Stacey Q’s for Real

She’s gotta be a put-on. She can’t be for real.

That’s what you first think when you meet Stacey Q, the dance-music queen best known for her 1986 hits “Two of Hearts” and “We Connect.”

Her hair--moussed into little peaks--and the sexy outfit weren’t that unusual. But how about that teasing, coquettish manner? Or that impish, little-girl voice that’s part Valley Girl and part Betty Boop?

“It’s me,” she said with an embarrassed, tittering laugh. “This is what I am. Maybe some people see me and don’t know what to make of me. I don’t know. I don’t think about such things.”

The pieces just don’t fit. For one thing, the trim, tiny singer, who’s last name is Swain, sounds as if she’s 14 and looks about 20--but is actually 29.

She sings like she talks--in a winsome teen-age voice. As a singer, she’s an ‘80s version of Annette Funicello. Swain’s voice doesn’t pack a wallop. It’s all innocence and sweetness. Couple that voice with a booming beat and some cheerily romantic lyrics and, these days, you have a big hit with the dance-music crowd, which has become a major force in pop music.

Critics, who often love lashing out at the genre’s singers, have been sniping at Swain. One called her a minimal talent. And that was one of her nicer notices.

“It doesn’t bother me personally,” she said, rather unconvincingly. Then she added: “It’s silly to have hurt feelings about things like that. But I’ve had hurt feelings lots of times. I wish people wouldn’t say those things.”

Swain usually gets rapped for her vocals, which are beefed up by special effects--both in the studio and in live shows. “Everyone does that,” she said. “That’s no reason to criticize anyone.”

She did admit, however, to occasionally being fed up with gimmicked vocals. “I get tired of those effects sometimes. After years of recording I’d like to do it differently sometimes. I can sing OK. The vocals are dry (without effects) on ‘Temptation,’ which is a song on the new album. That’s so fun.

“I can sing in a lot of different voices. I can sing low and high and I can sing in a sweet-sounding voice. If people really listened to my singing, they wouldn’t be saying those bad things.”

Swain appeared a little apprehensive that afternoon, sitting in a quiet, sunlit corner of a Beverly Hills restaurant awaiting a limousine to take her to tape a TV guest spot. One source of unrest might have been the fact that her new album, “Hard Machine,” isn’t exactly burning up the charts. That’s because the first single, “Don’t Make a Fool of Yourself,” has been a slow starter.

“It’ll catch on,” Swain said with a confidence that nearly masked her apprehension. “If it doesn’t there’s a bunch of other singles on the album. I’m not at all worried.”

A waiter, who called her Miss Q, came over to take her order and got a full dose of her charm. A vegetarian, she ordered, in the most slyly flirtatious manner imaginable, braised tofu.

“Hard Machine,” which came out in January, was originally scheduled to be a fall release. But there were problems with the first version.

“Nobody was really happy with the first incarnation of the album,” said Swain, who co-writes her material. “A couple of the songs sounded too much the same and didn’t have enough high energy--not as much as the songs on the first album. So we went back and worked on it more.”

“Better Than Heaven,” her first Atlantic Records album, did feature some top-notch dance music. The first big hit single, “Two of Hearts,” was a dance hit on a small, independent label when Atlantic purchased the rights to the single and signed her to record an album.

“We only had two weeks to record that album,” she recalled. “We had to get one out there as quickly as possible to capitalize on the hit single.”

Many mistakenly thought Swain’s first Atlantic album was her debut album. Actually she started recording in 1981. Her first record, with a band called Q, was a pop EP for an independent label. That’s when she began working with Jon St. James, her mentor and the producer of her albums ever since.

Swain, an Anaheim native who grew up as a dedicated classical dance student, got into singing by accident. In 1981, she recorded some vocals as a lark for her pal St. James and has been singing ever since.

That first EP earned her a contract with EMI-America to do a high-tech, synthesizer-dance album called “Playback.” By then the band was called SSQ. When she signed with Atlantic, she became Stacey Q.

Recalling that EMI album, she said, “When you deciphered the lyrics, they were very suggestive. It was a slick, dark, moody album. That band had a lot of weird, perverted fans. I got a lot of sick mail. The way I looked might have attracted the weirdos. I had long bangs and very short hair--like a boy’s.”

That album wasn’t a hit. It was, she suggested, ahead of its time. “I was ahead of my time too,” she said, laughing coquettishly.