ATTITUDE | EDIT Words Joe Stone

BIG GAY FOLLOWING Ginger swan

Girl’s Aloud’s Nicola Roberts used to be the quiet and gawky one in the girlband. But with the release of an album of her own heartfelt songs she is now a musical force to be reckoned with

xcitement about a Nicola Roberts solo project has been expectation thrust upon it. The single, produced by Diplo and collecting like molten lava since she first began to emerge with rapped verses, at once defies all reasonable expectations and Eas the most intriguing member of Girls Aloud. Initially simultaneously sounding like a continuation of Girls Aloud’s dismissed as the gawky one who made a blink-and-you-miss-it sound – bold, brave and deliciously bonkers. cameo in their first video for Sound Of The Underground, Nicola’s Of course, there were early indications that Nicola would become early legacy has in some ways been the making of her, as we’ve the group’s most exciting solo prospect. She wrote and recorded watched her make a very public transition from shy teenager to faultless solo performances on both their second and third albums front-runner as heir to the group’s o!-kilter pop sensibilities. (I Say A Prayer For You and fan favourite It’s Magic respectively), It’s a shift that is referenced in her debut solo outing Beat Of My and as a result was invited to join pop production powerhouse Drum (‘Two left feet I had no beat, baby in the corner keep up… Xenomania as a songwriter. When Julie Burchill described Girls oh, don’t it make your heart go wow, how I’ve turned this whole Aloud as having created a new genre, ‘panty-liner punk’, it was thing around?’), a pop manifesto that brusquely demolishes any Nicola who best exemplified its ethos. She famously reacted to fears that her solo output could never live up to the weight of Matt Willis’s accusation that she was ‘a rude ginger bitch’ by

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wearing a skirt printed with the legend: ‘I’m a rude ginger bitch… A Is it right that the album was pretty much finished by the time Bothered?!’ at a G.A.Y. gig, and reportedly responded to a pushy you signed your deal? journalist wondering why she’d been so quiet during an interview N I didn’t have a deal. So I did it like a new artist would, make their in which bandmate Sarah had been given a hard time with the flat own record and develop their own sound, and then present the riposte ‘because I don’t speak to cunts’. record and try to get a deal. I only had my deal at Christmas. Flash-forward to 2011 and Nicola has created an album that A Do you think not having a label’s input during the creative couldn’t have been made by anyone else. Lyrically, it is at times process gave you greater freedom to experiment? heartbreakingly frank (of her initial struggles with the press she N I didn’t necessarily plan to put a record out. I was at the studio sings, ‘How funny that I was too young for so many things/Yet you and I was e!ectively writing my own record, but I said that I thought I’d cope with being told I’m ugly/Over and over …’) while would only ever put it out if I was 100% proud of it and confident sonically owing more to M.I.A. and Robyn than Cheryl or Nadine. in what I’d created. I didn’t want the pressure of having a deal, or Below, she discusses her decision to go solo, interviewing Gaga and having everybody knowing I was working on a record, to then be the supposed rift in Girls Aloud. … summoned to release a load of shit. I couldn’t have done that to

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get is a skim of the surface… I don’t know what else you want, because that’s what I feel and that’s what I’m thinking, so that’s what is coming out. I think it’s important that people can relate to the record. If not, what is the point? I’m not making a record to be self-indulgent, I’m making it because I have an amazing time doing it. But also because I want people to relate to it – that’s what I look for when I buy a record. A It’s interesting that it’s come full circle, in that you were initially perhaps seen as the most guarded member of the band. N I was just frightened of being judged all the time, and if you feel like that you are guarded. I was petrified. I was young and shy and there was myself. So I had to do it the other way Nicola in the I can write songs, and I enjoy it.’ So a time when I was actually quite sad around. That was more rewarding, early days of although I loved to write music and to as a person. It’s unfortunate that that Girls Aloud not having everything sorted or sing, in terms of reality and the public persona was given o! by me, but decided by the label. Having that time perception and everything else that I didn’t know what else to do. to develop as a singer and songwriter, comes with doing your own record, A Have you found that negative I’m just so thankful that I’ve learnt there’s no way I could have done it. comments have motivated you? that much. I’ve had so much fun A You’ve worked with all sorts of N No. They don’t. I don’t care. I making the record I wanted to make. people on this record, from Diplo to motivate myself enough because A When did you first have an inkling Metronomy. As all five Girls Aloud I kick myself up the arse every day. that you’d like to make a solo record? albums were written and produced Working with the people I have N We’d just finished the Coldplay gig, with Xenomania, was it strange going makes me step up to the opportunity. which is the last thing that the band in to the studio with new producers? If you don’t when you’re given did together. I felt very frustrated N More so because everyone at opportunities like that then you’re an with myself and I had to get back Xenomania works in a very specific ungrateful cow. I am a perfectionist to into the studio, whether it was to way. The professionalism that you an unhealthy degree, but that’s how make a solo record or not. I felt like, learn there is instilled in you, so if I get it perfect. I hear the song the way ‘Nicola, you’ve wanted to be a singer you go somewhere else and they I want to hear it, and even if it’s reverb and write songs since you were 10. Why are you now trying to figure out another day job just because the I was petrified. I was young and shy, and there band is on a break. It’s ridiculous.’ I felt angry that I didn‘t have the was a time when I was actually quite sad confidence to say that I wanted to make a record. don’t have that, and you hear things on the third synth in the pattern, I A In the single you talk about feeling like ‘We’ve got that lyric, that’s fine, hear that and I’m not happy with it. quite insecure in the early stages of that’ll do’ – I don’t work like that, and A You’ve spoken before about the the band. Do you think if it had all I’m not used to accepting ‘That’ll do’. pressure you felt to look a certain way ended with the second Girls Aloud Brian and Miranda taught me that when you were first in the band. Now album you’d have had the confidence there’s always a better lyric and a that you’re applauded as a style icon, to go it alone? better melody. I’m not having a record do you feel a di!erent pressure to N Absolutely not! In the second of ‘That’ll do’. Christ, especially if I’m always look immaculate? album I was just a baby. I was so fronting it on my fucking own! N I don’t know how I’m perceived. impressionable, only just finding A Of the tracks we’ve heard, the lyrics I don’t obsess over that because it’s my feet. I wrote Say A Prayer for seem very personal. Was it a tough unhealthy. If I did, I’d have my nose the second album, and Brian at decision to be so vulnerable? done. I’d spend a lot of time feeling Xenomania heard the song and N Oh my God, wait till you hear Sticks pressurised. The moment you start really empowered me because he And Stones, you’ll die! The thing is, living for somebody else… you can’t! was going mad over this song I’d I’m writing, so unless I lie or just There are too many fucking people in written. I thought, ‘God, I can do this, write a record where all you’re gonna the world! It’s impossible!

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A There was a bit of a press furore recently about you getting hair extensions and having veneers – were you surprised by the reaction? N I always say that you have to love yourself, and once you do, other people will be more comfortable with who you are as a person, and I still strongly stand by that. If anyone was that happy with how they looked then they wouldn’t wear make-up. You have to make yourself happy as well. I had short hair for so long and was bored that I couldn’t do anything with it. I wanted a high pony, so I put in hair extensions. I want to be able to smile more and not think, ‘I hate my teeth’. I don’t like my nose, but changing that’s an extreme too far. It makes me who I am and so I’ll never get it done. I like who I am, and OK I’ve got a bump in my nose, but fuck it. Some people have got big ears, some people have got big bums, everybody’s di!erent. A How was interviewing Lady Gaga for MTV? N I thought ‘Oh God, I hope she’s not aloof.’ She can be quite enigmatic, can’t she? But I managed to get her chatting and that was nice. Because I’m not a presenter, and I don’t want to be one, but I couldn’t turn down that opportunity. A Do you get bored of addressing questions about if, and when, Girls Aloud will reform? N It pisses us o! that everyone talks about a reunion. We’ve not split up, in life there are always people you A Girls Aloud have managed to this isn’t a reunion situation. We’ve gravitate to more or share the same be both musically interesting and just taken a break. There are so outlook. Me, Cheryl and Kimberley insanely successful. If you had to many artists who take time between look at things the same way and like choose between the two, which would records. Just because Beyoncé doesn’t the same things, so naturally we’re you choose? make a record for three years doesn’t similar. That’s just the way it is. The N Making the most interesting mean she’s given up. five of us are like sisters. It’s like the music. That’s what I’m into. The A How do you feel about the constant Kardashians. Khloé and Kourtney record wouldn’t have been released rumours of rifts within the group? say they’re always bosom buddies if it was just mainstream pop music N It upsets us because no matter how and are very similar, but Kim is... It’s that everyone thought was safe. I much you say it’s a load of crap, you a bit like that. Nadine’s on the other couldn’t sell it. In terms of me and get scared that it deflates the fans. It side of the world. Some of my friends what I enjoy listening to, I wouldn’t makes us angry but what can you do? in Liverpool I haven’t seen in three have been proud of it. The record has Until the five of us are back on stage months and they only live 2oo miles the life that runs through my veins together it’s not going to go away. away. I just think that I am naturally in it. Every last bit of sweat and tears A We’ve always imagined that you, not as close to Nadine as Cheryl or and excitement and lack of sleep and Cheryl and Kimberley are best Kimberley. We love each other, we’re everything has gone into the album. If friends, whereas with the other friends but we’re just not that close. you don’t know me after this record, two perhaps it’s more like work That’s fine for me to say because that’s you will never know me. colleagues who you really like… just the way it is. But it gets blown Single Beat Of My Drum is out now. The N Not work colleagues. I think that way out of proportion. album is due in the autumn

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