Back in the groove: Belinda Carlisle makes a welcome return to pop with theKismet EP
The last time Classic Pop spoke to Belinda Carlisle she was enjoying life away from the typical rock star haunts. Based out in Bangkok, she’d just released Wilder Shores, an album of Sikh chants inspired by her love of yoga. Since then she’s returned to the western hemisphere – Mexico City to be exact – and to western music, with her first mainstream pop release since the A Woman & A Man album in 1996. Now she reveals how a chance meeting prompted her return, working with songwriting icon Diane Warren, and why she’ll always be a punk at heart.
It’s hard to believe that it’s more than a quarter of a century since your last pop album. Why the long gap?
I never thought I’d be doing a pop record again. I don’t want to get into it but I’ve had issues that have put a big gap between projects. After A Woman & A Man there was a 11-year gap and then came Voila, the French album and, of course, Wilder Shores – that was 2017. After Voila I only wanted to do things that I felt I really loved. I’m really fussy with pop music. I’ve done it. I’ve worked with the best writers in the world and just couldn’t ever see that happening again. And I know a lot of fans were really bummed out because of that. I was sort of semi-retired. Then my son ran into Diane Warren...
The hugely-successful songwriter who has bestowed hits on well, virtually everyone...?