With two seasons of The Real Housewives of Atlanta under her rhinestone-studded belt, a highly anticipated high-end wig line and rumors of a romantic relationship with DJ Tracy Young (which her publicity could not confirm or deny), Kim Zolciak has got her name sprinkled all over the press. While often she is pegged in a negative light, the mom of two claims that she could care less about what the haters have to say, especially in regards to her single “Tardy for the Party,” which has been remixed by Tracy and just recently released on iTunes, Amazon and Napster. “I’m laughing all the way to the bank,” Kim tells us, in the wake of rumors and harsh criticism, and she doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.
Clubplanet: How did you decide to go into music? What was your inspiration?
Kim Zolciak: I've always loved music. Dallas [Austin] was a friend of mine and said, “Let’s try it,” so we gave it a shot. Then on the show we had a crazy season, season one, and I really just didn't want to do it anymore. Kandi was the new housewife and she and I got really close, and there you have it. That's where “Tardy for the Party” came from. My daughter was the original songwriter, but Kandi rewrote it and all that good stuff.
Clubplanet: So your daughter, Brielle, and her vocal coach came up with the idea for “Tardy for the Party.” How did the song go from just an idea to a popular single?
Kim Zolciak: My daughter wrote it years ago when she was nine (she'll be 13 on Thursday). At first it kind of was a joke, you know, I don't want to say a joke, but it was fun, kind of a nine-year-old mentality. Then I gave Kandi the track, which was a country song actually, and she made it into a dance track and put a really great beat to it and there you have it.
Clubplanet: You were working on a country album and then transitioned into dance, do you have a preference?
Kim Zolciak: I love country music but I think you have to have a lot of emotion behind it. Right now I have so many other things going on that dance is just a lot easier to do. I'm more comfortable singing country music, believe it or not. I don't want to say that I didn't have much say, but I gave the song to Kandi and said, “What do you think you can do with this?” and that's what she did with it – and I loved it! It wasn't like I put thought into it and said, “I want to do a dance track” or “I want to do a country track.” I thought I was stuck with country, but I instantly loved what she did. So, that's kind of how that all happened.
Clubplanet: How did the two of you get paired up to work together?
Tracy Young: Actually, it was a mutual friend who introduced us. He reached out to me when “Tardy for the Party” first dropped and wanted to remix it. So Kim and I kept emailing and finally got to meet each other in L.A. and discuss ideas for the song. You know, when I originally heard the track I wanted to remix it anyway because I was like, this has to be a club track. So, it all fit and we got along really well and there you have it. The remix came out a couple weeks ago.
Clubplanet: So you knew the song was made for the dance floor. How could you tell?
Tracy Young: Just the hook in general, like, “Tardy for the Party.” I mean, everybody goes out to party, so it just made sense. The lyrics are simple and catchy and it was just a really easy song to work with. It didn't take much thought; it just seemed natural to bring it to the clubs. To me it was really a no-brainer.
Clubplanet: I’ve heard that the two of you are working together on another single. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Kim Zolciak: No [Laughs]. Yeah, we're doing another song. Tracy did the track on one of my songs coming up.
Tracy Young: I'm at the point where I kind of want to do original production, so that's where we are right now.
Kim Zolciak: It's in the making. It's not finished.
Clubplanet: Tracy, are you producing the next one?
Tracy Young: I hope so. Yeah, I did a few tracks and we're writing to them now.
Clubplanet: Will “Tardy for the Party” be released on the full album later on, or was this just a separate project between the two of you?
Kim Zolciak: I haven't really thought about all of that.
Tracy Young: [Laughs] actually, that's a good question, maybe we should think about that. Kim's real busy right now with her show and everything, so I don't know where that would fit in, but I'm strictly music, so...
Kim Zolciak: Yeah, I have my hands in a lot of pots right now.
Clubplanet: What are you working on right now, Kim?
Kim Zolciak: I have a book coming out on makeup and skincare… I have my wig line...
Tracy Young: Music… the show...
Kim Zolciak: Very busy, honey, very busy, and I’ve got two girls. You know, they're a full time job.
Clubplanet: Now, Tracy, I want to know a little bit more about the remixes. How many remixes of “Tardy for the Party” have you done?
Tracy Young: It’s been kind of a work in progress. I did a dub mix and a club mix, and I edited for radio, but basically there are two standard remixes. I would like to play with it a little more. There are so many words that I like in the song that I could play with, but I just gotta keep it moving and work on the next project. I love the fucking “Tardy for the Party.”
Kim Zolciak: [Laughs]
Clubplanet: The song reached the #3 position on the iTunes Top Dance chart and the #80 position on the Top 100. How did you first hear this news and what was your initial reaction?
Kim Zolciak: My song was leaked, actually. I had no plans of putting my song on iTunes until a couple months later but when I saw that it was downloaded like 200,000 times, I was like, “Oh, God. I've got to get this song on iTunes!” So they put it up really quickly for me and that same day when I saw it on iTunes, I cried and cried and cried. I couldn't believe it. Then, within 24 hours, I was #7, #6, and then within 36 hours I was at #3 and I stayed there for a long time. It was so emotional, I just couldn't believe it. I know the show was a great platform for that and the song has done very well.
Clubplanet: The song has gotten a lot of success, but there are still some haters out there who say that it’s a joke or that it’s overly produced to camouflage the vocals. Has this discouraged you in any way?
Kim Zolciak: No and Kandi actually answered that on the reunion show, about it being on auto-tune and all that stuff. I mean, to answer your question, no – I could care less what people think about me. I'm laughing all the way to the bank, “Have a nice day!” [Laughs] I mean, I really could care less. People are buying it, so I don't really know what to say.
Clubplanet: Now all of us Real Housewives of Atlanta fans know the feud between you and NeNe and know that she claimed “Tardy for the Party” was her song and that you couldn’t sell it without her. What are your thoughts looking back on that now?
Kim Zolciak: My daughter wrote the song, first of all. I don't know how she could even claim that would be her song; she had nothing to do with it. We talked about it in passing, that we would do it together and she could rap and I could sing country, all this fun little goofy stuff, but it was never her song. I mean, I don't even know where that came from. When I heard that she said that it just blew my mind. As far as me not being able to sell the song without her, I've done just fine. Let's compare her book sales to the sales on my song and see what we come up with.
Clubplanet: How would you react if she approached you to do a song with her in the future?
Kim Zolciak: [Laughs] that is hilarious. I don't know, I mean, she gave me a whole chapter in her book, so she's probably going to come and ask to sing a song, but I don't know, I think I'm doing alright by myself. It's been an emotional experience for me, more than anything, and that's why I'm so grateful that this was successful. It's more than a business deal to me, and I felt like NeNe was just business. I mean, my daughter had a part in it, you know what I'm saying? Also I think my music really reflects me. I say a lot of things like, “I'm on my third glass of wine,” that just reflects me, and her and I are a lot different, so I'm good.
Clubplanet: Would you ever consider doing a song with your daughter?
Kim Zolciak: My daughter does not like to sing. My younger one loves to sing but my older one plays the guitar and is a songwriter. She has a song that I love that I'll probably end up doing on the album later on, but in the next song that I'll be doing, I wrote some of the lyrics, Tracy wrote some of the lyrics and somebody by the name of Angela Scott wrote some of the lyrics, so as far as doing a song with her, I don't know about that.
Clubplanet: What can we expect from the full album? Will the rest of the songs be similar to “Tardy for the Party?”
Kim Zolciak: I know the next song goes along with “Tardy for the Party.” I just know my next two songs, that's as far as I've gotten, so we'll see what happens. I love dance music, it's fun, and I of course want Kandi to be involved in some way. We think Kandi's brilliant and she'll come up with something great, and Tracy too. I mean, I'm excited; I just can't answer what the full album will be.
Clubplanet: But you're leaning more towards dance music rather than country?
Kim Zolciak: Right. I love to sing country music and I have a lot of passion behind it, but dance music is kind of where it's at right now. I mean, I'm not invalidating country, but for me, personally, like I said, you have to have a lot of emotion behind country. To get myself in the studio and really put myself in that element is impossible when I've got cameras around me and everything going on. It's hard to be in your own element and focus on the emotion behind it. Dance is just kind of like you go in, you have fun with it, you sing, you goof off and then it becomes, “Tardy for the Party” [Laughs].
Clubplanet: Tracy, for our readers who want to hear your remix of “Tardy for the Party,” where can they go to download these tracks?
Tracy Young: Now it's everywhere – Beatport, iTunes, Juno, Amazon – it's on, don't quote me on this, like 350 download sites in South America, Europe, everywhere. It's now available overseas, which of course means some more exposure.
Kim Zolciak: I’ve got a lot of fans in different countries. They twitter me, I love it. I just got a twitter early this morning – I couldn't sleep, I've actually been sick. I was tweeting, like “Anybody up?” It was probably 4 a.m. and this guy from Sweden was like, “I'm up! I'm over in Sweden, blah blah blah.” I just love to hear from people all over the world. I went to Mexico last week and people in the airport in Mexico City were freaking! They're watching the first season now I guess, so it's just crazy to go to different countries and for them to know who I am. I love it.
Check out DJ Tracy Young's Remix of "Tardy for the Party" below.
