Kiani sings the classics

While Scottish singer Mary Kiani made her name in the 1990s singing dance hits for techno outfit The Time Frequency, her new album, Little Things Mean A Lot, is a more refined proposition.

It’s a collection of 14 torch songs, from old standards (My Funny Valentine) and ’60s classics (You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman) through to current camp confections (Rufus Wainwright’s 2009 song Apartment, originally penned for Dame Shirley Bassey).

“I was listening to the album the other day, and I thought, ‘Is it wrong that I should love myself so much?’” Kiani joked to the Star Observer.

“It’s made up of songs I love singing, that I put my heart and soul into when I sing them. From a singer’s point of view, I’m very proud and the songs have really touched me. I feel like I got a chance to really sing.”

But Little Things isn’t a sudden turn towards a more mellow style of music for Kiani. Rather, it marks a return to the style of music the singer used to perform in Glasgow wine bars as a 17-year-old — ‘singing for her supper’, as she puts it in the album’s liner notes.

“That was my apprenticeship, my bread and butter, but I left it behind when I started exploring the dance world. I didn’t touch those old songs for many, many years, until I moved to Sydney.

“I realised I needed a weekly wage rather than just doing little bits of singing here and there, so I started performing at [Newtown bar] Madame Fling Flong. It’s a lovely little space, and I was able to sing all the old songs I used to back in the day. It really suited that, because it was so intimate — people could sit back, have a cocktail and enjoy some classic songs.”

Fanfare Records executive Robert Rigby was in the audience for one such show, and approached Kiani with the idea of taking the highlights from her live act to form an album.

Little Things provides another link to her homeland, as Kiani would perform her vocals here in Australia while much of the music and backing vocals were recorded in Scotland.

And despite this change in direction, Kiani was keen to let her fans know she hadn’t abandoned the high-octane style of music we’re used to hearing from her, even suggesting she might commission a dance remix of the already-gayer-than-Christmas album highlight Apartment.

“I’m still very much in with the dance stuff — I’ve been writing with Lee Dagger from Bimbo Jones very recently. People still know me in the dance world, but hopefully this album will show a bit more versatility. I’m a singer of songs at heart.”

 

INFO: Little Things Mean A Lot is out now. Mary Kiani, The Basement, Sydney, February 22. www.thebasement.com.au