It seems that we are born and then spend the rest of our lives finding out who we are. At least Sia, the uber-bubbly Australian pop singer-songwriter, would agree with that statement.
“I know, isn’t it crazy,” the 35-year-old rhetorically gushes. Sia’s latest album, “We Are Born,” discusses this mortal coil in passionate funk, soul and ballads. Not that she presumes to offer easy explanations, but her lyrics seem to possess a certain sagely grasp of life beyond the commercial schlep.
“We’re all created by our environment when we’re growing up,” she says. “I don’t think I was born this way, I think I was created. I’ve been tap dancing all my life.” She pauses for a long moment.
Does she mean literally or metaphorically?
“Literally, jazz tap dancing. Metaphorically, too, I guess. I’m a terrible real tap dancer, but I’m a fantastic metaphorical tap dancer.”
Sia was tapping along quite nicely at the beginning of this millennium, living in London with the usual ups and downs. Then her boyfriend’s death shook her so hard that she wrote the beautiful, heart-stopping “Breathe Me,” which, when paired with the finale of HBO’s series “Six Feet Under,” blew up her career.
“I’d be in a very different place had they not put that song in there. I’d probably be a reiki master or a dog masseuse,” she sighs. “A beast was born.”
‘We Are’ wandering
Sia’s wanderlust has led to her keeping apartments in New York, London and Adleaide, Australia.
“My dream when I was a kid was to have a place in every major city.
That is not my dream anymore. My dream is to decide where to have a
place and throw all my stuff there. That old adage ‘you don’t own it, it
owns you’ is true to some degree. Now I do not need this life I thought
I wanted. I thought I wanted Elton John’s life or something.”
