The following interview belongs to Charley says POP.

Kat: Hello Charley!

Charley: Hello Kat! How are you?

Kat: Good. Sorry for the wait, it’s been a very, very, very, very long day.

Charley: So I hear! It was very hard to get a hold of you, but I’m glad to hear you.

Kat: Aw, thank you. I’m honoured that you wanted to interview me, so thank you!

Charley: I’m very excited, because I love your music and I’m very glad that you wanted to talk to me.

Kat: Aw… I’m ready for you.

Charley: Ok, how are you feeling about the release of ‘Push Push’?

Kat: Oh wow, very excited. You know, ‘Push Push’ is the first single from my sophomore album, entitled ‘Inside Out’. It’s amazing because it has a dance! You can tell fans to get to www.youtube.com/katdeluna and see the instructional that I’ve done. A lot of fans have already started showing off their moves to ‘Push Push’. And it’s with Akon! Amazing, a good, great friend and he’s had so much success. The video comes out the first week of June.

Charley: I can imagine that it being the proper lead single of your second album brings extra pressure, are you nervous about that?

Kat: I’m not nervous at all. I know I have fans, I know my fans have been waiting for this time and I feel in my heart this is amazing. It’s a hit. What I’m most excited about is for what’s coming up next, the album itself, ‘Inside Out’. It is basically what it’s saying. It came from inside me, within me, to give all of me to my fans. There’s no collaborations on the album besides the one I’ve done with Akon. Vocally the album is stronger than the first one, musically it’s stronger, lyrically it’s stronger. I mean, Charley, it’s been three years. I’ve grown as a woman, as a musician.

Charley: I look forward to hearing that. Is there any date you can tell us?

Kat: Well definitely it is scheduled to come out early fall. I don’t have the exact date yet, but we’ll decide it very, very soon, Charley.

Charley: You were one of the first people to mix pop, dance and R&B in a certain kind of way. How does it feel now more and more artists are releasing this kind of music?

Kat: Amazing, you know, that lets me know that I was doing something right. I had an idea where music was going. RedOne and I got together to make both of our first albums. I was his first artist ever in the United States. He was my first producer ever. We got together and made this album ‘9 Lives’ out of which came ‘Whine Up’, ‘Run The Show’, ‘In The End’ and so on. We had so much success with the sound and look how much he’s grown now. From Lady Gaga to Sean Kingston and Enrique. He’s worked with so many people. My sound has become concrete for me, but has also helped other artists come out and become, if not bigger than me, as big. That’s really good to know, to know that I was a part of a musical movement. That I was, if not the first, one of the first.

Charley: As you said yourself, RedOne is producing for so much artists these days. Do you fear there may come a point when it gets too much?

Kat: What do you mean, specify?

Charley: That people might get tired of that sound or do you feel that he keeps reinventing himself?

Kat: Oh well, I think he himself and the artists he works with… You know, it’s different with every artist. I feel music is music. Me myself I don’t believe that people get tired of a sound. People get tired style wise, but not music.

Charley: Yes, especially when the music is this good.

Kat: I love RedOne, we have a great relationship, but this album, believe it or not, it was produced by a Belgian!

Charley: Yes, so I read!

Kat: I actually met him in my tour that I did last year, when I stopped in Belgium. His name is Andras Vleminckx. He came to my show backstage. He had asked me on MySpace and I let him come. He showed me his music and I was amazed with what I heard, Charley. After that, we kept on recording and recording, so we realised that we were recording an album. That’s how ‘Inside Out’ came about. Everything else that I was recording with other producers I put aside, because I wanted to have a fresh sound. Andras, whose producer name is Eightysix, brought something amazing, dance, electronica with a little bit of Latin infused pop. He’s a young boy, he’s 22, just like me…

Charley: I’m 22 as well!

Kat: You see, I feel like Belgium is a very important place for me in 2008 and 2009. There I met the producer who would eventually lead to recording my sophomore album, which I know will be one of the biggest albums in my career.

Charley: You’ve also had some big hits here, won some awards, did some major performances like the TMF Awards performance.

Kat: Yes, yes, exciting!

Charley: That was amazing, with the thing coming down on stage… That was an amazing performance.

Kat: I know, I was like 30 feet up high! I was so scared, but I said “Let’s do it!” I feel like when I’m in Belgium it’s another home for me.

Charley: That’s so good to hear. Your performance there started with the sample that comes back in ‘Dance Bailalo’. Who comes up with those ideas?

Kat: Well, for that one I came up with it. Actually, ‘Magalenha’ by Sergio Mendes is one of my favourite songs ever since I was in the fifth grade. While I was touring I wanted to do songs… My production team GMB, which is where Andras is part of right now, and I wanted songs to put out there for my fans and that’s how ‘Unstoppable’ came about as well. Lil’ Wayne got on the song and once he was on it we were like “Oh my God, we need to do a video for this”. That’s how the big craziness and loudness of ‘Unstoppable’ came about.

Charley: Are there other songs you’d love to sample or maybe cover? Or do you prefer writing your own stories?

Kat: Most of the time I prefer writing my own stories. I am a writer, I write my music, but I would definitely would want to makeover ‘The Power Of Love’ by Celine Dion. Or I would probably… Hmm… ‘A Sunday Kinda Love’.

Charley: I’m not familiar with that one.

Kat: Ok, let me think of something you’re familiar with. Or what about… Oh my God, you know, there’s so many songs… I’m sorry, there’s just so many beautiful songs. ‘Summertime’! How Ella did it, Ella Fitzgerald. I like a lot of old songs.