Injecting a new lease of life in her career, Tiffany has embraced her rock roots on latest album ‘Pieces of Me’. Surrounding herself with a new band, in an effort to “live my dreams and be with the right musicians”, Miss Darwish is taking control and doing things her way. Back in the UK for an appearance at Rewind Festival, and sitting down with eonmusic for the second time this year, we chat Winter NAMM, her early phenomenon, and forthcoming U.S. tour. Running just as fast as he can; Eamon O'Neill. 

Photo: Eamon O'Neill.

Hi Tiffany, welcome to Rewind; how are you?
I’m doing good, fine thank you. It’s great to be here; it’s lovely, and I’m excited. Yeah, it’s going to be great.

The last time we spoke was a at Ultimate NAMM Night in Anaheim, back in January.
Yeah, I know! It was so much fun, and I’m going to be debuting a lot of my stuff off my American tour – ‘Pieces of Me' Tour – on September 4th, at the Whisky with all the Ultimate Jam family there, so I’m loving it, yeah.

How did you enjoy performing at that, because you got up and really rocked it up!
Well, thank you! It’s so nice to be embraced by everybody. It’s been a while that I’ve been working, and to have people taking me serious with my voice and my talent and everything, it was nice to be invited and accepted, and to rock it and people go; “what?!”, so I was very happy with it as well.

What was the vibe like backstage in among members of Poison, Anthrax, and David Lee Roth's band?
Oh, it was amazing. You just walk around and it was like; “aaahhh!”, feeling the energy. It was great.

You seemed to have a lot of fun hanging out at Dimebash that week too.
It was so cool. I loved being there. I have a lot of friends over the years that have developed, and I think they’re excited that now I’m starting to really do what I said was going to do, and live my dreams and be with the right musicians. The album’s getting great reviews, and now I go up and I sing it live, and people go; “wow! She really does have it!” You know, I’m turning some heads right now, and I’m very happy about it.   

What attracts you to the Winter NAMM Show?
I was hanging out! I love it. NAMM and those things, you’ve got to be there to network; It’s all about meeting new people, so I really just kind of put myself out there a little bit. I like the talent, obviously, as you can tell, but I’m pretty open, so I enjoyed it!  I just met a lot of new people, and told them about what I’m doing, and I got to see all these other artists perform. I was a happy camper!  
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Are there other artists that come up to you and freak out over meeting you?
There are, which is really weird, sometimes! I’m like; “what do I do with this?”; it’s such and such, freaking out. That’s really cool; I love that kind of stuff, and usually I’m that person, so yeah! [*Laughing*]

You recently released a new version of ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’.
I did, with more of the rock guitars on it. It’s got a little more sass to it. I’m excited.

Were you worried about how a re-recording might be perceived?
Oh no, I never had anybody that was like, against me re-recording it. The new version, people were already loving it. I played it for some strategic people in my life, but I also trust my producer Mark Alberici. We talked about it, and what my vision was for the song, and then we went in and did it.

Going back, and the original video for ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ was something unique, certainly for European audiences.  
The Mall tour, yeah! I think it saved the project because I was at the time at 15, and the album had been released in American, doing New York clubs, and the music was doing great, but I couldn’t be in the club. So that was a big problem. So the Mall tour saved the whole project, definitely, and it made sense. It was brilliant, because that’s where teenagers hung out. I loved it; I loved every minute of the mall tour, it was so much fun.

What was it like as that all was taking off for you?
It just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger; the success in America, and then all of a sudden in the U.K., coming over here. I remember the first time I landed in the U.K. I didn’t know what to expect; I didn’t think I would ever come this far! But everybody had jean jackets on [aping Tiffany's image at the time], and knew I loved olive pizza, and I think that’s what I took from that was; “wow, people don’t just know about the music, they know about me!”, and I loved that. I’ve always felt embraced here.

You have a lot of sass, and I can imagine you were able to handle yourself, even in those early days.
I do; sometimes too much! [*Laughing]. No, I was pretty shy back then, but if I didn’t like something, I always said stuff. A lot of times, I was a kid, so people just kind of said; “we’ll do that; that’s how that’s going to go”, but no, I think I’ve always tried to stick up for myself.  

Finally, what’s happening going forward?
‘Pieces of Me’ is out, and I’m going back to the United States, touring forty dates on my own tour. So, literally, I hop on a plane, go to New York, promote it for five days, and then get on the plane and start making the tour happen. There’s no stopping until December!

But before that, we can catch you at the Whisky a Go Go, rocking out!
Yes, absolutely! And please check out TiffanyTunes.com everybody, because we’ll be streaming stuff live and doing everything. Even though you might not be there, you’ll be able to be a part of it.

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Tiffany’s ‘Pieces of Me’ is available now. For more information, visit here. Tiffany kicks off her U.S. tour on 4th September 2019. For a full list of dates, click here.  

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