Blissed out?

They have had more than their 15 minutes of fame, but is TrueBliss' time in the sun now up? Keith Perry chats to the band about shelf life.


It's not the daily round of personal insults that girl band TrueBliss minds. Just don't say they can't sing.

"The funniest one that we get all the time is, 'You guys can't sing," says Joe Cotton.

"I can't help but turn around and say, 'Of all the insults you can choose, you pick the one thing that's not true.

"Give me something else ... If you say TrueBliss are a pack of hoebags I could accept it - not that we are - but at least they don't really know us, so they can say that. If there's one thing we have proved after all this time, it's that we can sing."

As rumours circulate about the band's downhill slide, the determined Kiwi group are facing some harsh financial and critical realities. And while they say they're not washed up, they're not cleaning up either.

These days the fivesome - Carly Binding (21), Keri Harper (20), Erika Takacs (21), Megan Cassie (23) and Joe Cotton (21) - say they are happy to have come full circle.

With the television cameras that followed their every move for Popstars gone and their first nationwide tour over, TrueBliss are now on their own. They might have played to 20,000-plus fans on that tour, and scored a No 1 album and single, but they reckon they're now just like any other New Zealand band battling to make it big.

Interviewed at the modest city centre apartment of Erika Takacs, the band (minus Cassie, who is away at the Rugby World Cup with all Black fiance Pita Alatini) insisted they are still aiming for international stardom.

"We've had a lot of success so far but we want to succeed even more. We want to take this overseas, we want to do more albums," says Binding, the band's most forthcoming spokeswoman.

"I think this is where we really have to prove ourselves. I guess we were living off the hype of the television show.

"Now there's no series relying on us. This is us. This is what we've got to show."

What is on show is a defiant band who have been on a six-month pop biz roller coaster. Now comes the harsh reality of seeing their 28,000-selling album, Dream, consigned to the bargain bin.

Judging by the harsh insults they admit to getting in the street, the New Zealand public has put them in there, too.

Binding says: "Think about it. You're an average person, you walk down the street and every person looks at you, and at least five out of 10 say something to you and two out of five say something negative. If you had that every single day, you'd feel pressured to run away."

Back in May, their first single, Tonight, debuted The band started promisingly enough, boosted by the hype of the television show. The first single Tonight debuted at no 1 in the charts and spent six weeks in the top ten. The album Dream also debuted at no 1 and spent four weeks in the top ten.

But the subsequent singles, the hopefully-titled Number One and Wham! cover Freedom, released last month, have not worried the top ten at all.

"Okay, I walked into Sounds the other day and our album was on sale for $10 and that is reasonably embarrassing," says Joe.

"But then I saw George Michael's double album CD for $24.95 and it used to cost this huge amount of money. I love George so I said, 'Oh look, they've done to you too George.' How cool is he? And even he ends up in the bargain bin when his album should be worth a million dollars."

Reminded that George Michael's album has also been around a bit longer, the girls yell: "Hey! shhh!"

Despite record and ticket sales, the True Bliss girls are also broke. They fall about laughing as they describe the mouldy-roofed bomb they use to chug along to gigs in. They're so embarrassed they park some distance away so as not to disillusion their fans, who expect them to turn up in a Spice Girls style stretch limousine.

In fact, they've only travelled by limo once when their security guards had a whip round for a special last-night-of-tour treat. And they say that on tour their accommodation varied from four-star hotels to one "Bates Motel" dive that didn't even have power.

Things have got so bad they're considering taking day jobs and manager Jonathon Dowling confirms that will soon by necessary.

It's not an option the wannabe showbiz stars like to consider. They'd obviously rather be making ads for Burger King than asking, "Would you like fries with that, Sir?"

"It's difficult because we haven't made a lot of money and you think you probably need to get a job because there's no money coming in," says Erika.

"But most of the areas we've worked in have been within the general public. If I went back to the shoe store I worked in - well I couldn't do it. They still have people coming in asking for me and if I was working there I'd have all these schoolgirls asking for autographs and I wouldn't do much business in shoes."

After some hesitation, she concedes the fans would probably be disappointed.

"It would probably shatter their illusions but at least we'd be making money! (Loud whoops all round)

Carly adds: "If we ever got normal jobs it would probably be in the television or music industry behind the scenes.

"Sony (their record label) has been really helpful. They're moving premises at the moment and I went in and said, 'Hey guys, do you need a mover? Even a bum job like sorting out their video library would be good," she laughs.

"It's hard because you're creating the illusion you're a pop star. Then you go home and say, 'Oh, rice again for dinner', says Carly.

Constant criticism, an uncertain future and life on the overdraft - it's enough to put most people off. But True Bliss are made of sterner stuff.

"There's always going to be people that try to cut us down because of the Tall Poppy syndrome, but we still have so many fans," says Carly.

"The other day I was going through the huge lot of e-mails and I realised we've got to keep going because there are still so many people that love us."

"Oh my God, can you believe this one?" adds Erika. " I'm at the gym and this woman comes over and makes me take my earphones off and says 'Are you listening to this?' Freedom was playing on the TV and she said: 'You should be watching this. You guys are fantastic! You keep going'!...You don't even realise until you get letters from little girls at your home address. It's amazing there is still that hype out there. People still want to know what we're doing and where we're heading next."

Wherever that is, it's almost certainly as the original five girl unit. Members of True Bliss, which has a five album deal with Sony, say it is unlikely anyone would leave to go solo.

"If any of us left it wouldn't for a negative 'I'm sick of you girls' reason," says Carly.

"It would be because that person feels they need to move on. If one person did leave - which is very unlikely at this stage - we'd make them come back and do guest spots!"

Lately, as True Bliss has disappeared from the limelight, it has often seemed that the whole girl band had bolted. It is only a regular radio spot, in which listeners say where they spotted the True Bliss girls, that has kept them in the public eye.

Erika admits she is in the dark about when their next single is being released or what it is called. She agrees most pop groups like to have something for the Christmas market but doubts whether True Bliss will release anything new as stocking fillers.

"I've no idea when the next single is being released or what its called," she says.

"We just know we have a second album coming out sometime early next year.

"Sony say they are planning something for us at Christmas time, maybe a mini tour to give the last album a boost. The idea is to try and pump up the first album and then get straight into the second album."

Carly adds: "There hasn't been a whole lot of publicity lately which is probably quite good. There was so much for so long and there was a real backlash.

"Everyone goes through a stage, be it at school or in a job, when there's a lull in what you're doing and you're not hitting personally and you might feel like you just want to quit.

"Think about it. You're an average person - and we all are - and you walk down the street and every person looks at you and at least five out of ten say something to you and two out of five say something negative. If you had that every single day you'd feel pressured to run away and get away from it.

"But the thing that keeps us together is we all love music, we love being together and we love performing. That's the main thing. It's not the money or the fame - that can all take a jump - it's the fact we love hanging out and we love performing. That's what's important.

'Of course there are going to be times when you say: 'This seriously gets to me. I could turn into an alcoholic or I could just run away because I can't face it.' But we're just too stubborn and focussed. We say 'Damn it, no! we're not giving up."

"We're not under the illusion we don't have a shelf life," says Erika.

"Nothing lasts forever... In pop music people come in and out every single day. That's why we're doing a second album. One, we want to produce and have more input and also we believe we have more to offer."

"We also want to target a different audience," says Keri.

"At the moment we've got the little kids of course but we want to take our music a bit older...Even if the album's not hugely successful it would nice to look back and say: 'I'm really proud of that. I put some really good work into it. It didn't sell 30,000 this time round but it was good work.

"The majority of music on radio is pop. We want to bring more of the fuller live sound into it and put more of our own emotions into it...I really don't think we'll lose our younger audience, but maybe we'll have a wider appeal.

"When the next album comes out we want everyone to go. Oh My God. They're back. Wow!"