In your own time Belinda
Any nerves I might have been feeling before interviewing ageless American pop icon Belinda Carlisle were immediately soothed by the warm, velvet voice that greeted me over the phone.
Her tone is gentle and content as she enjoys a well-deserved day off amid her latest tour of the UK and Ireland which will see her play Cork’s Opera House this Wednesday.
The tour marks the 30th anniversary of the Los Angeles native’s third hit album ‘Runaway Horses’, a work that is as powerful and relevant now as it was back in 1989, with fans new and old continuing to flock to her shows.
Having been immersed in the music business since the age of 17, Carlisle now likes to do things at her own pace, a luxury she has most definitely earned. “Being on tour, although it’s very physical, in many ways it’s like being on holiday because I get to lay in and get room service and go on walks.
“I’m really lucky that I can make my schedule the way I want to make it. I make sure that when I’m on tour, I do two nights on, one night off, and I do it in a way that I can really enjoy where I am. To be doing this in this late stage of my life and to be able to have this kind of back catalogue, I’m completely blessed,” she explains.
Carlisle first rose to fame in the early '80s as the lead singer for the all-female new wave group the Go-Gos before embarking on a prolific solo career spanning four decades. Arguably best known for her 1987 anthem ‘Heaven is a Place on Earth’, the musician, author and activist now takes great pleasure in revisiting the songs that helped her forge her career.
“I think they are really well-crafted pop songs. I think songs like that sometimes can transcend being just a song or music and become definitive moments in a person’s life.
“Some of them sound better now. There are some songs that I used to avoid doing live because I didn’t really care for them on the album because of the way they turned out, but I’ve fallen in love with them on this tour.”
Carlisle, 61, then tells me that she doesn’t get nervous anymore before shows and compares her tireless ability to perform on stage to “getting on a bike”.
“I know how to switch gears and I love to sing. If I think about what I do, it kind of horrifies me, the idea of getting up and singing in front of people, but I’m able to switch gears and turn it on and do it,” she says.
Outside of music, the vegetarian mother of one has been an activist for a number of causes and in 2014 she co-founded Animal People Alliance in Calcutta, a non-profit organisation that trains people who are at risk of falling below the poverty line to care for street animals.
Before I leave her to enjoy the rest of her day off, I ask her how such a long career has changed her philosophies on art and life in general. She replies: “My behaviour is a lot different than it used to be. I’m not out all the time smoking and drinking and singing. I take good care of my voice now.
“I’ve always kind of winged it as I went along. At the moment I’m really satisfied and am at a place in my career where I have an amazing body of work. I don’t have interest in chasing a number one or a chart position, I’m quite happy with where I am.”
Belinda Carlisle will play Cork Opera House this Wednesday 9 October with doors opening at 7.30pm. Tickets are available on ticketmaster.ie and from corkoperahouse.ie.