MUCH HAS CHANGED SINCE LA ROUX HIT THE CHARTS A DECADE AGO
LA ROUX’S IN FOR THE KILL EXPLODED INTO THE CHARTS FOUR DAYS AFTER ELLY JACKSON TURNED 21. MUCH HAS CHANGED IN THE DECADE SINCE. ALEX GREEN CHATS TO THE STAR ABOUT THE DECLINE OF POP
THE last thing Elly Jackson wants to do is write another Bulletproof. “I’ve been trying to get away from that for years,” she reveals as she chats from her tour bus, as it departs London for Europe.
Elly’s third album comes after a period of soul searching for the London singer.
It’s been more than five years since her last album, tellingly titled Trouble In Paradise, and some four years since she last embarked on a full-scale tour.
The decade since the release of La Roux’s self-titled, platinum-selling debut has been rocky, to say the least. Elly clashed with her former label Polydor, split from her keyboardist and producer Ben Langmaid, and spent a difficult year away from the industry trying to rekindle her love for music.
The result is Supervision – a varied, colourful and optimistic journey through Elly’s recent traumas, challenges and joys.
It may not have matched the commercial success of La Roux’s heyday, reaching only number 20 in the UK albums chart, but it was a hit with critics and fans alike.
For Elly, 31, Supervision is proof she is more than just a purveyor of electro-pop hits.
She says: “When you have that type of pop hit, nobody takes you seriously, however good you are as a musician. You are just a joke.
“However good your pop record was, it’s not like being Prince or George Michael back in the day, where you could have a big hit and be respected.
“I have seen the comments online, for me and other people. They think that when you try and take yourself seriously – as if I haven’t ever before anyway – that it’s some kind of joke. I’m not joking – I really believe in what I do.”
Elly has been labelled spiky due to her refusal to recreate La Roux’s early pop hits and her sometimes brutal honesty.
No longer beholden to any label (Supervision is self-released on her own Supercolour Records), Elly says she is free to tour and record as she likes. Plus, she can speak her mind.
There is a hint of anger in her voice as she comments on the state of today’s charts and bemoans the lack of ‘groove’ in current music.
“I know a lot of people find it cheesy to talk about groove, and think it is a Seventies word – but it’s not. It shouldn’t have been condemned to a stupid word that sounds silly, or is just connected to funk.
“There is no reason why pop music can’t be laden with groove. All my favourite music is. Otherwise Stevie Wonder is just a joke, and Prince is just a joke. It’s not a joke...
“They are all completely and utterly laden with that person’s personality and groove.
“That’s always what I
have wanted for my music.”
Elly will discuss the relationship with her old label and bandmate – but only in general terms.
“I am very much the person who always wants to make something work, even when it clearly doesn’t,” she reflects.
“And that is what I stopped doing in my life generally. You can’t just keep delivering things to people and being the person that other people need you to be.”
This summer she will play a string of UK festivals, including Latitude in Suffolk, before heading to North America for dates in the US and Canada.
But finally getting back on the road meant addressing the legacy of songs, such as Bulletproof and In For The Kill. Elly says she has reworked them, so that they don’t overshadow the slower, more laid-back music of Trouble In Paradise and Supervision. Stripped right back to its synth melody,
Bulletproof has been re-imagined as a louche, George Michael-inspired jam.
“They get the song in the way they want,” she explains. “But they get it in a way that doesn’t make me feel like I have to become a teenager again to perform it.”
Elly was 17, complete with red quiff and Bowie cheekbones, when she formed La Roux with Langmaid. Her hair may have faded to a strawberry blonde, but her opinions remain just as strong. It is the decline of quality pop that irks her most.
“It’s no slight on them,” she says of today’s chart-toppers.
“I’m not sitting here trying to say I’m better – which a lot of people think about me a lot of the time, just because I express my opinion more than other artists dare to, because they’ve got their PRs breathing down their necks. But if you talk to musicians outside of an interview environment, they all totally agree with you.”
So, what’s next for La Roux? “I’m not looking at being La Roux until I’m 65... I don’t think that is going to work,” she reflects.
“I want to do the last half of my career the way I wanted to do the first half. I have very long, intense road ahead of me – but I’m really up for it now.”
There is no reason why pop music can’t be laden with groove. All my favourite music is. Otherwise Stevie Wonder is just a joke, and Prince is just a joke. It’s not a joke...
■ La Roux will play at Latitude Festival at Henham Park, Suffolk, which runs from July 16 to 19.