She Wants Your Love... Right Now.

Feature, By Cheetah77, 14th April, 2008

Melissa Tkautz is back – she’s been playing a westie moll made good on SBS series ‘The Couriers’ and she’s just launched a hot new single too. She sat down with Same Same’s Daniel Cheetham to chat about the important things in life – the gays, instant celebrity and her obsession with make up.

So tell me what’s been happening with you – you have a new single out?

Yeah, Nick Skitz and I have the same record company… About six months ago they called me and I jumped at the chance. I’ve always wanted to do the DJ/singer thing. When I heard what the song was I was a bit hesitant at first because it was another cover and I don’t want to be known as a person who just does covers but sometimes you just have to grab what comes along…

I was a fan of Transvision Vamp which made it a lot easier – I loved the song and knew it really well. It sits really well with my voice, it’s enjoyable to sing.

So, you’re working with Nick Skitz on this one – that’s a bit of a surprise! He’s not exactly known for radio friendly pop!

Well, Nick Skitz picked the song and it started out as his project. It’s such a brilliant song, a huge hit – you don’t want to change it too much you know, or people will get really upset. What he’s done is brilliant – the feedback from fans is fantastic – they’re loving it.

Track four on the single is the dirty electro sound – I said you have to give me at least one remix like that because my fans are not into the techno stuff. Some of the tracks are like boom boom boom – it’s like ‘Jesus!’ There’s a few remixes on there, so something for everyone I hope.

Nick Skitz is quite a successful DJ. Do you have any favourite DJ’s?

I love the Freemasons, everything they touch turns to gold. They’re just incredible! You can’t be taught that, it’s just something they’ve got. I’m very excited at the moment because I’m just about to work with D.O.N.S who I’ve been a huge fan of for so, so long. We’re going to be working on original stuff – it’s really important that I establish myself more with my own songs. It’s great to do remixes and stuff like that – they do really well and the public want it but for my own benefit I have to do my own. I really love song writing and I write tracks all the time. I love contributing and being part of a song from scratch because to get up and sing a song that you’ve helped write from the beginning is a completely different experience.

You first became known for your acting in E Street and Paradise Beach, and later had roles on Pacific Drive and All Saints. Have you been doing much acting since then?

I’m also doing The Couriers for SBS and it’s hilarious. I play an ocker slut who used to live in the west, got a promotion to PR person and now lives in Coogee – she’s a westie made good! The last time I worked with Paul Fenech from Wogboys (who wrote The Couriers ) I played a full on westie chick with ten kids! I think she’s going to be a lot of fun.

I’ve also just been signed on to do a pilot which is happening in July and is called Revolution. They’ve told me it’s like a cross between Veronica Mars and The OC. I play a divorced suburban mum who has sixteen and an eight year old – and I’m sleeping with the pool boy! We’re currently auditioning for the girl to play my daughter and I’m completely involved in all of that. That starts filming in July and if that gets picked up, the whole show will kick off early next year which will be amazing. We need it I think, we need more Australian TV shows. I think Underbelly has done amazing things for Australian TV – it’s made people realise that we can do it and we can do it well. That show is blowing me away at the moment. That’s gotten some people excited about some good Australian dramas.

Your character Bethany on Pacific Drive was HIV positive and you’ve been a huge supporter of the gay scene for years now – performing at the Same Same Christmas party last year and at Mardi Gras Fair Day and Brisbane’s Big Gay Day a couple of months ago. What is it about us gays that keeps you coming back for more?

Support. They don’t need the industry’s approval to love an artist and I love that about the gay community, they’re so good at backing Australians who are trying to do good, it’s unbelievable. They don’t have the whole thing in their head ‘they used to act and now they sing, they’re no good’. They really embrace that and support that and they have been there with me from day one. So I’ll do anything that I can to give that back – most of the time I’ll do it for nothing because of that support they given me and that love.

Stephen Cummings, who you worked with years ago, said you were “the ideal talent because [you] spent most of the day shopping and only came into the studio to quickly cut vocal tracks”. Has anything changed since then? What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?

Yes, I love to shop! I’m very much a girl’s girl. I love makeup. With some girls it’s shoes but with me, it’s makeup! I’ll google the top ten products and then go and get them all – I’m really bad. I love all the shimmers and I love all the new tricks they come out with! I’m such a girl when it comes to those things, I really buy into it. I’m not saying to pack on the make up or anything, I’m just saying look after your skin, use good products… I’m sure half of your readers would understand – you’d probably know more than I would!

What do you think of shows like Idol and X-Factor that some people say manufacture overnight pop stars?

Look, they do, but why don’t they have the right to do that? We’re all just trying to fulfil our dream. The kids that go on those shows, well the ones that don’t take it seriously and just want to be famous are knocked out pretty quickly. On Idol you’ve gotta get up there, you’ve gotta sell it.You won’t get through if you can’t sing. Yes, it might be a quicker way to get there but they’ve won the right to be there. You can’t fake it with Idol. They might become stars overnight but the ones that really, really want it will have longevity.

Do you like any singers that have come out of those shows?

I watch Australian Idol, I’m right into American Idol at the moment. I love Kelly Clarkson. When I was doing Big Gay Day, Anthony Callea had his sound check after mine – I’d never seen him perform live before. I’d watched him on Idol and absolutely loved him. He came onstage, opened up his voice and it sent shivers through my body. I just went ‘My God!’. He is amazing. This voice just came out of nowhere – Idol made him who is today but can you imagine that talent not getting recognised? Why deny someone that – with his voice, the man was born to be on stage.

Melissa Tkautz’s new single I Want Your Love is out now through Central Station Records.

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