Diva Divo - Dance Magazine

Kim Sozzi has an opinion on most things… including other singers.

“There are so many great singers in the dance world,” she tells me. “And then there are people I won’t mention… who really don’t belong singing!”

While she’s not naming names, the comment is a refreshing breath of honesty from a straight-shooting starlet. Sozzi is quick witted and hard working; even during our interview, she’s jumping between phone lines to handle business calls. And the last few years have been good to Kim, with singles like “Break Up,” “Alone,” and “How Did You Know?” (with MYNT) raising her profile to the top tier of dance music divas. But as she prepares to drop “Shimmer,” her fall single and a sneak peek at her upcoming full-length album, Sozzi knows she still has a lot to prove in a genre known for manufactured talent.

“I did a performance one time, and the DJ – I won’t mention his name - accused me of lip synching!” she exclaims with horror. Coming from a family of musicians, Sozzi did not take the accusation lightly. “It was completely offensive. I come from a live background, totally. That’s what I thrive on: live performance. So it was completely offensive.” Leave it to Kim to have the last word: “I basically sang the song acapella for him, because I was flipping out!”

While she may have been incensed at the unnamed DJs harsh charge of fakery, Kim also understands why people are skeptical of real talent in the music business: “The point is, so many dance artists do lip sync at their shows,” she says. “Or they’re doing so much choreography that they can’t [physically] sing… even if they can sing. A lot is done in the studio, too. There are definitely great singers, and then there’s stuff that’s an act… just like in any business.” But whatever you do, don’t mistake Kim for the latter. “I just don’t want to be taken for someone who can’t sing, or someone who isn’t the real deal,” she says. “Because I am.”

Indeed, that talent and confidence has taken Kim far. Signed to Columbia Records at just 19 years old, Kim wasn’t even sure that the music business was her calling. “I never thought I would do this,” she says of professional singing. “My dad is a musician and I never thought I wanted to live his lifestyle – all nights and weekends and crazy hours! I was like, ‘I want a 9 to 5! I’m going to be normal!’” She laughs. “But I totally followed in my father’s footsteps, two hundred percent. I loved doing it, so I kept doing it.”

At first, Sozzi was groomed as a singer/songwriter, recording an album she describes as “acoustic pop rock” and likens to the sound of Michelle Branch and Avril Lavigne. She even toured the Lilith Fair circuit with Sarah McLachlan… before finding herself “accidentally” dropped right into the middle of the dance floor.

“I was working with the Berman Brothers,” she says of the famed 90s House music producers. “I was signed to their production team, and I had a song called ‘Feelin’ Me.’ They did a remix of it, along with Hex Hector and Jonathan Peters. They helped me put together this CD single, and it went up the dance charts!”

Kim furthered her work in the club world by headlining the group MYNT alongside Rich Pangilinan (aka DJ Riddler). Though they scored a hit track straight out of the gate (“How Did You Know?”), Sozzi’s affiliation with the band was brief and she left the group shortly after their debut album was released. “Unfortunately, our friendship suffered,” she says of her relationship with Riddler. “As we became more successful, they [the other members] wanted to be known just under the name MYNT. I felt I had built my name to a certain level, and I wasn’t willing to do that.” Still, Sozzi says she wasn’t trying to hog the limelight. “I would be happy to be a collective group, but I didn’t want to be known just as MYNT,” she explains. “I would like to share the spotlight… I don’t have to have all of it, but I would at least like to share it.” In the end, no bridges were burned: “We had a falling out,” she says. “But we’ve since put that behind us.”

The rest, as they say, is history. Though her upcoming album on Ultra Records will be her first full-length release as a solo dance act, Sozzi’s previous work has already racked up an impressive number of major club anthems. What’s more, she has no plans to abandon the genre that embraced her: while she calls upcoming single “Shimmer” a “pop/rock, Kelly Clarkson-ish track,” it’s also a synthesis of styles. “I’m going to incorporate what I’ve been doing the last 6 years,” she says of the song. “I’m going to get some killer dance remixes for it.” And she’s calling in the big guns for this one: “Peter Luts and I have been speaking… he’s definitely going to be doing a mix!”