Hot Press Meets AlunaGeorge

They’ve only known each other since 2009, but George Reid has already had one of those “you’ve changed, man” moments with his singing partner Aluna Francis. He’s confessed that, when meeting Aluna initially, his first thought was “why aren’t you a pop star?” Fast-forward to a plush hotel before the pair attended the 2013 BRIT Awards, and further diva qualities were surfacing.

“I came into the room,” George chuckles, before throwing Aluna an accusatory glance, “and she was sitting there getting her hair ‘done’ and her nails ‘did’. Her nails were literally being blown on! She’s there, in front of the mirror, glass of champagne...”
Sat this evening in a suite in Dublin’s Central Hotel, the pair descend into giggles on their couch, as they are often wont to do.
“And I was like,” starts Aluna, trying to compose herself, “’George, can you steam my dress for me?’!”
If you’re wondering, George shrugged, sighed, and duly obliged, which we all agree is exactly the kind of thing that will help this musical partnership go the distance.
They’ve come a long way already. Their tale starts with some MySpace nostalgia – you’re not going to make it relevant again, Mr. Timberlake – as the pair met online and discussed collaborating. At the time, George was playing math-rock and Aluna was working on obtuse music.
“The first thing we did was get in the studio together,” nods Aluna. “We didn’t hang out without the instruments being there.”
They got to know one another during lunch breaks, with things like “how do you make a toasted sandwich?” being key early discussions. AlunaGeorge’s debut album Body Music is filled with compelling hooks as they hit pop’s sweet spot time and again. But they’re also not afraid to add a little weirdness. Where modern chart R&B seems to be in thrall to production-line, Calvin Harris house, AlunaGeorge harken back to the glory days of primetime Timbaland and Aaliyah. This is a kind of melting pop, allowing for genre-hopping and experimentation.
If their previous projects seem exhausting, AlunaGeorge is infectiously fun. They don’t seem to take themselves too seriously.
“What makes you think that?!” Aluna roars.
“The music is fun,” George agrees. “The weird thing is that the sounds set the mood but we always throw a sound or lyric in there just to... kill the mood! A key change is classic. We completely wimped out and got rid but then we decided to man up and put it back in.”
Aluna nods. “We missed it! We’ve all missed the key change since it ended up as the sole preserve of Westlife for those ‘time to get up off the stools, lads’ moments.”
“Exactly, they’re not around anymore!” says George. “It’s a case of not being afraid to have something in your song that sounds a little bit stupid but you dig it. So just run with it. You hear a lot of the same things and it’s very easy to want to emulate what you enjoy, but you should try your own thing. You might sound like a bit of a dick but at least you can grab people’s attention. That’s the way I look at it.”
In keeping with the carefree vibe, AlunaGeorge seem refreshingly pleased with the attention. Having ranked second in the BBC Sound Of 2013 list, plenty of people have been hoping that their first LP comes close to matching their flawless run of single releases – ‘Attracting Flies’, ‘Just A Touch’, ‘Your Drums, Your Love’ et al – to date.
“It’s a blessing, there wasn’t any expectation not so long ago,” says George.
Aluna picks up an imaginary telephone: “‘Hey Mom, just wrote a new track. Hm, yeah... think it’s quite good.’ That was the extent of it. We’ve moved on from there!”
Aluna hangs up her imaginary phone. If there’s any justice in the world, the real ‘big news’ calls to home will just get bigger and bigger from this point on.