Anna-Maria La Spina intreviewed on Italian Week

YOU’VE JUST RETURNED FROM LONDON. WHAT WERE YOU DOING THERE?
I’ve been in London for the past 3½ years, writing and recording songs. One of my songs, More, is sung by Kumi Koda on an album in Japan that’s gone triple platinum. As a songwriter, that’s the sort of thing we all hope for. It’s so good to be back in Brisbane. When I’m away I miss the familiarity, the sun and my family. I love being able to pop over to my mum’s for a coffee.

NAME SOME CAREER HIGHLIGHTS IN YOUR 34 YEARS.
I won Star Search on Channel 10 when I was 18. And I’ve done two world tours with Savage Garden as main backing vocalist and arranger. I also did duets with Darren [Hayes]. I’m not sure Australians realised how big they were overseas. They’re great guys to work with. Darren invited me to be his support at theSydney Opera House in 2006, and I did seven of my songs. That was weird because my brother [tenor Rosario La Spina] was doing an opera there at the same time. I’ve also done backing vocals for Ozzy Osbourne and Slash from Guns N’ Roses.

YOU’RE SINGING AT SUNCORP PIAZZA AS PART OF THE ITALIAN WEEK 2008 CELEBRATIONS. HOW IMPORTANT IS YOUR ITALIAN HERITAGE TO YOU?
I’m very proud of it. It’s been a part of my whole life, but I’ve never really thought of it as my Italian side as opposed to my Australian side. When we were growing up, mum and dad would play Italian tapes in the car and my grandparents would speak Italian to me. It was normal to me. Singing in Italian feelsquite natural. I’ll be singing some songs in Italian and others in English [during the concert at Suncorp Piazza].

YOUR BROTHER ROSARIO IS ALSO PERFORMING AS PART OF ITALIAN WEEK. WAS MUSIC PART OF FAMILY LIFE?
Absolutely; Rosario started singing on TV when he was six. I was eight when I fi rst performed – I sang There’s A Kind Of Hush at an eisteddfod. The great thing is, competition has never come into it. I couldn’t be more proud of my brother – he’s a phenomenal opera singer. We support each other.

ARE YOU PRIMARILY A SINGER OR A SONGWRITER?
I’ve gotten into songwriting a lot more in recent years. People always ask me, how do you write a song? Well, I don’t know – how long is a piece of string? Last week I was driving around and had a drumbeat in my head and I recorded it on to my phone. Every song happens differently.

HOW DO YOU COPE WITH THE UNCERTAINTY OF YOUR WORK?
It’s a positive and a negative; I never know what’s around the corner. You just have to deal with it – if you can’t, you shouldn’t be in the industry.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?
I’m working on two very different projects. I’m renovating a property in Wavell Heights and working on a recording project that involves my brother and me, but on the pop side. We have some meetings with labels coming up, so we’ll know more about that soon.

ANNA-MARIA LA SPINA PERFORMS AT SUNCORP PIAZZA, SOUTHBANK, SUN, JUN 1, 12-4PM, AS PART OF ITALIAN WEEK 2008. FREE.WWW.ITALIANWEEK.COM.AU