Sia Tries Her Hand at Happy on New Album 'We Are Born'

Adjectives to describe Sia's music wouldn't usually stray far from 'poignant.' Her past albums have had a decidedly down-tempo feel, well removed from the mainstream sound that earns pop stars millions of dollars.

"The truth is, I've never made any record label any money," she admitted to Spinner on the phone from L.A. "I've never, ever made anyone any money."

But things might be turning around for the Australian songstress -- she got happy, and she's back with a new sound for her upcoming album that's more animated than ever.

"I guess this really does look like the most commercially viable record I've made, and it's probably the first time I might actually make a record label some money," she says.

Currently on a zigzag tour across North America, Furler recently leaked six tracks from 'We Are Born' (due out in June), to warm fans up to the new sound. She wants people to know the music and sing along at her shows. "Otherwise, what's the point of touring?" she says.

And catching people off-guard with a tempo change hasn't always worked in her favour.

"I delivered a pop record to Universal right after [second major album] 'Colour the Small One' -- which was practically, for all intents and purposes, the same record that I'm putting out now -- and they dropped me," she laughs. "They said, 'We don't know how to market you like this, you're a down-tempo artist now.'"

Being categorized as a one-genre performer was never her intention, Furler says, and she didn't realize then that she would be forced to stay in that box. So to continue her career, she put out the sombre album 'Some People Have Real Problems.'

It was what she calls a necessary segue into what she really wanted to do: pop.

"With pop writing it's both flattering and it's business," she says. "It's the best kind of business that I could do, because the job I enjoy the most out of all of my work is writing. I don't know what happened but I guess people decided that I'm allowed to do this now."



With more creative freedom on a new label (Sony), and a swift shift up-tempo, new collaborative opportunities are popping up everywhere. Furler revealed to Spinner that she will be remixed by Prince Vince, while Diplo will put his spin on her single, 'Clap Your Hands.'

"It's really awesome to work with people who are super-talented and can nail everything you might write," she says of her creative partnerships.

A recent collaboration that set tongues wagging was her work with Christina Aguilera. If Furler's new pop record isn't evidence enough she is ready to take on a new genre, working with one of the world's biggest pop stars should be.

"Christina asked me to write for her and there was no way I was going to say no," she laughs, after joking that she's driven by money a lot of the time.

"She's got such a phenomenal voice and she sells millions of records. It's not like she doesn't know she's doing you a favour if she asks you to write with her because for most of the people she's worked with, they've never made a million dollars from a song. What she's doing essentially is offering them a million dollars."