Groove is in the Heartland

Lady Kier has already apologized to Chicago once this year. The former Deee-Lite front woman worked the crowd at Northalsted Market Days in August both as DJ and briefly onstage to smooth over a faux pas at 2004's fest.

"This year was kind of making up for the last year," she says with a laugh. "We got there and they had two turntables and no mixers because it was basically a stage for like, live stuff. I had to be kind of cute and walk off stage. So we decided we'll come back this year and do it again."

Kier won't need to be apologetic at her live show this week at Circuit. The singer is reemerging with her first new material since Deee-Lite called it quits in 1995.

"To be honest, I was just worn out," says Kier of her Deee-Lite era. "We did three albums in three years and two world tours and it was just giving, giving, giving." Kier decided to take a break both from recording and living in the United States.

"I made some money so I could do whatever I wanted. I always wanted to live in Europe. I lived in England for ten years. [England] was an obvious choice because it is a totally different culture, but the same language."

It was during this break that she began experimenting as a DJ. "[Performing and deejaying] are totally different. Performing is like, you're really giving a lot and it's from you. Whereas deejaying, you're playing all the things that you gravitate toward that you love, so it's not really you. It's just your taste."

It also gave her the chance to be creative with the music she loves. "I really try to change every sample, raga, hip-hop, house. I'm playing a lot of disco as kind of the base, a lot of kind of punky funk. Anything goes."

Anything, that is, but spinning old Deee-Lite material. "I feel weird doing it," says Kier. "To me, deejaying is not about really promoting myself, but promoting these records I love."

During this hiatus, Kier began writing songs sans her former bandmates. "When I left, I tried to learn how to play keyboards and guitar and stuff. I just got fully immersed. It was like, what is that Greek term, like the muses on the rocks where they just kind of lure you in? Everybody was like, You should be up onstage, and I was like, No, I just want to learn how to do this."

This experimentation helped Kier find the sound that Chicago will be among the first to hear on Saturday 26. "I just gravitate toward everything I love and try to fuse it," Kier says. "I've studied jazz, I've got the gospel-electro and straight-up funk. I'll try uptempo, downtempo, dance stuff—it's bipolar grooving!"

While getting the masses to groove is Kier's specialty, it was the combination of dance music with socially progressive lyrics and outrageous fashion that made Deee-Lite stand out.

"My mom was a hippie, a real hard-core feminist. So I was really butch. I was like a drag king, to be honest. When I met the drag queens in New York at the Pyramid, I was just like, Wow, makeup. Because of my mom's influence, I was always really into working in your community and going on peace marches and interested in politics. So I felt like...why not do something energetic and fun and playful, but still be like the yippies?"

Her appearance at Circuit is just the beginning. In the spring, Kier plans on releasing a solo album and will continue with a live act that she hopes will bring in new audiences and appease her Deee-Lite fan base.

"We want to do something kind of cabaretish. Hopefully, in time, we'll have this multimedia show. We're just taking baby steps."

For the first time in years, Kier will play old material. "The [show] in Chicago will be the first time I'll be doing some of Deee-Lite's stuff. I never felt like I could do that because it's a band, it was very much the three of us."

Lady Kier will deee-lite the crowd at Circuit on Saturday 26.