Natalia Kills brings out the darker side of pop

Courtesy High Rise PR
Courtesy High Rise PR
Courtesy High Rise PR
Courtesy High Rise PR

The pop scene is about to gain a new star.

But forget about the bottles of Jack and glitter lightning bolts. This singer would rather discuss Quentin Tarantino’s or Alfred Hitchcock’s impact on her music and vision.

Natalia Kills (born Natalia Keely-Fisher), a 24 year old from Bradford, West Yorkshire, England is no stranger to the entertainment industry.

At the age of 14, she left home and moved to London to pursue an acting and music career. Over four years, she found work on a BBC comedy, “All About Me,” a radio show, “The Archers,” and made other appearances.

As early as 2005, Natalia was recording and posting original songs on MySpace Music. A few even made it onto movie soundtracks, such as Lindsay Lohan’s “Just My Luck.”

It wasn’t until 2008 when Black Eyed Peas’ front man will.i.am signed her.

Instead of the cookie-cutter pop songs that infect today’s radio, Natalia released her first single, “Zombie,” earlier this year and brought a darker side to the genre: “Do you want me for my body/Do you want me for my brain?”

Quite the movie fan, Natalia credits film noir as well as directors Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Tarantino for influencing her edgy work.

“I watch a lot of film and pick out my heroes and mood and themes and the drama,” she said. “I’m really just inspired by the way music is used in a cinematic way where we feel suspense and emotion and drama through everything we see it together.”

Blogger Perez Hilton, who first heard of Natalia in early 2008 when she went under the stage name Verbz, recently labeled her song “Mirrors” the 2010 version of Lady Gaga’s No. 1 hit “Just Dance.”

And it’s a title that she doesn’t mind a bit.

According to Natalia, being compared to someone is a natural thing because people need to know and identify what type of audience would be best suited for music.

Both Gaga and she write their own songs and are signed to the same record label (Interscope) that allows “only creative people, not manufactured pop products that just have lyrics, melodies and stylists thrown at them.”

“If you’re being compared to someone who the world adores and publicly recognizes as brilliant, then you can only really see it as a huge compliment,” Natalia said.

Like Gaga, Natalia has a distinct style that draws attention. Ironically enough, she doesn’t follow fashion and “generally [knows] nothing about it.”

“I really believe in having a strong sense of personal style. I think style is in the evolution of fashion and fashion is just the moment,” she said. “I dress according to my mood. If I’m feeling like I want to express my ideas and be a blank canvas to my imagination I’ll wear black, nothing too busy and distracting. If I want to be romantic or dominating, I’ll wear red. I’ll be provocative.”

That’s exactly what the pop scene has at the moment.

At this year’s GRAMMY Awards, many called it the “Year of the Woman” since top nominees included Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Beyonce. They stole the show. Though some saw it as a recent trend, the women taking headlines away from the men, Natalia believes otherwise.

“I feel like women and music have always had a very relevant place because music is somehow related to beauty. And of course when you say beauty, the first thing that comes to mind is not usually masculine, it’s feminine,” she said. “I think that it’s always been wonderful to be a woman in music and now it just happens to be more publicly noted than before.”

Natalia Kills will perform as the opening act for another powerful female singer: electropop’s Robyn on her North American Tour. It kicks off Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. at the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason. Tickets are still available at Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

As for the use of “Kills” in her name? Have no fear. It’s not meant to be of the murderous kind.

“It’s when you go full out just being yourself; the most true to yourself and expressive way. People have a positive response to it. That, to me, is when you’re killing it. I am who I am, and I am myself to my full extent,” she said. “I believe that we all should be. We should all be ourselves and killing it in our own way, whether you’re a journalist or you make bagels. Be who you are and make no compromises.”

Christina De Nicola may be contacted at cdenicola@themiamihurricane.com.