Nestled in the pillows of a vast couch in the airy lounge of East London’s exclusive members club Shoreditch House, is Victoria “Little Boots” Hesketh. With an oversized grey crystal dangling around her neck, wearing a kid-sized purple T-shirt depicting an elaborate fantasy scene – it’s got a fish
and two deer, pretty genius – the 24-year-old is contemplating her favourite subject: pop music.
“Weird pop is the best, the songs that are really big, but still odd,” she says excitedly. “Like ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Kate Bush, so weird, but so amazing and universal.”
It’s barely 10AM, but her enthusiasm is infectious. Little Boots Victoria has refined her knack for marrying insistent melodies and knowing exactly how many times to reproduce them for maximum memorability. Her songs bubble with ideas: cosmic harmonies, military drum beats and a riot of swirling synths, a nod to her favourite era of Italo-disco played with her own classically-trained hands. But more on that later.
Here are a few things you should know about Ms. Hesketh:
1. She was tipped this year as BBC’s Sound of 2009
(last year’s winner was chart-topping, international star Duffy).
2. Her not-quite-finished debut album contains the production wizardry of Joe “Hot Chip” Goddard, Jas “Simian Mobile Disco” Shaw and Greg “producer to the stars” Kurstin.
3. World famous DJ Tiesto recently approached her to collaborate on some tunes.
4. Her YouTube account is as active as her MySpace featuring “Funtime Covers”: quirky renditions recorded in her bedroom of everything from Alphabeat to The Human League to Madonna.
5. Little Boots’ music will make you dance. Every single time. She might be tiny but Boots has got her big blue eyes set on the pop chart prize.
You moved down to London from Blackpool in January 2008. It must have been quite a change to go from a Northern seaside resort to the capital.
It was a massive change but it was something I wanted to do for ages. I first came down when I was about eight and I fell in love as soon as I got off the train. It’s a bit frustrating in the North because there is a bit of a thing like, ‘Oh they think they’re better than you down south, you won’t like it, it’s full of twats, no one is friendly, no one has soul.’ I did have a bad Northern complex. I was really paranoid and thought people were talking and laughing at my accent, I didn’t want to talk because I felt stupid. Ridiculous now, but I seriously felt it, but you get over it so quickly.
Do you find London inspiring?
I go through phases of being mad at the whole London bubble. Sometimes it gets silly. People believe their own nonsense. When I feel like that I just go back to Blackpool because it’s so much more real. It’s just really good to be like, ‘This is the real world and this is where you need to sell records.’ But then it’s so creative in London too, even for all the haircuts that are around, there are still loads of amazing people. I think the change from going from one extreme to the other was dead inspiring and that’s made its way into the songs.
What made you ask for a piano at the insanely young age of four?
I was really trying hard to think about this the other day and I have no idea! I started going to ballet at three and I was shit. I could never really dance, but I liked all the songs. We couldn’t afford a piano and then this pub was closing down and it had this old horrible one that stunk of booze. My mum got it for £30 and cleaned it religiously and I just used to plonk away. I’ve never looked back. My dad is really tone deaf. I remember singing nursery rhymes when I was two and we recorded it on a cassette. My mum still has it, me singing “Animal Crackers” and stupid songs.
How was it growing up with three brothers?
They’re a good lot. I’m very sociable and I hope it’s made me more open to people. I don’t take any shit and I can put up a bloody good fight! We all used to bully each other and take the piss. I take the piss out of everyone, even now.
You spent a lot of time in Los Angeles writing with Greg Kurstin [who has worked with the likes of Lily Allen, Flaming Lips, Pink, Donna Summer and Kylie Minogue]. What was that experience like?
In 2007 I was out there with my old band Dead Disco. The rest of the band left and I was on my own in LA and had to write songs. I was in this big apartment with a car in this huge city where I didn’t know anyone. Every time I’ve been to LA it’s been massive amazing highs and really dark lows when I’m crying and I want to come home. Real extremes. I think it’s just that kind of place. I actually wrote my song “New In Town” when I was out there. I think a lot of the songs are about being an outsider.
What did Greg bring to the table?
He’s definitely one of the big pop writers, he’s ridiculously talented and cool, but I’d totally lost confidence in my writing by the end of Dead Disco. I will naturally write big poppy choruses and the band were not really into that. He said, ‘You could totally write songs for Kylie, you should pursue it, you’re as good as the people I’ve worked with.’ For a while I was just thinking of being just a songwriter. Now I can walk into a studio and be like right, [rubs hands together] let’s make some hits, whereas before I’d be scared.
Do you miss Dead Disco?
You’re so close when you’re in a band because you do stuff together all the time. But we had quite a weird relationship because they’d known each other for such a long time. Now I do so much and I realise I probably wasn’t vocal enough in decisions. I do like writing with people because you’ll think of stuff you’d never think of on your own. But I think when you’re in a band you’ve got to always think about the personality of the group and what it’s trying to be. You have to all agree, and I found that quite restrictive. Now if I want to do a blog or something stupid, I don’t have to get everyone’s thumbs up. When you first get signed you’re kind of naïve. You don’t know what you’re doing but it meant this time it was so much easier. I knew what I wanted.
For this new incarnation you bleached your brown hair white-blonde.
I’d been threatening to for ages. During my teen years I was really rebellious and I hated any Barbie doll type girls, so I was like, ‘I’ll never go blonde.’ Naturally I’m mousy brown and I had black hair for ages, but I think it was tied to the fact that I wanted a musical rebirth. I didn’t want to be associated with what came before I wanted a fresh start, a clean break.
Do you get more attention?
Not really, a lot of people say it looks better dark! I’m trying to get it silver right now. But not grey.
It’s a fine line!
Have you always been comfortable onstage?
I used to play piano in recitals but I was always scaredof singing in public. It wasn’t till I was 13 and I got a musical scholarship that I was made to do more singing. I’ve written songs since I was a teenager but I wouldn’t show them to anyone because I was so scared. In Dead Disco I remember giving them a CD of my stuff and being so embarrassed!
You often call yourself a nerd. Is it then strange to find yourself DJing at the coolest hipster parties?
I just find the whole hipster scene silly. The coolest thing you can do is have fun and make exciting things. It’s funny that my song gets played at Durrr. Or being top of the blogs on the Hype Machine for several days! It weirds me out too. I feel really guilty being above the Killers – they’re like, one of my favourite bands! We haven’t even put anything good out yet!
“Stuck on Repeat”, which was produced by Joe Goddard, has a hint Italo-Disco influence and you often DJ obscure tunes from that era. What is it about the genre that appeals to you?
Loads of Italo songs are just really good pop songs. That era of late-’70s-early-’80s I like pretty much across the board because that’s when synthesizers were first being used. There was still a real naïveté, people didn’t know how to fit them in or what to do with them. Plus they try to be a bit American, but they’ve got these big thick accents and they’re saying all these dark words because they don’t really know what they’re talking about.
How was working with Joe?
He has a way with sounds that’s really original. It’s really electronic but really organic at the same time.
With electronic music it’s so easy for it to sound cold, perfect and soulless. Joe’s take is always a mix of sounds and synths so it just feels real, almost breathing, you can feel that they’re alive. It would be pretty easy to make a cool, Italo-inspired album with some drifty girl vocals over the top, but that’s not going to connect with loads of people. We’re just like, ‘Fuck it! Let’s go for a big pop song.’
Why did you start doing the “Funtime Covers”?
Picasso says, “inspiration has to find you working.” I was getting nowhere, sitting at home trying to write. I was like, ‘Right I’ve got to record a song everyday. If I haven’t written a song I have to record a cover.’ That was my rule for a little while. Dev [Hynes of Lightspeed Champion] and I started emailing each other covers. I covered “Galaxy Of The Lost” and he liked it, and then he sent me a Killers cover and I sent him Elton John. I then did a cover of Girls Aloud’s “Sexy No No No” with Anna Prior [Victoria’s best friend, the old drummer from Dead Disco who now plays in Lightspeed Champion].
We recorded it on the web cam and put it on YouTube for a joke. Loads of people messaged us and I did another one next week. Originally I wanted to do it with different people every week but trying to get people to come round your house to do a bad piano cover is hard!
How ambitious are you?
I don’t want to put limits on anything. I want to take this as far as I can. I’ll never be satisfied and that’s maybe not always a good thing. All my life, whatever I’ve got, I’ll want more or bigger, so I’ll just always keep reaching in some way. Right now I want to make a massive pop album. I always set myself ridiculous targets and work really hard and then when they start happening it’s a bit like, ‘Fuck! What have I opened up here?’
Unlike many musicians who DJ on the side, you can actually mix!
I went on the Wonky Pop tour as a DJ, and I learnt how to mix out of boredom. I would set myself little
challenges. I can do a few tricks, but with DJing it’s a permanent battle to stay on top of it. You need to go on the blogs, get all the hottest songs and play them that night. I really love it, but I’m never going to be amazing. A lot of people dedicate 20 years to it. I’m more into my music and my live thing.
What’s it like playing to audiences as Little Boots?
I’m finding my legs again because I hadn’t played live in a year and so far we’ve only done a handful of shows. You’ve got to be an entertainer and a performer, and if you’re not you’re a bit screwed really. Sure, you can have great songs but you have to get them across to people. I’m so used playing indie discos that are half empty where people stand and look at you and now everyone is up for it. It’s a party atmosphere. Before, onstage I was trying so hard to be a rock chick and now every part of me is so ingrained in my songs. You just give yourself.End
