Little Boots makes big strides to stardom
With size two-and-a-half feet, Little Boots certainly lives up (or down) to her name.
But whether or not the pint-sized popstar can live up to the hype that surrounds her remains to be seen.
The five-foot-nothing 25-year-old, whose real name is Victoria Hesketh, has been tipped as the next big thing by pundits.
Not only did she top the prestigious poll in the BBC's Sound of 2009, but The Guardian claimed 'she lives up to the hype' and The Observer went so far as to print 'If I were Kylie I'd retire on the spot.'
A sceptic might deduce that this hype may, at least in part, have had something to do with the fact that her boyfriend is the NME new music editor, Jaimie Hodgson.
Whatever the case, there's no denying that Little Boots has received some weighty praise from all directions, which must be a hefty burden for the petite young Lancastrian.
But Little Boots is nonchalant.
'I was really pleased to have been named the Sound of 2009, but I didn't really know what it meant at the time. I didn't get what a big deal it was, I just thought "that's nice",' says the singer, who now lives in East London.
When I ask about how it feels to have such hype surrounding her, she simply responds: 'It's cool,' then pauses and adds, 'I mean, it did put a certain amount of expectation on the album.'
The album, Hands, debuted at number five in the charts in June and recently reentered at number 25, where it sits today.
We can expect it to linger in the charts a little longer too, because Boots is hot on the promotional trail.
The poor mite will have performed at 33 festivals by the end of the summer and, during the week she speaks to me, she is not only doing TV and press interviews, but performing in Radio 1's Live Lounge, rehearsing, gigging, writing a song and performing an acoustic set on bebo.
During the course of our 15-minute phone chat, Boots gets out of a taxi at Gatwick, clears customs and takes her seat in the boarding lounge for a flight to Austria, where she'll be performing at yet another festival.
Given her situation, I can understand that her answers are clipped and her tone tense. But after a while, her perfunctory comments become hard work. And being on the other end of the receiver to some rude conversations with airport staff, I start to wonder if Little Boots might be a little too big for her boots.
I have to admit, my heart goes out to her when she bemoans the fact that her 'cab driver had no sense of urgency whatsoever,' and then she was stuck 'at the back of the plane in the middle of two fat men'. We've all been there.
I also had to laugh in agreement, when she exclaimed that 'easyJet is, like, evil.'
Diva attitude aside, I get glimpses of an ordinary girl when Boots talks to me of how she's looking forward to appearing at Bestival next weekend because all her mates are going. So I decide her princessy behaviour is forgivable considering how hard she's working and how she clearly longs for a break.
She has other redeeming qualities too, such as getting involved with charity work. She painted herself blue to help launch Oxfam's climate change campaign for the festival season.
It's hard to believe that barely a year ago this campaign-launching face was virtually unknown.
Boots admits that despite being the epitome of ubercool now, she wasn't one of the in-crowd growing up in the north west of England's Mecca of seaside kitsch, Blackpool.
'I was just kind of normal,' she says.
The eldest of four, Boots began singing aged two and started piano lessons at five. Her father ran a car sales business and petrol forecourt, while her mother was an amateur poet and children's author.
Her musical career began in ernest when she played in various jazz groups at hotels and functions and she even auditioned for Pop Idol, though she's doing well to keep that quiet and maintain her 'serious musician' image.
'I went to one audition when I was very young, but I didn't meet any of the judges or go in front of any cameras,' she insists.
Simon Cowell missed a trick there then.
Boots went to the University of Leeds to take cultural studies but says that internet reports that she wrote her dissertation on 'The Concept Of Originality in the Music of Jamie Cullum' are 'ridiculous'. However, she does own that it was about jazz and did mention Jamie Cullum.
While at uni she formed the band Dead Disco – a nearly-made-it group who played festivals and signed to the 679 record label. But Boots decided that she needed to pursue her solo pop career and her current alter ego was born.
The earnest hook-laden compositions she'd been working on in secret were finally allowed out in the open. The synthesizer addiction she'd obtained in her old band grew tenfold, quickly assembling an arsenal of new toys, including her now trademark light-box Yamaha Tenori-on.
Soon she was documenting her bedroom sets and tinkering on her laptop's webcam, airing a mixture of her own new creations and a unique selection of cover versions, from Wiley's Wearing My Rolex to Haddaway's What Is Love?
'I just did it as a joke at first,' she explains. 'One night me and a friend, who's a drummer, were messing around with a Girls Aloud track and we put it on You Tube as a joke. But after the response it got, we did more.'
Little did she know that within a few months her You Tube artist profile would be one of the UK's most subscribed. Her songs had a life of their own.
Barely had she started and her almighty web buzz had transcended cyber-spheres and was proliferating the industry.
Atlantic, who had bought out 679 (to which she was still partially contracted), were delighted when they heard her solo material and soon work had begun on Little Boots' debut album.
'I was working on the album over most of last year,' says Boots. 'Some of it was from really old demos from when I first left the band,' she continues.
When the high-gloss Midas touch of Greg Kurstin (Kylie, Lily Allen) was added to Boots' quirky bedroom sound, a formidable force was awoken.
Little Boots' music has been described as dance-pop, space-pop, nu-disco, electro and r'n'b, the latter of which she scoffs at and says the simplest way to put it is just 'synth-pop'.
She also says it's unfair to lump her into a category with Lady Gaga, La Roux Ladyhawke and Florence and the Machine because, 'they're all really different.
'Lady Gaga is an international superstar and she's very sexual. I'm not like that. And Ladyhawke and La Roux are both very nostalgic. I have 80s influences, but they're not as obvious.'
Of her chosen genre, Boots says: 'Pop music is the most challenging thing I can do. I think it's really difficult to write a simple clever song that connects with people and is interesting.
'It's a lot harder than doing something really weird and making a lot of noise.'
Hard as it may be, she's certainly getting it right. The diminutive starlet is UK pop music's most talked about new act. And it's not all talk, she had notched-up two television appearances on Later with Jools Holland before she'd even released a record.
Before planet pop had heard anything from Boots, she had exploded onto hipster dance floors with her tracks Meddle and Stuck On Repeat.
Her first big hit, the appropriately titled New In Town, went to number 13 in June. Her next release, Remedy, came out two weeks ago and is currently at number six.
Those in attendance at Bestival next weekend can be sure of a treat when Boots plays not only a live set but also a DJ set. Three days after this swan song of the festival season, Boots is back on the road on a tour of America.
'It's quite a long stint because I'm doing America, Australia and Japan in one go, but I think it will be fun,' says Boots.
She'll be back in the UK by the end of October, before heading off round Germany, Holland and Ireland for a month.
Those with tickets to her tour can expect a good show. The London designer Manjit Deu has made her stage outfits and she's having a Jean Michel Jarre-style laser harp built. But Boots admits that she's a bit nervous about technical difficulties with her hi-tech instruments.
'I had a really weird dream that I got the harp and the lights didn't work, but hopefully it will all be okay for the tour,' she says.
So what's next for Little Boots, after the tour?
'Next year I'm going to be spending a lot of time in America and there's a European tour,' she reveals. 'We've delayed the release of the album there, so I can promote it properly.'
She also discloses that she's working on new material.
'I'm writing a little bit, but not massively. It's mostly soundtrack ideas for a film, not another album. I'm not ready for that yet.'
It's good to know Boots doesn't have ideas above her station because – let's face it – despite all the hype and diva behaviour, she's still flying with easyJet.
Little Boots will be appearing twice at Bestival at Robin Hill Country Park on the Isle of Wight next weekend.
She is performing live on the main stage on Saturday afternoon and she'll be djing at the Rizla Arena (alongside the likes of Lindstrom, Greg Wilson and Jazzie B) on Friday evening.
Little Boots also brings her The Skull of Dreams Tour to a sold-out Concorde 2 in Brighton on October 22.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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