Vitamin C
a.k.a.
Fitzpatrick, Colleen
WHAT A GIRL WANTS
Dance-Pop Diva Vitamin C Aims to Be Your Favorite New Sassy Songstress
Pop sensation Vitamin C -- née Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick -- is doing everything she can to make this her year. Not that 2000 was unproductive -- the singer scored a Top Ten single ("The Itch") and starred in Dracula 2000. But Vitamin C is looking for more in 2001 -- a goal she should achieve with her aptly titled second album, More. A smart, playful collection, More finds the one-time alternative rocker (with the band Eve's Plum) continuing to fine-tune her pop star alter ego. The result is a more confident, diverse, and engaging work than her platinum debut. Still coming into her own as Vitamin C, Fitzpatrick offers a slightly more sophisticated alternative to the teeny-pop dominating the charts. Barnes & Noble.com's Steve Baltin spoke with the singer about success, her new album, what separates Fitzpatrick from Vitamin C, and what makes a perfect pop song.
Barnes & Noble.com: You had a year or so off before the first Vitamin C record. Did that sabbatical prepare you for the success Vitamin C has had?
Colleen Fitzpatrick: I think it made me appreciate what I have, 'cause I don't know if it was time off that I was really choosing. It just sort of happened. My band broke up -- we got dropped -- and I did two movies in two years, which isn't a lot of work quite honestly. It was time to really examine things that were important to me, so in that sense it prepared me to be willing to work. I've always had a fairly good work ethic, but it really made me extra excited to have these opportunities.
B&N.com: In our first interview two years ago, you spoke of Vitamin C as being a separate entity.
CF: Absolutely.
B&N.com: Is that still the case?
CF: They've moved closer together, but one is still more of a public persona and one's more private.
B&N.com: What are the differences between you and Vitamin C?
CF: They're not so far removed. It's just that Vitamin C doesn't have much of an internal editor perhaps.
B&N.com: "I Know What Boys Like" really fits in well with a lot of the album's playfulness and flirtatiousness.
CF: The Waitresses are a great band, and Chris Butler's a great songwriter. I remember being a young girl -- my older sister had that album [Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?], and I remember sitting on the floor of her room when she brought it home. She used to listen to that song over and over, and I remember thinking, I know what boys like -- what does this girl know that I don't know? I had no understanding of what the song meant. And then I thought it was such a brilliant lyric because eventually you grow into understanding what that lyric means.
B&N.com: "As Long As You're Loving Me" has a very different vibe than the rest of the CD. How did that song come about?
CF: That is a Guy Roche song. I wanted to work with him and I didn't know him so I picked up the phone, called his manager, and said, Can I please meet with you? He probably thought I was insane because that's not the way it's ever done. Anyway, we had a meeting, and he played me this song. It's so not what I normally do, but I totally fell in love with the song. And I was like, Can I please do it? But there was someone else who was going to record it. And they're like, Maybe you can listen to some other stuff or write with Guy. And I'm like, I love this song.
B&N.com: When you're writing an album, what are you looking for on a personal level?
CF: Any album is just a time capsule, a reflection of where you are at that moment. And you're never in the same moment twice, or hopefully you're not in the same moment twice when you're writing an album. You don't want to repeat yourself. There are a lot of people that make a living doing that. They come up with a formula and do it over and over again. Maybe I just haven't found the right formula to want to stick with it forever [laughs]. Maybe I never will. Or maybe my formula is change. I don't know. But I do know that I want to be stimulated. And it begins with a very selfish thing, like, I want to do this, I want to experiment with this, I want to try this idea. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. But it begins with kind of a selfish desire, an itch.
B&N.com: "The Itch" indicates someone who's a bit restless. Is that you?
CF: Yes. I'm the type of person that's always looking around. I'm an observer, a consumer. I'm constantly curious.
B&N.com: Does that help explain the evolution from band member to solo artist?
CF: I think so, yeah. I didn't always realize that, but it's become increasingly apparent. There are downsides too: not having the camaraderie and the shoulders to lean on. But I think ultimately it was helpful for me to be more in control of my own destiny, as much as I could be. Because I have really strong opinions about things and I would probably tend to just bulldoze in those situations. I didn't lose the battle. I probably just didn't give people as much of an opportunity to be and do what they wanted to do. So in this case it's easier for me. But having said that, it's harder, too, because if I'm not coming up with the ideas, no one else is. There's good and bad to it.
B&N.com: What makes a good pop song to you?
CF: I like music to mean something, to make you feel something, to make you want to have sex, to make you want to dream, to make you want to fantasize or make you want drive across the country. It has to have some impact.
January 30, 2001
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