Princess Superstar: Fame, fortune & giving up drugs
25/07/2006

“When you take a strong action like that for yourself, the universe responds, I think giving up drugs is probably why my career has taken off in the last two years. But regardless of the career stuff, just personally I feel like a completely different person, I’m so much happier, more content, calmer and more confident. I always needed something, whether it was cigarettes, drinks, whatever and when you no longer need those props, it puts your right in the moment and that’s a very powerful place to be.”

Chuckling and laughing on a cafe terrace of Novi Sad’s only 5 star hotel, Princess Superstar, aka Concetta Kirschner, is in a wonderful place physically, and emotionally having hours earlier rocked thousands on the main stage of Serbia’s Exit Festival. Drinking coffee and catching the afternoon sun, she’s a picture postcard endorsement of the benefits of giving up drugs, though admits her decision to quit was far from easy.

“What happened was that the drugs stopped working for me over time and it became really miserable to take them. Whereas at one point it was really good fun to take some pills and dance all night it started getting really depressing as I realised that I was becoming really compulsive,” she admits.

“One was too many and a thousand was never enough, that’s basically it and I had to stop cold. I’m not a person that can do anything moderately.”

Entering Narcotics Anonymous via the guiding hands of electroclash founder (and Skrufff man-in-New York) Larry Tee, she avoided reaching rock bottom, recognising the danger signs before she damaged herself irreversibly.

“There was one particular tour where I decided it was time to quit,” she says. “I’ve heard other people say this: you make rules for yourself that you just keep breaking, so for example, I’d say to myself ‘I’ll never DJ when I’m high’ or ‘I’ll never do drugs on consecutive days or consecutive nights’ then I started breaking all these rules. I just reached a point where I thought ‘that’s it, I’ve got to stop’. I was very miserable inside too.”

Two years on, she’s clean, happy and enjoying unprecedented career success whether as an album artist, DJ and performer with Alexander Technique (as DJs Are Not Rockstars) and admits she even now enjoys Narcotics Anonymous meetings of whatever form: ‘there’s the scenester meetings then there’s the ones that are for people that just got out of jail,' she chuckles, “I like both of them’.


Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): We’re here in Novi Sad where you performed last night at the Exit Festival, chatting to people here last night, most still associated you with hip-hop, though I associate you with electro, where are you musically these days?

Princess Superstar: “I’m really at this crossroads now where I want to fuse the two together and I’ve already been doing that on my last album My Machine it was definitely a mixture of hip-hop and electronic music. In an ideal world I really want to do a crazy record with Missy Elliot that works on the dancefloor, but in the absence of her I’ll probably doing something exactly like that, just with other people.”

Skrufff: You mentioned before we turned on the tape recorder that you feel we create the people around us, what did you mean?

Princess Superstar: “I was reading in this book this idea that most people around us are just a projection of our own thinking so that when you do something really positive for yourself or take a strong action, say like quitting drugs or drinking, then the level of people around you goes up. Every human being has worth, I’m not saying that they don’t, I mean more that there are some toxic people and very incredible inspiring people too and when you take care of yourself, the people around you also conform to that.”

Skrufff: A lot of Americans seem to find a sense of purpose and identity through religion, has that been an option you’ve explored much?

Princess Superstar: “No, I’m not religious at all. I think religion always starts out as a great idea, the fundamentals of all religions are so pure and beautiful and right then what happens is, that people, with their egos and quest for power, corrupt all that. I’m not really religious at all, to be honest, I’m spiritual and I also believe that it’s good to do unto others as you would want them to do unto you. I think it’s important to live your life with kindness. If I had to lean towards any religion it would be towards Buddhism and its ideas about love and living in the moment.”

Skrufff: You started out in music running your own label with almost a punk style DIY philosophy, looking back ten years on, do you see anything you know think ‘I should have done that differently’?

Princess Superstar: “I definitely took the path of most resistance, starting your own label and doing all that is certainly a really hard job, but I didn’t really know what else to do, so I just did it.”

Skrufff: What advice would you give to someone out there wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Princess Superstar: “Don’t do it (laughing). Actually I’d say ‘go for it, follow your heart’, that’s the key. I think a lot of human misery is based on people not following or fulfilling their dreams, usually out of fear. You should definitely follow your dreams but what’s also really important is to stick to it. I’ve been through so many crazy scenes in my life; at one point I was in the indie-rock scene, then the punk scene, then the hip-hop scene and the dance scene- whatever- I’ve been through so many groups of people who were brilliant but they just gave up. Because the industry ground them down, or drugs or a whole load of other different reasons whereas I just stuck it out. I stuck it out and I’m here today working; that’s it, you’ve got to be tenacious.”

Skrufff: Have you dreams changed much over the years?

Princess Superstar: “No, I always wanted to be a rock star (laughing).”

Skrufff: What have been some of the more bizarre rock star moments you had?

Princess Superstar: “I’ve had a few in Ibiza when I’ve been chilling with Felix (Da Housecat) and randomly there’s been Puffy and Tommie Lee and Naomi Campbell in the DJ booth with me, that was kind of bizarre. But I don’t really care too much about celebrity mini cooper; that was just funny. There are all sorts of random things that happen. I get the best of both worlds, I get to travel everywhere which to me is bizarre.”

Skrufff: Do you ever get lonely on the road?

Princess Superstar: “Oh yeah, definitely. It’s a very weird way of living, you play to all these people who give you so much love then you go back to your hotel room and find yourself staring at the walls alone. Or emailing your friends. Email is such a once removed type of relating. It is very lonely, sure.”

Skrufff: You have a strong sexual persona, how does that affect the way people treat you?

Princess Superstar: “I think lots of people are really intimidated at first then they see that I’m shy and sweet, though I can’t say that I’m sweet, actually I’m an i can't read sometimes (chuckling). I think when people get to know me they’re just like ‘that’s really funny’. Recently I’ve been hanging out a lot with Moby and he’s so cool but he always says to me ‘I can’t believe you’re such a nerd but you’re also such a vixen’.”

Skrufff: What do you make of the New York club scene these days?

Princess Superstar: “I’m never really there but there are some good nights there, Larry (Tee)’s party on Saturdays is fantastic, then on Tuesdays Suzannne Barzch and Kenny Kenny are doing a great party at Happy Valley. That to me is more reminiscent of the European parties and I’ve always loved European parties more. A lot of the New York parties are so lame and mainstream with progressive house music, which I hate, though what I do like about New York is the whole disco-punk thing, the LCD Soundsystem and the !!!; that stuff is genius.”

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