Sannie Carlson a.k.a as Whigfield captivated us with Sexy Eyes and Saturday Night. With her model looks and amazing voice, she roared up the dance charts reaching # 6 with Sexy Eyes on the Australia Aria chart.
I was fortunate enough to take some time out of Sannie’s day and ask a few questions regarding her upcoming tour with the Vengaboys.
Your heading down under for what I think is the best 90’s lineup we have ever seen. Are you excited?
I cant wait!! I feel like it’s priceless. Last time I was in Australia I had a month tour with a club promotion and television. I had really the best time ever. Its one of those countries where if I have to live somewhere that would be it. For me it has everything and maybe for me being danish they are very down to earth, just the way Scandinavians are. I felt really at home there.
Loving Australia as you do, did you get to meet our wildlife, spiders crocodiles snakes or kangaroos?
I did the thing they always do and take you out to the zoo. The Sydney zoo, the first thing I got to do, they are asked if I wanted to hug a Koala Bear, I said “yeah” so I hugged it but I didn’t realise they just sit in a tree all day and do whatever they do on that tree, I basically walked around half of my day thinking of whatever the Koala had being doing on its own.. LOL
How many time’s have you been to Australia
I think I was actually there twice, the second time it was in and out, I was doing a tour in India so it was for like a second promotion. I’m thinking it was about 20 years ago so it’s quite a long time.
You started in a jazz duo before meeting Larry Pignanoli. Was the transition to dance difficult?
Well it wasn’t really Jazz, I wasn’t really in a jazz duo, I was doing some stuff with my brother but i wouldn’t call it Jazz duo
What sort of music were you playing at the time?
Most of my family member’s were musician’s, my grandfather was a violinist and bought the first violin when I was younger. My mum played the trumpet. and my Dad played the bass in a jazz band. It was very very different, I had so many different instruments, there was a point where I wanted to be a drummer. At the basic school you had to choose an instrument and I thought drums would be really really fun, mainly because I just love the noise. So I just stuck to singing.
How did the name Whigfield come about?
It was a music teacher, when you get to that final moment, you get together , you are in a band asking “What are we going to call us” I had a discussion with my brother and with Larry asking what would be a good name because you need a good name for a track and the same thing for an artist. I just wanted to keep that seperate from my private life, so basically I thought that the last name of my music teacher would be good, so that’s what we stuck with. Honestly I had no idea it was going to go that far.
In the early 2000’s you broke away from the Whigfield persona, any reason for this?
Well the main reason was I got pregnant, I called my manager and said this is a good time for me to just chill for a bit, I felt like I had enough travelling a lot. I just got really tired of the whole thing, it was just a bit too much and during all those years even before the whole thing started (Whigfield) I was touring even before Saturday Night became a hit so it was really just a long long time just doing the same thing and not really having a break. So for me it was just a natural thing for me to do and I really didn’t really stop making music, I just did other thing’s like writing for other people, producing for other people and and being behind everything.
Saturday night and Sexy Eyes were both huge hits for yourself, what was that time like for you?
Its a weird situation, it’s so surreal and I think if you have the right people around you, you have to be grounded, it’s mind blowing, a lot of people expect a lot from you, it’s just crazy. I think later on in life I realized how many thing’s I’ve done and where I’ve been, because I never really get to enjoy half the place’s I have been to. Basically I just saw the airport or Tv station’s or record studio’s, I didn’t really get to actually have a holiday or just chill or understand what was going on. It happens to a lot of young artist and I was also afraid it was going to end really soon, I thought well its just a once off and that’s it, so I thought I better work as hard as i can just in case it’s going to stop tomorrow.
You do both songwriting and performing, which one do you prefer?
Basically now , about 14 years I have been doing both, I’m having my cake and eating it, I’m getting the best of the best and I have just begun a new project as well, a house project, I’m being produced by a group called Plant Funk. I think they had a huge successful tour in Australia, so right now I’m #4 in the UK club charts with my house project as Sannie, it’s even started playing in Australia, it was licensed two weeks ago. Life can bring you so many different things.
Is there a new album/material in the works?
I think you just answered that question for me. A lot of people ask why don’t you just carry on with Whigfield? Well the problem is nowadays, if you are not 20 years old and wearing a mini skirt and if you make music, especially in the UK I was going around to labels, you would have a 22 year old guy going to the computer going ok how old is she? We have to do something else we just have to come out with the music and people should know who I am, I made the video and paid for everything, the production and just went around to different labels until we got picked up by Armada, which is a huge dance label in Europe, then they knew who I was and they were like who cares. Its quite difficult especially for a woman, if you are not that young anymore you need to do the same kind of music forever.
What do you hope to accomplish/achieve in the next 5 years
World domination lol. I would really really love to make it in America, I just didn’t make it over there and actually I would love to win a Grammy, that wouldn’t be too bad
What do you hope to do while in OZ
You know what I have never learnt to surf, I know you have a lot a lot of sharks so I need to workout where to surf. If I could learn to surf in Australia that would be perfect for me..
