I’ve uploaded preview pictures of Ke$ha’s article on the February issue of Venice Magazine and also some outtakes from the gorgeous new photoshoot featured in this magazine. Make sure you view all of the great pix now at our gallery!

PICTURES LINKS:
- Magazines & Scans from 2010: Venice – February
- Photoshoots from 2010: Patrick Fraser [Venice]

Ke$ha Untamed

And all the dudes are lining up cause they like the way we swagger But we kick ‘em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger. -“TiK ToK”

These days, all that glitters is Ke$ha. With her smash hit, “TiK ToK,” landing the number- one spot on Billboard’s Hot 100, the global pop superstar singer-songwriter likely has Lady Gaga shaking in her 10-inch Alexander McQueen stilettos. Ke$ha’s debut album, Animal, which was produced by Dr. Luke, is fierce, and loaded with pump-up-the-volume beats and clever lyrics that are destined to become some of the best one-line zingers to hit the pop-culture landscape.

Now that she’s checked her photo shoot off of today’s lengthy to-do list, it’s time to sit down with Venice over a glass of Pinot noir. Ke$ha is decked out in killer biker boots, jean shorts, and enough bracelets and necklaces to open a jewelry store on Melrose. Her make-up is a composition of smokey eyes with a tribal- esque swipe of pinkish glitter across her right cheek, and her hair is a wild mane in various shades of blond. The effect has superstar written all over it. But when we start talking, it’s clear that this girl who hails from Music City USA has those boots of hers firmly on the ground.

Kesha Rose Sebert is a force to be reckoned with, and doesn’t take kindly to naysayers. “People are always saying, ‘You can’t do this or you can’t do that,’ the chanteuse declares. “And I’m just like, ‘Um, step aside.’”

A few years ago, she asked her thenagent to try and get Prince to listen to a CD she’d recorded. He didn’t, so she took matters into her own hands.

“Yes, the Prince story is true — swear to God,” she laughs. “I asked my manager to get just one song to Prince, or a meeting, or coffee, or get me into one of his parties, or something! And he wouldn’t do it, so I decided if I don’t do it, no one else will. So I made a CD and drove up in my dead grandpa’s Town and Country — this big boat of a car. Then I snuck under the fence and got stuck — I had to pay the gardener five dollars! At the time, I looked like this sweet little Southern girl. I walked to the house and the door was unlocked; it was like fate handing me a personal invite. So I went in, got on the elevator, went up, and they were in the middle of band practice. He had this hat on and was like 20 feet away from me. They didn’t say anything, stop, or do anything. He just sort of looked at me. I looked innocent, so I think that’s why he didn’t have me arrested!”

Exposure to music started at a young age for Ke$ha. Her mom, Pebe, is a country music composer and co-wrote such songs as “Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You,” which became a chart topper for Dolly Parton in 1980. Ke$ha would tag along with her mom to recording studios, which made her entry into the industry an organic process.

She went to a music school on the Tennessee countryside, took songwriting classes, and developed a strong affinity for country music greats, Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline. At 17, Ke$ha had a firm foothold in the world of academia. “I was taking AP classes and then would go to classes at college for fun, and just sit in the back of the classroom, and these were senior-level college classes. I just loved it.”

Then she received two life-changing phone calls. The first call was from a man in Los Angeles, who claimed to be Ke$ha’s biological father. The second was from Dr. Luke.

“I forget which happened first,” she admits. “A guy calls and says, ‘I think I might be your birthfather.’ And I asked my mom and she said, ‘Maybe.’ So he invited me to L.A. and I moved in with him, like, right off the airplane. I meet him, and I’m like, ‘Oh, no. There’s no way this guy’s my dad!’ He was nice enough, nothing too creepy, but he was definitely not my dad. So I move in with this guy who is not my dad, and meanwhile, I’m singing songs — including back-up for Paris Hilton — and I’m hostessing at this cheesy club that was really gross. Meanwhile, half the time I’m sleeping in my car because it’s really weirding me out that this guy’s not my dad.”

Back in Nashville, Pebe had been shopping around some of her daughter’s music. “My mom always says the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” explains Ke$ha. “She gave someone a CD of me singing some not-very-good songs, [and] she just annoyed and harassed people until they’d listen to my CD.

Somehow, the CD landed in the hands of Dr. Luke — whom Pebe had never met — and when he heard it, he called Ke$ha directly. He liked her sound, and at the time, he was working with Flo Rida on a remake of the 1985 Dead or Alive hit, “Right Round,” and he wanted Ke$ha to sing on the record.

“When I first heard my voice on ‘Right Round’ on the radio, I started screaming and crying. Here I am, working really hard to make this happen, and it’s nice to see that hard work pays off and to have a littlechange in my pocket. To be able to take my mom out to dinner is the best feeling in the world.”

Animal took shape quickly, as many of the songs, including “Boots and Boys” and “Dinosaur,” were written over three years earlier. Recording in bits and pieces in a number of different locations — including Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, and Sweden — Ke$ha joined the Dr. Luke talent pool, collaborating with veteran hit-maker, Max Martin, as well as songwriter/producer, Benny Blanco, with whom she wrote “Blah Blah Blah.”

“‘Blah Blah Blah’ was written when I went to New York to hang out with Benny Blanco, who was also one of the producers on ‘TiK ToK,’ and he’s also my friend,” Ke$ha recounts. “I get to the hotel and he’s like, ‘Let’s write a song about how guys talk too much’. And we go upstairs, and he’s like, ‘Let’s drink a bunch of whiskey’. I’m like, ‘Okay.’ So then we’re there, drinking whiskey and I have my professional face on, my let’s-get-work-done face, and he’s like, ‘No, let’s get drunk.’ And we ended up recording the vocals for ‘Blah Blah Blah,’ lying on his bed, drinking apple cider and whiskey out of a wine glass. And then the next day, we liked it so much and we were so proud of ourselves. We didn’t need to go to the studio, so instead, we took the train to Harlem and got tattoos.”

The songs on Animal showcase Ke$ha’s talent for storytelling, and for finding herself in all manner of predicaments. “Party at a Rich Dude’s House” recounts an episode at Paris Hilton’s house during a party, while “Backstabber” is about a turncoat friend, and “Kiss and Tell” is Ke$ha’s revenge song about finding out that her boyfriend was cheating on her with a famous pop starlet.

“‘Animal’ is actually my favorite track on the record,” she reveals. “And the reason why I named the album Animal is because I’m an animal — we’re all animals. If you feel like you want to say something, say it or do something. Straight up. I’m just really excited to come out and push people’s buttons. Oh, and when you come to my show, you’ll leave covered in glitter.” ▼

For more info on Ke$ha, visit www.keshasparty.com.

Source: Venice Magazine