It’s been 20 years since Australia was first introduced to Ricki-Lee when she appeared on Australian Idol and captured the country’s hearts with her powerhouse vocals. Fast forward to 2024, and the singer-songwriter has come full-circle and is in her second year hosting the reality TV juggernaut. In between her hosting duties, and her national radio show with Tim Blackwell and Joel Creasey on Nova, she has spent the last two years writing and recording her fifth studio album, which is also her first as an independent artist. 

“On My Own” is a confident body of work that celebrates the journey she has been on as an artist over the past 20 years, and looks to the future with the sort of artist she wants to continue growing as. Soaked in a big pop-dance production reminiscent of her critically acclaimed and fan-favourite record “Fear And Freedom”, she will have you dancing throughout the 10 track collection, but the vulnerable songwriting is the true heart of the record. Finding a balance of shiny pop production and beautiful storytelling, this album captures resilience, strength, and love in its purest form. 

I recently chatted with Ricki-Lee about the celebratory and vulnerable emotions her new album “On My Own” embodies, explored the creative processes behind songs like “Magic”, “Talkin” and “More Than Love”, and discussed some of the special surprises she has planned for her upcoming headline shows. Check out the full chat BELOW;

THOMAS BLEACH: Your fifth studio album “On My Own” is a celebratory pop affair, and to me it feels like the sequel to “Fear And Freedom” as it hears you having so much fun. But there is also so much heart and soul at the core of it too. Does this record feel like a sibling to that record in particular for you with a new sense of perspective that intertwines a powerful vulnerability? 

RICKI-LEE: My fans have been very vocal with the “we want Fear And Freedom 2.0”. The amount of times I’ve heard that *laughs*. So I know what my fans want from me, but also I released “Fear And Freedom” in 2012. That’s 12 years ago. So I’m not just going to recreate that. I don’t like repeating myself. So you saying that it’s kind of like a sibling to “Fear And Freedom” is so right because I had in mind the “we want Fear And Freedom 2.0” sentiment the whole time while I was writing this record, but I also wanted to show where I’m at in my life now. And as much as this album has a lot of fun dancefloor pop songs that sound upbeat and fun, there’s a lot of pain, hurt, and stories of vulnerability and raw emotion. 

I think working with the same crew for the whole album meant that I was able to spread my wings and slowly open up in terms of my story, and the things that were happening in my life over the past few years. I was thinking about it recently because “Dancing On My Own” from Robyn is one of the best songs ever written, and it’s because it sounds so euphoric. You want to dance and sing to it in the car, but it’s also such a sad song. And I really like masking emotions like that in songs with uplifting, anthemic, throw your hands in the air kind of melodies and contrasting the heaviness of the lyric and the content of the lyrics with these kind of fun and sassy beats. 

So that was a really fun song, and I was only able to do that because we spent two years together in a dark room kind of exposing our feelings to each other. It truly was like therapy every day.

I’m really proud of these songs because they are so much more than what they appear to be on the surface, especially those dance floor fun ones. “On My Own” is really the benchmark of the album. And then “What Do You Want From Me?” is kind of me leaving everyone with where I’m at right now in my life. And everything in between is everything that’s happened in these last few years, which is really cool. 

TB: “Magic” is a flawless pop moment on the record, and stands out with its infectious and smooth melody. Can you explain the creative process behind this track? 

RL: “Magic” was actually the second song we wrote for the album. I have wanted to work with DNA for over ten years, but couldn’t because they were exclusively signed to Sony. When I started writing this album, I knew I wanted to work with Australians as I didn’t want to go overseas, so I looked up some producers and saw that DNA were out of their deal, so we jumped in the studio straight away. 

The first song we wrote was “Real Love”, and the second was “Magic”. This was only a year after all the COVID stuff happened, and “Magic” was all about being excited to go to concerts again, and being in a room together with thousands of people, playing shows, and how good it’s going to feel to be on stage, and how good it’s going to feel to be at a gay club dancing again.

I love that you love that song because that was what really made me go, “yeah, we’re on a roll here. We’ve got something, and this is going to be really fun”.

TB: “Talkin” is another fun track on the album, and the moment I want to talk about is the chant refrain “heard you been walking around talking about what you want”. It feels very inspired by the 90’s. Did you have any specific pop references for that little moment?

RL: Honestly, no. When I go into the studio with the boys, sometimes they have stuff prepared. They flicked through a bunch of instrumentals they’d worked on previously, and there was this one that stood out as the groove was so cool. I was like “fuck, I just love that. We could write something really cool and really different”. I‘ve never done anything like “Talkin” before, so it took a bit of time. I find I get inspired a lot when I’m either on the treadmill, or when I’m working out. I would listen to these instrumentals to see what would strike any inspiration. At the time I wanted to write a song called “Talkin” because there had been a person in my life that was really talking shit about me. I was so furious, frustrated and angry, and I really wanted to write a song about it. But like I said before, I like masking emotions like sadness, anger, and pain with the sound of something happy. So there I am at the gym, and in front of the cardio area there’s like six different tv screens. And a news story came up about Will Smith and they’re showing vision of him yelling “get my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth”, and I was like “oh my god, there it is”. And that’s where the lyric “and if you’re talking, get my name out of your mouth” came from. I immediately recorded it to my phone and sent it to the boys, and was like – this is going to be amazing. 

TB: “More Than Love” has this distinct funk groove embedded that elevates this empowering sentiment that hears you exclaiming “it takes more than love”. When you’re building that sonic along with the lyrics, were you trying to match the angsty energy that the lyrics demanded, and was that something that came easy?

RL: That song came really easy because me and Anthony were going through something very different but quite similar at the same time. So I think that angsty thing is both of us just yelling at these people in our lives. That message is, it takes more than love to stay in love. You can’t just say you love someone and then treat them like shit and expect they love you. That’s not what love is. If you love someone, you have to show them in every single way. You can’t just treat people terribly and expect that everything’s going to be okay. 

I also feel like a little bit of our love for Anastacia came through in this song with the melody and where it was leaning. I could vocally take my foot off the pedal a little bit. It’s so nostalgic, and it does feel a little bit like the early 2000’s. And that’s the music that I loved listening to when I was singing in my bedroom as a kid. It was really fun and was an interesting way to deliver this song in terms of recording it.

TB: I love that Anastacia was a reference. 

RL: She’s amazing! It was only when I was recording it and singing the line “I’d stay for love, but that’s not enough, cause it takes more than love” that the reference clicked. It instantly reminded me of “Sick And Tired”, “Not That Kind” and “Im Outta Love”

TB: I was also going to say that there is a little bit of that song that took me back to the “Brand New Day” era too.

RL: Oh yeah, that’s fun! There were actually moments when we were writing this that I did have  flashes of that as well. I don’t want to jump on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, but it was kind of a celebration of the past 20 years. Like, this album marks 20 years for me since I started, and I kind of liked that it is a celebration and touching on different sounds. But it still sounds cohesive as a record.

TB: If we could go back to that Ricki-Lee who appeared on Australian Idol 20 years ago, and play her this new record, what lyric or moment on the record do you think would surprise her the most?

RL: Oh, that’s a great question. I think “What Do You Want From Me?”. I’ve always been a person who is extremely independent.  My favourite thing to say is “No, no, it’s all good. I’ll do it”. And I think sometimes that can get you in trouble as a person. I actually screenshotted this yesterday. “Somebody said that being overly independent is a defense mechanism from constantly being let down”, and honestly I’ve never read anything that is more me in my whole life. 

I’ve been let down a lot in my life and have had to overcompensate by just doing things myself, and I think that sometimes led to me being a person that overly exhausts myself.I stretch myself too thin because I put too much on my plate, and I’m like, “No, I’m all good. I don’t need any help. I’ve got this”.  And “What Do You Want From Me?” is that song. It’s a song about feeling like everybody’s just taking from me. Feeling stripped naked that I have nothing left to give, but people still want more from me. And I think that the 18 year old me that first started would be surprised by that, but also inspired by it as it means I am a person that has stuck to my word, and my guns. 

TB: It’s been a while since you’ve done headline shows, and your Palms Theatre and Enmore Theatre dates are quickly approaching. So when you’ve started designing the structure and feel of these shows, what are these news songs from this record bringing to the set for you? 

RL: It’s really fun because they bring so much new energy. I’m doing eight out of ten of the songs from the album in the new show mixed with all of the hits like “Raining Diamonds”, “Do It Like That”, “Can’t Touch It”, “Burn It Down”, “Sunshine” and “All We Need Is Love”. It’s a real celebration of the last 20 years, but also a celebration of what’s new. These songs fit so perfectly with my back catalog. I’m really excited to do this show and to see these songs live because I wrote songs like “Real Love”, “More Than Love”, and “Magic” over two years ago, and now to see them come to life is crazy. When I write songs I imagine myself performing them on stage. I imagine where the moments where people sing along are. Where the moments where I can throw the microphone to the crowd and they sing back to me. I’m always so visceral when I’m singing. I want to physically feel what that is going to feel like on stage. And I try to see myself and I imagine it. So I’m really excited to actually finally see these songs come to life on stage and to perform them. 

TB: Are there any old fan favourites, classic singles, or b-side’s you’ve been playing with bringing back for these shows?

RL: I don’t want to recreate the show I did last time, as that was a real trip down memory lane. But to celebrate me hosting Australian Idol now, and that show coming back into my life with it being 20 years since I was on it, I have decided to do a little section where I sing my audition song “Don’t Let Go”, the song I would audition with today, and the song I would have done if I didn’t get booted off the show. So that’s going to be really fun. 

I’ve also done a medley of Young Divas songs that I’ve never done before. Usually I just do “This Time I Know It’s For Real” and “Raining Men”, but I’ve added “Happening All Over Again” and “Searching” into a little medley, which will be fun. 

“On My Own” out now!

Ricki-Lee 2024 Headline Shows

Sunday 10 March – Palms At Crown, Melbourne *SOLD OUT*

Saturday 14 September – Enmore Theatre, Sydney