The business is depressing

She laid the world at her feet as an 18-year-old with the song Good Tradition. Now she is 26. And fed up with the music business. "It is depressing", says Tanita Tikaram. It has been quiet around Tanita Tikaram for some years. Earlier she released an album almost each year. Now it has been nearly three years since the latest one. The explanation is simple. "I'm lazy. I like to take it easy, quite simply." She's late. Comes into the room with a smile on her face. Looks out over a sunny Stockholm and sits down.

The story is interesting. Tanita Tikaram was born in Münster, Germany by Fiji-Malaysian parents. Her father worked for the british army and was stationed there. As 12-year-old she moved to England. There she was discovered a couple of years later and got a recording contract. Her CD-debut Ancient Heart sold astonishing 4 million copies. Now it has been four additional albums signed Tanita Tikaram. In late 1993 she abandoned London and moved to Los Angeles. When asked where she thinks she has her roots, she looks a bit bewildered.

"Roots?? I don't know. I feel at home where I have my friends. Which place it is, is less important. That's how I think it is for most people in my generation."

She speaks with a low voice. If possible even lower than when she's singing. She's fed up with the music business. Fed up with the male dominance, but also with that the music is getting less and less important. "It's not so much about music anymore. Many recording companies are very much static in their way of thinking. They have a specific group of people in mind and then they only produce music which they think might please just that particular group." She says and continues, "Most of the music released today is only a beat. The musical ambitions are reduced to almost nothing. Personally I think that especially radio has a big responsibility to play new, slightly odd music and get people to discover it." Tanita Tikaram's new album, Lovers In The City, is not exactly odd. But on the other hand it sticks out enormously when compared to the eurodisco-boom flooding over Europe right now. She doesn't quite know herself how to label her music. "I have never thought about it in that way. Some people say I'm good at writing about love, but I don't know about that. Hopefully my music is able to create emotions in those who listen to it."

She says it is hard work to write songs. Hard because long time passes before she can write anything at all. Then it comes all at once. "I don't quite understand myself how it is. But the periods of time when it is calm is frustrating."

When Lovers in The City was about to be recorded, Tanita Tikaram moved to USA. Mostly because the producer she wanted, Thomas Newman, lived there and didn't want to move. Her impressions of USA are mixed. She says that the energy that is present there fascinates her, but at the same time there were a lot of things that frightened her. "Everybody walks around with guns, the kids has to pass through metal detectors when going into their schools. It is completely absurd. You don't dare to look a stranger in the eyes, because you never know what is going on inside their heads." She shooks her head. Looks down into the table. Says that she prefers Europe, even if it has been interesting to try to live in USA.

"I read that only ten percent of the americans have a passport. It is frightening, and it shows in their culture. Few americans have seen the rest of the world. If you travel somewhere, you do it within the USA." She has travelled around quite extensively herself these latest couple of years. Most time has been spent in Italy and France. She says it is sometimes necessary to put the music aside in order to function as a whole human being. "If I hadn't a life outside of the music I would go nuts. I know a few people who gives up everything only for their jobs, but then everything else suffers. It is definitely not worth it." she emphasizes.