” She’s done just that in her spare timel; she’s been the vocal power behind huge hits for David Guetta, with ‘Titanium’, and Flo Rida’s ‘Wild Ones’. Not to mention the behind the scenes work she’s been putting in, penning ‘Diamonds’ for Rihanna and ‘Radioactive’ for Rita Ora.
Of Sia’s new material, producer Diplo told Rolling Stone that he has been working on a host of new music that is set to come out this year; “Everything from Tinie Tempah to Chris Brown to Sia. I have a lot of records coming out.” “I know she said she was semi-retired, but we’re doing an album. I’m producing it and it’s really fun. She’s awesome” – Greg Kurstin, Producer
The producer who is said to be overseeing the whole process is Greg Kurstin, known for specialising in production for female artists, including Santigold, Ladyhawke, Ke$ha, Marina and the Diamonds and Pink. He’s also worked with Sia before, and last year it was reported he’s been helping Lily Allen stage her own return to music under the moniker Lily Rose.
Kurstin is excited to be working with Sia now, despite her earlier claims to be stepping back from making music. Speaking to Rolling Stone at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards, the producer says “I know she said she was semi-retired, but we’re doing an album. I’m producing it and it’s really fun. She’s awesome.”
The pair have been working pretty hard it seems, as Kurstin has a real perfectionist view when it comes to making music. He told Rolling Stone that when putting together a song, “all the pieces have to be in place – the lyrics have be a perfect match for the track, and the track just has to be right.”
After Sia’s spate of hits, it’s easy to see that she has the ability to pull all those elements together. As previously reported her voice earned her the #8 spot in a list of Australia’s greatest singers as voted by a panel of her own peers. Sia’s Top 10 placement coming in behind Australian greats: John Farnham came in at the top spot (he is The Voice after all), and Bon Scott, Tina Arena, Michael Hutchence, Jimmy Barnes, Guy Sebastian and Renee Geyer rounded out the top seven.
On the upcoming album, Kurstin has been trying to produce “that combination that you can’t put your finger on, but it’s an infectious song. It has all the elements there.” When that is paired with the strength of Sia’s vocals and her growing profile following her mainstream collaborations, fans can expect big things of her new record.
Fans will get a taste of Sia’s new material on the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, which has been put together by rapper Jay-Z. Sia’s song ‘Kill and Run’ is the final song on the epic soundtrack, which also includes new music from Jay-Z himself, his missus Beyonce (covering Amy Winehouse), Lana De Rey, Florence + The Machine, The xx, Jack White, and fellow Australian Gotye.
