She’s the most hyped newcomer since... well, since as long as we can remember. But with her debut album finally here, BBC Sound of '09 winner Little Boots is equal parts nervous and excited.
Victoria Hesketh, a.k.a. arriving synth-rock goddess Little Boots, has a head full of worries. Are paparazzi watching from the bushes? Will the media savage her hyped-to-the-eyeballs debut album? When is she going to find time to do her laundry?
“If I’m lucky I get one day off a month at the moment,” sighs the 25-year-old Blackpool native, “which is a pain because I’ve got a bloody ton of laundry to go through. I don’t know how I’m going to find the time.”
So deafening has been the clamour surrounding her recently released long-play debut, Hands, Hesketh admits to worrying that the public might start to go off her.
“I keep expecting a backlash,” she says, shielding her eyes from the balmy summer sun. “There’s been so much hype, when the album finally came out I was like, ‘Oh, no, the reviews are going to be awful!”
To her surprise and delight, the verdict has actually been overwhelmingly positive. Everybody, it appears, adores Little Boots’ disco-saturated pop – indeed certain commentators are going so far as to hail her as Generation Y’s very own Kylie Minogue.
“Actually I met Kylie once,” Hesketh reveals. “We didn’t talk very long. What do you say to Kylie? She seemed nice. Not at all full of herself. She’s tiny like me [Hesketh is a pixie-ish five foot nothing]. If anything, I think that’s where the comparison comes from – the fact that we’re both kind of small.”
You can understand why she feared a backlash. Since placing first in the increasingly influential BBC Sound of Poll in January (past winners include Duffy and Mika) Little Boots has been marketed with a ferocity not witnessed since the Spice Girls heyday.
“The funny part was, I had no idea the BBC Poll was that big deal until I won it. I sensed the media would pay attention to it. But not this much attention. It gave me such a high profile. And yes, that does put a lot of pressure on you. The thing is, pressure makes you work harder – and ultimately, if you succeed, it’s so much more rewarding.”
Still, it’s not as if she’s got the retro-synth diva field to herself. Lurking several places lower on the Sound Of ‘09 leaderboard is flame-haired ingenue La Roux, whose ‘80s flavoured electro pop isn’t a thousand light years removed from Little Boots’ oeuvre (technically La Roux are a duo, but redhead Elly Jackson is the act’s public face). Are they both chasing the same market?
“No, I don’t think so. It’s not a war. People have asked me about La Roux a lot. It’s not as if we’re the only two singers putting out albums this year. There’s lots of space for everyone. It’s about good music.”
It’s been a circuitous and unlikely journey to the top for Hesketh. Though she’s knocked around in go nowhere indie bands for years, her first crack at a mainstream career came in 2005 when she auditioned for Pop Idol. Alas, she flunked before she even got to the ‘humiliated by Simon Cowell’ stage.
“Simon wasn’t there – none of the TV judges were. It wasn’t an unpleasant experience. Everyone was very nice. They said, ‘You’re really good but we’ve got loads of entrants so sorry.’ It made me thick-skinned. Rejection can be good for you, if you know how to deal with it. In all honesty, it wasn’t something I’d given a huge amount of thought to. I went with my friend for a laugh. Not being picked didn’t shatter my dreams.”
Rather than taking the reality TV route to fame, Hesketh followed a more low-profile path. Twelve months ago, having quit her latest band, she posted several home-recorded demos onto MySpace, where they came to the attention of Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard. He contacted her out of the blue, looking to hook up as producer. It wasn’t long before the major labels began to circle – when she finally signed to Warner, they hooked her up with Greg Kurstin, the LA songwriter who’s worked with Kylie and penned much of Lily Allen’s new record: “Greg and I have a great connection. He’s a pleasure to work with. While he’s full of ideas, he knows it’s a collaboration. He’s not trying to turn me into someone I’m not.”
As anyone who’s walked its puke-spattered Victorian promenade will attest, Blackpool is a weirdly English mixture of faded glory and boozy squalor. Listening to Little Boots’ music, with its collision of candyfloss beats and dark lyrics, it’s tempting to read the duality as a reflection of her upbringing.
“Blackpool is definitely a big part of who I am,” she reflects. “Maybe subconsciously it’s influenced me. It can be a strange place – there’s such a difference between the summer, when it’s in season and winter, when all the holiday makers have gone home. It’s two different places.”
As the buzz turned deafening this spring, Hesketh found herself making history: she was the first artist to appear twice on Jools Holland without having actually released any music. She vividly remembers the pre-show jitters – and the moment Annie Lennox took her aside to give her a pep talk.
“We got to talking afterwards and she said that if I never needed any advice, I should call her up. Which was very sweet of her.”
Little Boots first popped up on hipster raiders last year, when Hesketh was marketed as a bedsit-bound DIY ‘tronica artist. Since Warners got its claws into her, it’s fair to state her image has changed somewhat. Subjected to the sort of make-over usually reserved for Hollywood starlets about to alight on an Oscar night red carpet, the girl next door-ish Hesketh has been transformed into a slinked-up glamour-puss – a makeover she’s been happy to go along with.
“It feels natural. I’ve had the same stylist for a year. We work together. It’s not as if they’re trying to impose something on me. And anyway, I haven’t got the time – it’s not as if I can call up a designer and say ‘can you lend me some dresses for a party.’ There are too many other things do to.”
Such as avoiding paparazzi, who are increasingly starting to train their long-lenses on Hesketh.
“I don’t mind them at parties. You expect that sort of stuff. It’s when they start following you on the way to the shops. They’re like flies. They buzz about and no matter how hard you swat they won’t go away. I suppose that’s what my life is like at the moment. It feels like I’m in the eye of the storm. Expectations for the album have been so huge that, now that it’s finally here, it’s an enormous relief.”
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Hands is out now. Little Boots headlines the Hot Press New Band Stage at Oxegen on Saturday July 11.
