Taking over the world

Friday, August 25, 2006 As a businesswoman, Paris knows no limits By JIM FARBER NEW YORK DAILY NEWS NEW YORK — She has been famously portrayed as an airhead, heiress, vixen, party girl and sex tape victim — a resume so crowded with garish achievements it would seem to leave little room for "singer." But if you think this means Paris Hilton is awaiting this week's release of her first full CD, "Paris," with a wisp of concern, defensiveness, or even humility, think again. As the star sits in a midtown restaurant, shrouded behind giant sunglasses and picking listlessly at a Caesar salad, just one word describes her mood: Blase. "I've been singing and playing piano since I'm 6 years old," she reports, as if the world should know this by now. "This is something I'm really good at. I can really sing. [So] whatever people believe, I don't really think about it." Call this genuine confidence, or just an inevitable outgrowth of living an entitled life. Either way, the worldwide brand known as Paris Hilton seems fully expecting now to march onto the pop stage as boldly as she has the world of reality TV and tabloid catfights. Her first single, "Stars Are Blind," has certainly defied a nation of naysayers. On Billboard's pop chart the ditty cracked the top 20. Even critics found the song to be kinda, sorta, good. It didn't hurt that most people came to the music with fantastically low expectations. Paris understands all this. And she has a ready excuse for it — her portrayal on "The Simple Life" reality show. "It's a shallow character," she says. "[But] it's not fair to judge someone based on a show where I'm playing with my image. It's not how I am in the studio, where I take myself seriously." Apparently, she always has. Time to shine Hilton says she performed in the school orchestra and the choir growing up. But as a kid, performing for a broader audience wasn't something she could imagine. She began to gain confidence after she had success in everything from commercial endorsements to pushing perfume. For quite some time she had been performing "random karaoke" in clubs. "Producers would hear me sing 'Bette Davis Eyes' and say, 'You should make a record,"' she says. "For years and years, I've had producers approach me." Once Hilton finally relented and recorded some demos, she reports, "[the labels] all just wanted me." She signed with Warner Bros. because she trusted that executive Tom Whalley had her best interests at heart. She says it never occurred to her that the label might have more interest in her name recognition than her talents. "I've been with them for almost two years and they easily could have just cranked something out and not tried to make it good," she answers. First, the company paired her with rock producer Rob Cavallo. But after recording half a dozen songs, Hilton met superhot, urban-oriented producer Scott Storch. Then things really clicked. "With Storch in the studio I started writing my own material," she says. (Reality check: Hilton was actually contributing to work co-created with others.) "They could not get me out of the studio. For the first time, I turned off my Blackberry and actually concentrated." Pop gloss The result certainly has pop appeal. Hilton's well-established co-writers came up with some clever material, festooned with catchy enough hooks to capture a light summer mood. Yet listeners may have a hard time locating exactly where Hilton's voice exists in the mix. Somewhere over that ticking drum, and around those swooping synths, wafts a whiff of a thing which, one supposes, is her. It sounds less like an adult human than a hummingbird impersonating Shirley Temple. She says the producers used no pitch correctors during the recording or any special echo effects — at least not to her knowledge. "I just sang," she says. Hilton has been so emboldened by the process that she's already bubbling with ideas for CD No. 2. She'll even do a tour — something a singer like J.Lo has been loath to do. And while Hilton calls music her most personal expression, she has no plans to ease up on her broader empire building. There's a new movie coming called "The Haughty and the Naughty." She's "curating" a cartoon series about her life. And she's also working with "Spider-Man" creator Stan Lee to create her own superhero. So, what superpowers might that character possess? "Basically," Hilton says, "she can do anything."