Beauty and the geek
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday September 11, 2009
Little Boots gives synth-pop a clever retro spin, writes George Palathingal. Forget the implications of certain ropy, male-dominated, best-song-of-all-time polls: a significant proportion of the most exciting pop music of the past 12 months has come from a series of talented women, who very much know what they're doing €“ from Pip "Ladyhawke" Brown to Elly "La Roux" Jackson via Florence "and the Machine" Welch and the person speaking a mile a minute on the other end of the phone from London, Victoria "Little Boots" Hesketh."People always find it really strange that I like to play instruments and geek out with electronics and then I like wearing glittery dresses and high heels," Hesketh says. "It's like, I'm a girl, I like dressing up, I like looking nice €“ y'know, who doesn't? €“ and I love what I do. People find it really difficult to, like, combine these two things in their mind."I think it is just from a history of, y'know, the girls are the pretty faces who sing and the boys are the brains in the studio pulling the strings. There's a real divide, like, historically through music and it's something that I really kind of want to break down. I think it's horrible, really sexist and just unfair."On Hands, her debut album as Little Boots, Hesketh makes colourful synth-pop that's as dazzling, sassy and smart as she is.Having dismissed the dangers of such female artists as the aforementioned being lumped in together €“ "we all sound completely different ... that's what's exciting about it" €“ she sets the record straight about her career path.Yes, as a teenager, she auditioned for Pop Idol (the British version of the reality-TV talent quest) but the experience was far from defining."I went to an audition. I didn't get anywhere. I wasn't on the TV. It was really not a big deal. I did a million things like that."More pertinent was the experience she gained as a member of various bands €“ especially Dead Disco, one she co-founded with two friends while at the University of Leeds in the north of England."We got signed to an indie label and that was quite a big deal for me. Then, when I left the band, I started on my own."It was then Hesketh realised what she had been doing wrong."All the bands that I had been in, all we wanted to do was, like, win over the cool crowd and it just felt forced. So now, I just don't think like that, I just do what feels right for me. And that seems to be the thing that works best."These days, Little Boots does have a couple of things in common with many of her contemporaries: her use of synthesisers and her love of a very '80s-sounding take on pop."The most inspiration I get is from, like, the very late '70s to the very early '80s, when synths were first getting used and still trying to work out where they fit into the musical landscape."If you play guitar and you're in a band, you've got the whole history of rock'n'roll for inspiration. The '80s was when synths had their heyday, so that's kind of where I've got to look to."I just like little gadgets and things that make weird noises, really," she adds.Thanks to her interest in creating fresh sounds, it's surely only a matter of time before another pop princess with an ear for innovative songwriting comes calling ... but Kylie Minogue hasn't been in touch just yet."I would love to write for her," Hesketh says. "I like songwriting for other artists and that's something I want to do more of in the future but I don't have time at the minute."Until then, Little Boots is happy to follow her own, considerably more idiosyncratic, path.LITTLE BOOTSSeptember 30, 8pm, Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst, 9332 3711, $35. She also plays the sold out Parklife, Moore Park, October 4.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald