Music interview: La Roux at the O2 Academy Bristol

Thursday 12th November 2009

Crackerjack talks to La Roux – the crazy-haired latest in a long line of feisty female stars

This year has been all about the rise of the slightly unconventional female artist. Little Boots, Lady GaGa , Florence And The Machine, VV Brown and La Roux, who’s set to play Bristol later this month.

Anyone who thinks they don’t need to hear another electro pop-singing twenty-something, however, would be missing out on something truly special.

Breathing new life into the synthesizer-powered pop of Eighties pioneers such as Yazoo, Human League and Eurythmics, La Roux – aka 21-year-old Elly Jackson – has been a phenomenal success in 2009.

Mention this success to Elly, and she goes from confident and outspoken to nervous worrier in the blink of an eye.

“At the moment every day is a bit different, some days I feel good and others I feel stressed,” she says. “I just want to do my best. We were working on the album for five years.”

The “we” refers to co-songwriter Ben Langmaid. That’s right, La Roux’s not strictly a solo artist, but as Ben has no desire to appear on stage or do any promotional work, Elly is well and truly the face of the outfit.

“Some days I think, ‘how did you get away with not doing any interviews?’,” she says, laughing.

La Roux roughly translates from the French for ‘red-haired one’, a nod to Elly’s flame-coloured, highly coiffed mane, so any confusion about her being a solo act is understandable.

“My mood all depends on how tired I am,” she continues. “I think definitely over the last few weeks I’ve been asked about pressure and I just say, ‘I’m fine’, but I had a moment recently where I was like, ‘maybe I do feel a bit pressured’ – it’s the pressure of what this job involves.”

Elly then explains how she constantly worries about letting people down or getting ill and not being able to perform. She recounts a particularly harrowing night where she got so worried about the prospect of losing her voice and having to cancel some scheduled gigs that she couldn’t sleep, and lost her voice as a result.

“It’s just not acceptable to do an OK gig, it’s all got to be the best it can be, so I’m freaking out about not letting anyone down lately.”

The truth is, she really needn’t worry. From the moment second single In For The Kill was released and duly headed for the No 2 chart spot, the crowd have been on her side, managing to turn early media support into bona-fide success.

The follow-up single, Bulletproof, debuted at No 1.

Add to that her debut album, released back the summer which also went to No 2 in the chart.

Had a certain King Of Pop not passed away that same week, it’s an absolute certainty the album would have hit the top spot.

“We were taken aback by that success,” she says.

“We didn’t expect In For The Kill to do quite that well that quickly, even more so with the album.

“It wasn’t like I was jumping for joy, or anything,” she says, doing her very best not to sound ungrateful.

“When you hear you’re No 2 in the charts, it’s great, but you can’t feel it. It’s just a fact, and it’s very hard to feel a fact.”

Elly and Ben met via a mutual friend “about five years ago” and after getting to know each other they began recording her folk songs, which reflected her parents’ love of the likes of Nick Drake, Carole King and Neil Young.

After trying, and failing, with that, they went back to the drawing board, put away their acoustic guitars and plugged in the synths.

“It’s been building for such a long time, and the music has changed a lot, too, so it hasn’t felt like it’s been the same baby for the whole five years. It does feel like the whole year has been building towards these past couple of weeks though.”

Earlier this year, Elly got a taste of the big time when she was invited by Lily Allen to support her on tour.

The jump from 200-capacity venues to small arenas and town halls could overwhelm some, but Elly, daughter of former The Bill actress Trudie Goodwin, says she found it easier to play bigger stages.

“I loved that tour, loved it,” she says, animatedly. “It’s easier to relax when it’s not your tour because people aren’t hanging on your performance or judging you.

“You’re just the support act. It’s so much easier to mess about on stage every night.”

As well as performing to big crowds each night, she also learned a few lessons from Miss Allen about how to react to fans.

“There would be big crowds outside the stage door each night and I would see Lily outside signing autographs for an hour or so,” she says.

“That sort of attention has to be a good sign, it means people like your music and they’re interested in what you’re doing, and fans are the people that buy your record, they come to your gigs and make your career. You just have to turn up and say hello. It’s not a big deal.”

Elly has, however, also tasted the less desirable side of fame and had a few brushes with aggressive paparazzi photographers, eager to get a snap of this year’s hottest act.

“I was in London, getting into a cab and two photographers stopped me and said I could either get out of the car and have my picture taken, or they were going to follow me home, so of course I wasn’t going to give them a picture because I don’t want to court that sort of attention. They then followed me home.

“It was like being in a James Bond film – a really bad James Bond film, without any gadgets to get rid of them, just me in a cab being followed by these really aggressive photographers. They’re only doing their job, but God, get a new job!”

It’s a particularly negative side to modern celebrity, but with a successful album, a string of hit singles and her current tour, it’s one La Roux will have to get used to.”

La Roux plays the O2 Academy on Friday, November 20. The gig is sold out but ring 0844 477 2000 for returns.