Jane Badler / Credit: Jennifer Stenglein
Jane Badler's had an illustrious and exciting career as both an actress and a musician.
We got the chance to chat with the star about her past, her upcoming album and what else is next to come.
Has music always been a passion of yours?
I think it has - not in the sense maybe that for some musicians it's been a passion - for me it's probably more that I always sang. I can remember singing at five years old in talent contests up in the Catskill Mountains which is where I lived - I was born in Brooklyn - and then I always sang in assembleys - I played the guitar and the flute - so I always made up songs. I guess I just always did it. I don't know if I felt passionate but it was just my way of escaping - my way of being something else, and then I went to New York to be a singer and my first gig was at The Playboy Club, and when I won Miss New Hampshire I toured New England performing in cover bands - and I was 18.
So, I guess that was sort of the beginning, and then I stopped - I stopped for like 20 years - I didn't sing at all.
Being an actress as well, how different are those two industries - music and acting?
Well, they're both really difficult. They're both difficult to probably get a certain degree of success, but I think for me, singing is probably a bit more liberating because I can create whatever persona I wanna create and I'm very in control of that - I'm very in control of how I wanna be perceived - through what I write and how I perform.
Whereas when you act you have to act the idea of what people think you should be acting at your age - your age or state of where you're at in your life.
But having said that, acting's wonderful too - I'm very lucky that I have both.
Do you ever find the business getting old to you, or is it always fresh and exciting?
I think it's like a drug. I seriously cannot give it up, and I've tried, I've seriously tried. There have been times in my life where I've thought it's just too hard, and that desire to do it can sometimes be very painful - when you go through periods where you're unemployed, or you're not 'hot', or work isn't coming, so you kind of remove yourself from it, but through all the years, all the decades, here I am - I'm still wanting it, still 'in' it, so obviously it's my life's journey.
How do you balance the aspects of your career with your personal life?
Well, it's a very hard thing - I've got a beautiful, stable family - I'm very lucky - I have two boys and I'm very happily married for 22 years, although it's not how I - when I sing my songs and things like that - I don't really sing about being happily married - that's not really what I'm interested in. I'm probably more interested in the alternative and darker side of things, but certainly if I didn't have that I think I would be like a wave on the Ocean - I'd be drifting. So, I'm very lucky to have that stability.
Tell us a little bit about your new single 'Nursery Rhyme' for those who may not have heard it yet.
Well, 'Nursery Rhyme' is the first song that I wrote - I've always written, poetry and things down on paper - but that was really the first time I just kind of sat down and wrote a song - the lyrics and the music - just wrote it.
Because I was very lucky to have met Jesse Shepherd who wrote my second album for me - I was sort of his muse - and I said to him I wanted to write a song, and that was the song I wrote.
It came out of my own personal pain and it also came out of the idea of choices that we make in life, and the loss of innocence, because I was brought up in a generation where one believed some knight on a horse was going to save you from yourself, and you view this beautiful, perfect life. You're doomed to fail when you have these sort of expectations and you don't look at yourself, so I think it was all about the myth of the nursery rhyme, and also about the house as a metaphor for abandonment, which was once a happy home, has now become a home that's now basically covered up.
So, that's kind of my thinking of when I wrote that song, and then that took me on this journey of my next album.
How was the process of creating the music video for the song?
It was really an interesting one - I found it difficult. I had a beautiful, young director who's very arthouse - he's a real artiste - I say that because he's very particular about what he takes on, and he works with some extraordinary artists - he's just worked with Gotye - the Australian artist.
I sent him six songs and that was the only one he would do, so that's the one we did. He likes to film that way - very still with just an idea - it's very different to what a lot of music videos are, nowadays. So I kind of went with his vision - he came up with the vision of the house as a metaphor and he had a team of people that came in and it took - I think - a lot longer than he'd thought - he had to come back two days and he had to come back again - and I actually felt funnily enough very exposed - I felt doing that music video was a very emotional experience for me, whereas often when I do music videos I feel like I'm a character or a persona, but even though I was representing something, I still really found myself 'in it', when I was doing it.
Can we expect more music like this single on the rest of the upcoming album?
You know? Not really. That's probably the bleakest of any of my music.
My next music video that I've just finished in LA is called 'Volcano Boy', and it's actually quite an uplifting song about someone born out of a volcano, but it's kind of a mythical idea of eternity, and love, and not being afraid of death - it's quite a beautiful song with electronic beats, and that's my next single and I'm really proud of that music video. So, that'll be coming out next.
The album's very epic - it's about love and revenge and betrayal - but it's very epic too, kind of electronic beats. I'm very lucky to have collaborated with Jeff Bova who's an extraordinary producer in LA, and he brought in some amazing musicians - I worked with Bernard Fowler who's the Rolling Stones' back-up singer - I just had the most incredible people - I could hardly believe it, I'd sit there and my mouth would be open, just because of what they all brought to the album.
Do you have a favourite track?
Yeah, I kinda do at this moment. I have a couple favourite ones, but I have to say at this moment, probably a song called 'Opus' is my favourite - I love it so much. I think it's a killer track and that probably will be a single.
Aside from the new music, do you have any other projects you're currently involved in that you can share some details about?
Yeah, I'm waiting to hear on a start-date for two features in Spain - I don't even know why Spain! I must have some sort of following there!
One of them is a film called 'Girl Seeks Girl', which is basically about a lot of hot young lesbians and I'm playing kinda the Catherine Zeta Jones - I say that because she plays the sort of character that's strong, sexy. For me - older woman who's sorting stalking this young - it's a comedy! In case you haven't figured it out it's a comedy! (laughs) I think the Spanish do that sort of film very well.
Then I've just been asked to do a film called 'Wild Girl' - I'm waiting on that one too. I hope to be in Europe filming next January and February, so yeah, we'll just see what happens!
Jane Badler's 'Nursery Rhyme' is out now, and her new album will be released in 2014.