SOUND OFF Special Interview: Kim Smith & MISFIT

Song stylist and performance artist Kim Smith is a truly unique performer who brings together the worlds of cabaret and theatre in a wholly idiosyncratic, arrestingly amusing and moving manner. Part Marlene Dietrich, part Eartha Kitt and all Kim Smith. Kim and I recently had the chance to discuss all aspects of his solo show, MISFIT - what inspired it; what he will be singing; what we can expect from the show - as well as a host of other topics, such as his Australian upbringing, the music and performers who inspire him most, starring in Sondheim's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG and other musicals, as well as detailing many of his collaborations with director Christian Coulson. Plus, Smith and I take an overview of his favorite current pop artists - many of whom he pays tribute to in his shows; Bjork and Robyn included - and what elements he is drawn to most in creating his series of surreal solo shows, the most recent being the highly regarded MISFIT, which returns to New York this Sunday. Also, we have first news on Kim's forthcoming solo pop album and much, much more!

MISFIT will presented on Sunday, February 12 at 9:30 PM at The Laurie Beechman Theatre. More information is available here.

Fitting In & Out

PC: "Pirate Jenny" is an unforgettable moment in your show, so what can you tell me about your amply apparent affection for Weimar theatre?

KS: Well, I come from a theatre background. For me, graduating from university in Australia, I had sort of been hearing from my lecturers about creating your own works and not waiting around for auditions and what not. Australia's art culture is incredibly rich, but, with only seven Capital Cities - and some of those are very small, anyway - the volume of work is much, much smaller than the US.

PC: Of course.

KS: For me, I always had a love for that era and its history - and its danger and its bloodletting. So, it gave me an opportunity to explore it further and apply it to myself and the way I like to perform. And, a lot of those things just fell into sync. You know, I love poor theatre - making theatre out of very, very little - and, for me, on the small stage, I use what I have - which is: voice, face and gesture - to convey all of these wonderful songs.

PC: To make it all your own.

KS: Yeah. And, I sing a mix of songs from that period, and, then, also, a bunch of pop songs, as well - that we like to rearrange in the style of.

PC: Who were your biggest influences growing up? Was CABARET a big influence on you?

KS: Growing up, it was about Eartha Kitt and Marlene Dietrich, but, I certainly saw the film CABARET and loved it very much. But, for me, the attraction to the Weimar period came through, basically, my training, learning about theatre history, and, then, just investigating all of these things for myself further.

PC: Eartha Kitt was phenomenal in THE WILD PARTY. Have you ever sung any songs from that sensational score by Michael John LaChiusa?

KS: Well, to be honest, I don't sing a lot of things from new musicals - I try to avoid it, actually. If I am taking anything from musicals, it's from very, very old ones. Like "Pirate Jenny".

PC: Where did you discover "The Song Of Black Max"?

KS: Well, that is a song that was written by William Bolcom. Usually, a lot of classical singers will use that - it's from his cabaret books. I mean, they're called cabaret books, but, it's mostly opera singers who sing them. I'm married to an opera singer, so the door to that world stands partly ajar to me.

PC: Congratulations! That's awesome.

KS: Thank you - thanks very much. His name is William Ferguson. We both live and work in New York, so we got married here. We met when he was performing THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES for Opera Australia in 2005. He performs all around - he's done stuff at The MET and a lot at City Opera; just everywhere.

PC: Tell me about your partner in the theatre, your frequent collaborator Christian Coulson. How would you define your collaboration?

KS: Well, I met Christian in the elevator of my building - he had just moved into one of the apartments in the building. So, I became friends with him. We would sit and talk and think and conceive and all sorts of things together, until we just decided, "Let's apply this to my work and see what we come up with."

PC: How fortunate for your both it worked out so flawlessly. Had he seen you perform?

KS: Yes, he had a fondness for my style of performing - he had seen me perform a couple of times before.

PC: That would be essential for your relationship to work, don't you agree?

KS: Yeah - it totally helps. You really need to see the person performing to get an idea, you know, what the clay is.

PC: Your onstage personality is quite a far cry from your real-life persona, no?

KS: Well, it's about being a real person! I'm very committed to being invested in my real life in the same way I am my stage life.

PC: Do you somehow compartmentalize your stage persona, then?

KS: It's tricky because we share the same name, so, as you were saying before, the persona is another individual. He - the heightened version of myself - is very arch. It's draws in so many of the different parts of my story as a performer. I started off in contemporary dance, so I am very fluid with my movement - there is a lot of movement, especially through the hands.

PC: Your voice is incredible, so it's interesting to hear that you started in dance.

KS: Well, dancing-breathing is almost not breathing sometimes, so it is very different than singing-breathing. I had recurring knee injuries to such a point that I had to just decide whether to have a lot of surgery or to change paths. There were a lot of things I loved as much as dancing.

PC: Thank goodness you could fall back on this, as it were.

KS: Well, what I used my body for - those skills - isn't necessarily put to waste with what I do onstage now.

PC: Of course not. It informs it so much - especially now knowing you come from that.

KS: It's certainly very helpful. In being a creature of the stage - moving in front of the mirror in the dance studio - you always really have an idea of what you look like when you do the smallest thing. That's really useful, I think.

PC: It's about being totally aware of the intention behind the actions, as well.

KS: Oh, yes - it's just physical acting. So, when you throw that physical acting in with whatever you've already got, even if you're just presenting a song - just the way you hold yourself in the way the text sort of suggests you should - I think it's really useful. I mean, if we ever have children, I know I will be sending them off to some insane contemporary dance class. [Laughs.]

PC: Did you start to learn other languages at a young age?

KS: Well, I sing in German and French, but I don't speak them fluently - sort of as an opera singer would. You know, you know what the songs are saying and you have the translations with you and you sort of build an understanding of it as you go along.

PC: "Bang Bang" is a song that has been famously covered in many languages. Where did your inspiration to sing that song come from?

KS: Well, I was familiar with the Nancy Sinatra version. There's something about the spooky, almost phantasmic presence that Nancy Sinatra has in that song that I always sort of gravitated towards. I love sad music - music that comes out of the moment when someone is fractured somewhere; in their body or in their spirit. And, I think that song falls into that category.

PC: It definitely does.

KS: I knew I also wanted to play around with it and do our own sort of arrangement with it - to fit in with all of my existing style and everything, but, also, because that's how I feel I can really claim a song.

PC: Making it your own. Did you like its use in KILL BILL?

KS: Yes, yes - of course they use that song in that, too. [Laughs.]

PC: Have you ever sung anything from Brecht and Weill's opera, MAHAGONNY - specifically "The Alabama Song", which Brecht wrote lyrics for in English?

KS: Oh, yeah - I really like that song a lot. But, to be very honest with you, I haven't sung a lot of Weill on purpose. I have mostly focused on other German composers because I feel like when you evoke the Weimar in any small way, the Weill stuff is the first stop on the train - it's the very next station.

PC: It's expected.

KS: Yeah, so, I wanted to go in and sort of pick that up on the way out, if you will. So, I totally love that song, but I don't have a place in the current arc of the show to put it, so I haven't been able to put it in yet. But, I really enjoy singing it.

PC: It's so perfect for your repertoire, I think. Have you heard The Doors version, as well?

KS: Yes, yes - I've heard that one.

PC: MAHAGONNY was so ahead of its time. Do you consider what you do postmodern like that or sort of taking place in the 30s, too?

KS: Well, with this repertoire, I don't perform anything as written. I feel it is my job to put my own blood, my own youth, my own energy into this material. [Pause.] I guess I've never really thought about when this music occurs when I am singing it. I guess, by default, it is the present, but, I think it also changes constantly throughout the show.

PC: Sort of like the Emcee's limbo numbers in CABARET.

KS: Yeah - it's a theatrical miasma, so it's really up to the audience to decide where they are. I can only lead them so much, and I only want to lead them so much. I am really about the audience doing some of the work. I don't like to just be given something when I am in the audience - I don't like things spelled out. I like to do some of the work myself. So, it's the sort of thing where, it's just whereve the music takes you.

PC: What songs can we look forward to in MISFIT? Is it true there is some Kylie Minogue?

KS: Yes, there is some Kylie and there is also some Bjork.

PC: Bjork's new interactive iPad album is revolutionary. Have you played it yet?

KS: I actually prefer the recorded-live version of this new Bjork album to the released studio version. I am a passionate Bjork fan - especially her poetry and the way she speaks with her compositions.

PC: What's your favorite album of hers? There are so many great ones.

KS: My absolute favorite is HOMOGENIC - 1997. And, ever since then, I connect to every second album of hers, it seems. I am so passionate about the stuff that I love that I don't mind her other stuff - she is her own person; she is not here to please just me. [Laughs.] So, I haven't been able to find this album in myself when I listen.

PC: What do you think of DANCER IN THE DARK? What's your favorite song?

KS: My favorite song in that is "In The Musicals", I think - it's so naïve. I love it.

PC: The Thom Yorke duet is great, too.

KS: Yeah, I do like that part. I just love the music in that.

PC: What is your approach to performance? Do you take any film influences into account?

KS: In terms of the way that I approach the room, I sing from an internal place in a very cinematic way - I see what I sing when I sing it; I cast myself in a film. In that way, my songs are very filmic for me. I don't know if they feel the same way in the audience, but it certainly is that way for me. I think that helps me with interpreting things and existing within my own reality.

PC: Interesting.

KS: I will say, my last show, MORPHIUM, had a WIZARD OF OZ thread.

PC: How did you incorporate elements from it?

KS: Well, we ended the show with "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" in German. And, we also added tiny, little brush strokes here and there. The reason why I love THE WIZARD OF OZ is because everyone saw it as a child and there is something about the music that brings everyone back to childhood. I remember being on my grandmother's floor watching it, with my legs crossed, all enthralled.

PC: It is a hallmark of childhood.

KS: That's the thing that I just love about music in general - what it can do to your mind. It really can wheel you about, almost uncontrollably. It can trigger your memories and your sense/emotional memories attached to a song - I love that stuff.

PC: What is the theme of MISFIT?

KS: Well, the title is very indicative of the theme of the show. I think the show touches on what makes people misfits and how other people make people into misfits, and, the moments at which you can sort of realize that you are good or bad in a perceived way, socially. It's that sort of thing - I think it's mostly about that, but the show is never really about just one thing, you know? I don't sit down when I write a show and say, "I'm gonna write a show about breakups! I'm gonna write about kittens!" I don't really work like that.

PC: How do the songs play into that theme?

KS: Well, "Pirate Jenny", for example: whether it's all in her head or whether she's actually really mistreated in the hotel that she works in, it's about the moment where she feels she doesn't belong. So, that song is about reacting to being a misfit.

PC: What an insightful interpretation.

KS: You know, when I sing it, I imagine her feeling that it is not her fault she is a misfit and that's where her anger comes from.

PC: Will you be reprising your famous covers of any Supremes songs - "You Keep Me Hangin' On" perhaps?

KS: You might be in luck on Sunday - that's all I'll say. [Laughs.]

PC: How does a Diana Ross and The Supremes song fit into this Weimar world of yours? Why does it work so well, do you think?

KS: Well, I mean, "you keep me hanging on!" Someone's not good enough to be the one, but the other person keeps hanging around anyway. You know, "Who am I, then?" It's very confusing.

PC: Very.

KS: Unfortunately, a lot of the time, people define themselves by what others tell them about themselves. In that song, the person who is treating the singer like this is just so inconsistent that she cannot define herself. I think that makes you feel abnormal.

PC: What other songs can we look forward to in MISFIT?

KS: Well, I can't tell you any more songs because I do like things to be kept a bit of a surprise. [Laughs.]

PC: So, the show will be about an hour, give or take?

KS: Yep, it will be about an hour.

PC: How is MISFIT different from your previous solo shows?

KS: I just love doing this show so much. MORPHIUM was so much about insidiousness and being statuesque. This show is much more primal. It has a very different energy to my last show and I just love performing it. We're coming on a year of doing it, now, being at the Laurie Beechman.

PC: Do you prefer smaller venues? Joe's Pub is such a great space, as is the Laurie Beechman.

KS: Joe's Pub is a great space and so is the Beechman. I really, really tend to prefer smaller spaces, I think.

PC: Will there be more MISFIT shows in 2012?

KS: Well, there will be one show in February and I have another show at the end of March - March 29.

PC: Will you be taking this show outside New York, as well?

KS: Yes, I do have some shows lined up in another country, but I have been embargoed on talking about it. [Laughs.] I'm sorry.

PC: What's next after the MISFIT engagements?

KS: Well, next, I am working on a pop album.

PC: Will it be original compositions mostly?

KS: Yes - all original songs.

PC: What is the sound of the album?

KS: Well, it's sort of tricky to say because we have been playing around a bunch - we are going to spend a good solid week actually recording the album and really play with the production of it then. At the moment, it sort of has a Swedish pop/Robyn sort of feel to it.

PC: Robyn is such a compelling performer.

KS: I am obsessed with Robyn. I just f*cking love her.

PC: Did you see her on SNL recently? That was mind-blowing.

KS: Yes! Yes, I did. I have to say, I kind of lament the sort of real, over-the-top performance of "Call Your Girlfriend" she gives - it's such a great stand-and-sing number. Robyn is one of the few people in pop who acts the song as if it is happening in the moment when she sings it.

PC: She's so intense and committed.

KS: She acts the sh*t out of stuff! She is just so present whenever she is singing. I just love what she does in the studio, and, I love her live, too.

PC: Very different sounds/performance styles.

KS: Oh, just go see her rendition of "With Every Heartbeat" live at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in '08 on YouTube - it's absolutely amazing. She is so real - so brilliant. She is someone who really excites me.

PC: Have you considered including "Call Your Girlfriend" in any of your shows at any point?

KS: I have been playing around with a lot of Robyn's songs, and, what I have found is that one of the things that create a sense of urgency in her songs are the beats.

PC: Unquestionably.

KS: So, we have been investigating how we will do Robyn. You know, it's difficult to do Robyn right - it's very different when you hear it on a piano and double bass.

PC: I would imagine! Her songs are so beat-concious.

KS: It takes something away from it not to have them, I think. So, you know, I never put anything up onstage that I am not one-hundred-percent happy with, so, I know I still have better versions of a couple Robyn songs I have been toying with that I'd like to do someday.

PC: Something reminiscent of GLEE's reworking Adele's "Rolling In The Deep" a capella may be the way to go.

KS: Yeah. We will see.

PC: I am curious: what do you think of the music of Tom Waits?

KS: I haven't put it in any of my shows yet, but I love it. My friend put it in one of her shows and she did it just wonderfully. Another singer I really admire does it and she is a wonderful artist, as well.

PC: I know you have played Charley in MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, so I am curous what you think of the show - particularly considering there is a current revival running at Encores!?

KS: Oh, I loved playing that role so much!

PC: What a score, right?

KS: Oh, yeah! Unreal.

PC: What was "Franklin Shepard, Inc." like to perform for you?

KS: It was amazing. I remember the first day we did it in rehearsal and we just banged it out in front of the rest of the cast - it was so exhilarating to have such a big song! I just did it and I flew with it. It was so great to have such an amazing moment in the show.

PC: It's such an explosion of emotion. One of Sondheim's best.

KS: It really is - it's awesome. You know, you've got someone who is in a situation where he has to be extremely polite and normal, but, at the same time, who has all of this internal turmoil going on. Then, it just explodes. [Pause.] It's wonderful.

PC: Have you seen anything recently onstage that you particularly enjoyed?

KS: Well, my buddy, Lady Rizo - I really enjoyed her show at Joe's Pub at the end of last year. It was a commissioned work - they commissioned some new shows from some new artists. I think that is so cool that they did that.

PC: I agree.

KS: I have to say, I love Broadway and I love that it exists, but, sometimes, I feel like it is pandering to tourists. I just loved EXIT THE KING, though.

PC: Geoffrey Rush was genius.

KS: Yes. I just thought it was so f*cking cool and interesting - it's not telling you everything about itself. You have to walk through doors and work out what is going on - you know, the queen has been dead the whole time and everything else you had to figure out for yourself!

PC: So rich.

KS: Not to sound nerdy or anything, but I am just about the integrity of every moment onstage - that's what I am interested in. I just want to make contact with people. You know, we were talking about bigger venues earlier, and, I think that's why I love these smaller rooms - 60 people sometimes; sometimes 100-and-something. To, literally, touch them and run my hands over the back of their heads as I am singing - it's so exciting. To look into someone's eyes and give them a line and mean it - to see if it registers and see what they think about it before moving on? It's so fun to be tactile like that.

PC: There are very few pioneers out there - Justin Sayre did this column recently, though, as well, so I'm curious: are you two acquainted?

KS: Oh, I love Justin! I did *THE MEETING and NIGHT OF A THOUSAND JUDYS last year. Justin is such an interesting and genuine creature. He's so exciting. We get on really well.

PC: This was so great, today, Kim - thank you so much.

KS: This was really, really sweet of you, Pat. This was so cool and it's really appreciated. Bye bye.