Exclusive Interview - Liz Primo [#TheReturn Day One]

We're back! After nearly a year in the dark, Taking Over The Universe has returned. I'm so sorry we've been gone, lovelies. I'll try and make sure it never happens again, ok? Anyway, for our big return, I thought that it would be best to do a week full of awesomeness, and that's what we are gonna do! For our first day, since we are so in love with indie-pop music here, I thought it would be rad if I interviewed Liz Primo AKA one of the hardest working indie artists out there. Let's see what she had to say about her body of work.

Let's hear from the source exactly who Liz Primo Is!

I started singing when I was really young in church choir. I kept singing through high school. I went to college for half a year, and while I was away at school one of my friends got signed as a country music singer. I thought "That could be fun. I can sing." So I dropped out of college, and moved to Nashville. I was singing country music, but I felt like it wasn't really in my heart. I really, really loved dance music, but nobody understood what I wanted to do. At that time there weren't a lot of vocals for that kind of music. So I moved out to LA doing more alternative music, but after hearing Lady Gaga on the radio, I contacted her producer over MySpace. That is what started me down the "dance" road.

I was actually introduced to you via the track "Devil In Me".

Oh my god! That's a while back. That's not even exactly one of my songs. My friend Maverick does voice-overs online, and he was contacted to do a song. He said he wasn't a singer but told them I was. They had this song already that they wanted him to sing. We put it together and they sent it out themselves.

Three years can be a long time in the music business, so I know this question is going back, but you did something I don't see a lot of indie artists do. You released an EP called "Exposed". Why did you go for a complete work instead of just singles?

 That was a while back when people were still doing EPs. The singles trend has just been the last few years. Or even just this year pretty much. Also I had so many songs, and my manager at the time and I decided it was best. That way when I was on the road and touring I'd have more to sing.

Since then, you've had a lot of singles. What has been your favorite track to work on so far?

I love being in the studio, so every song I absolutely love. I have different favorites at different times. I try not to over-listen because I don't want to get sick of them, but what I love is going to my friends and having dance parties with their kids because they all love my songs.  Blown Away was a good one. And there's a song that's not released yet that is my favorite called "White Night" that is my favorite. And I've got another song I'm working on called "Like A Star".



My favorite was probably "Beautiful Whore", but I have to say "You Don't Even Know" is a great song but it's so different. Why the change of focus for this song?

Yeah it's really R&B. It's kind of funny because the original "Blown Away" is actually slower. And the original "White Knight" is a slower song. I wrote them all around the same time with another unreleased song called "Meet Me Here". We were mainly trying it out.

Will we ever get a dance version of "You Don't Even Know"?

Yeah I could have it remixed! Why not?

I love the video. Actually I love all your videos. Watching them it's hard to believe you are an independent artist. How do you get the visuals to look top notch?

Well I have my husband that's behind me. My videos are pretty expensive. People do me a lot of favors, though. Like "Beautiful Whore" wasn't that expensive because we pulled a lot of favors.

Even "Wind Me Up", your fist video, looked polished and well done.

That one wasn't expensive either. "State of Amazing" was my most expensive, but I think a lot of my team has connections. Most of the money on my videos is to pay the dancers.

What was it working with Markus Schulz like?

In the beginning my label was dealing with everything. I didn't meet him for a while. He was playing in New York (I think) and we went and met him. He was playing the song while I was standing right there. After we met, I was invited on his bus tour. He is such a nice guy.


The lyrics for "Blown Away" can be kind of confusing. Is there a story to explain what it's all about?

The video for the original version tells the story a bit better. I had to wait a bit before I could release it due to the remix. It also has a dear friend of mine it it, the lead guitarist for Korn, and I wanted to get a hotline to put a dedication because he passed away from alcoholism. The story is about addictions, to cocaine in particular, and how it can take control of your life
.

That tour looked crazy! What was that like?

It was so much fun! It was also very exhausting. I don't sleep like they sleep. I wake up at seven in the morning, even if we'd been out all night. I was pretty exhausted. It was also very  relieving because even they had their tour issues. When I was on my smaller solo tour we always had microphone problems or something else going wrong. It was good to see it happens to everybody.


What else do we need to be on the watch for in the future for Liz Primo?

"White Night" and "Like A Star". The latter has a video already. We just released the video for the original "Blown Away". Most of this is up in the air right now. 


You can find Liz Primo's hit single "Blown Away" in both it's original and remix form on iTunes. Be sure and check out her body of work. Check out the video for the original "Blown Away" below.