Rare

caitlin // 21 Mar 10 // Music Other People

One Night In Austin :: Pre-Party with Perez Hilton

Minutes before Perez Hilton’s annual One Night in Austin party at The Whitley, I sat down with the man himself in attempt to tap into his celebrity-psyche and future business plans. What I found upon our meeting was a shockingly slim-and-trim man–a far cry from the Perez Hilton of yesteryear–whose images have been plastered across national tabloids almost as often as his celebri-victims. Over the past half-decade of rising to international recognition, Perez has developed into a man running a multi-pronged empire with strict orders to keep any production under his name from derailing, calling all executive shots from the comfort of his very own dressing room.

Let’s dive into the crux of it. What is it that keeps you waking up every morning to do this and maintain your website?

I’ll always do the website forever, it’s not a job for me. It’s how I’m able to express myself, and entertain people, and be creative, and be silly, and have fun. I feel really lucky that I’m able to do something full-time and make a living at it that I enjoy so much. [That] I enjoy too much, almost!

Did you write before?

Yeah, right before the website, the last job I was doing was working as a journalist, working for a lot of the gay publications. But I love what I do now even more, ’cause it’s great to be your own boss.

So, as a blogger, what do you think of the trend of so-called “citizen-journalism”?

I think that I’m very fortunate that I’m working in the media online. [Laughs] That’s where its going, that’s where it has been going, and will only continue to go up. I love that websites like Twitter and Facebook let people share and consume news differently than before. I wouldn’t call them journalists, that’s the word, but I wouldn’t call them that word.

As far as content goes, how do you find the balance between satisfying your fans by giving them the juiciest dirt but also being friends with many celebrities?

I don’t… it’s not… well, one of the great things about the website is that is called “Perezhilton.com.” It’s not called the New York Times. I’m not trying to be objective, nor do I want to objective. I think the fact that I have an opinion is a good thing.

But have you ever rubbed any of your friends the wrong way?

It happens for sure… but most of my friends have a sense of humor, too.

As far as you becoming a celebrity, have you had the tables turn where people are writing about your life?

Yeah. I’m old school, though. I think any press is good press, and I’m not going to ever complain about anything related to fame or celebrity. The only thing I’ll ever complain about is being tired! Because I wake up at 4:30 in the morning, because I gotta be on East coast time.

When do you close up shop?

I don’t ever. I’m always working. But, you know, I try to–on weekends–work a little less.

Do you feel like you have insight into the younger, cultural trends through your job?

I think I do, yeah. That’s one of the reasons why I started talking about Justin Bieber a while ago. It’s my job to know what’s hot, and what’s going to be hot, and jump on that train! And at first people are like “Why are you talking about Justin Bieber, who is Justin Bieber?” But now, everyone is talking about Justin Bieber.

So that brings me to my next question, I once read that you were tapped to be an A+R person for a record label?

Yeah, I still have relationship with Capitol [Records]. I’m working with a lot of artists there. And I’m going to be releasing music from them soon, thankfully.

That doesn’t mean [music] by you, does it?

I’m releasing it on my label through Warner Brothers.

What’s it called?

Perezcious Music. PM. We do more than just records, records are outdated… so, Perezcious Music. I like PM.

How much of your time does that take up?

It takes a good amount of time, especially because a lot of that is relationships, going into the studio, meeting with producers, spending time with the artists, talking and getting feedback. But I love it, so, it makes me happy.

Can you reveal who any of your artists will me?

No, not yet, because it’s not about me either. It’s about them.

As far as fashion goes, you have Cocoperez.com?

Yeah, Cocoperez is going well, and I might be launching a third website soon.

From [Fall 2010] Fashion Week, who really stood out?

Well, in Paris, the McQueen show. It wasn’t a real show, it was a presentation, but that was newsworthy and stuff.

**Two men frantically run in and ask for an interruption: sound check issues with Macy Gray. Her team is not happy with sound check yet, after two hours on stage. They ask Perez what to do. His answer? “We gotta start on time… We need to start on time. Go out there now, and tell them we have to wrap in 5 minutes or DJ A-Track won’t be able to play either. They have one song they can sound check.” The men ask what to tell Gray’s team if they threaten to walk with notice of this hard deadline. “Then, ‘Okay, bye!’” Perez says.**

I’ll take up just one more minute; so, do you have a lot of employees working for you now?

Oh, I have a lot of employees working for me now, because I’m doing so many things. I’ve got my record company, I’ve got my main website, I’ve got my cocoperez website, I’ve got my radio featurette, and I’ve got TV stuff that I’m also doing.

Is there an actual Perez Hilton office?

No, no office… just “people.”

Have you seen any cool acts at SXSW that you’re interested in?

Um [long pause], everyone that I really want to see is performing tonight.

And… what did you want to be as a kid?

[Laughs] When I was a kid… I didn’t think that far ahead.

**One Night in Austin featured performances by DJ A-Track, Soco, Marina and the Diamonds, Alphabeat, Sliimy, VV Brown, Estelle, Snoop Dog, and Courtney Love with Hole.**