- How would you define your music to someone who hasn’t heard it?
Soulful, psychedelic, pop.
- What song are you most proud of on the album and why?
I’m probably most proud of my next single, Cry, Cry, Cry. It’s very pure, I remember just writing it very rapidly and being very excited about it.
It’s all about the need for expression, whether that’s talking about feelings or just crying. I find expression of all sorts just very cathartic and very important and I think so many people are just very quite inside and people don’t always talk about their fears.
- You’re obviously very strong and independent, so is the point of Cry, Cry, Cry that you can cry without sacrificing that?
Yes, it epitomizes that really, it’s kind of saying ‘Let it go, release yourself from the shackles we put ourselves in!’, and as a strong, empowered woman, it’s ok to be weak sometimes and express yourself, the two aren’t a contradiction and they can sit comfortably together.
- You nearly made it once before under your real name, Alice McLaughlin, what went wrong with that?
Nothing really went wrong, I was signed to EMI and it was just the worst label. It got taken over and totally messed up, there was no money for development or anything.
It wasn’t just that the company had problems, I wasn’t with the right team of people and it wasn’t really the right time I guess. They were really trying to push me in a direction that wasn’t me and what I’ve done with this album is to completely do it myself.
I’ve got a new record deal on the basis of the work that I did independently and that’s very important to me and this album. I’m not manufactured, I think many female artists around today are being pushed and told what to release and that exists in the music industry.
I avoided that completely by signing to the best possible label, which is Fiction, ran by Jim Chancellor and home to Elbow and Snow Patrol. He’s a real music lover and that’s important to me, I didn’t want to be pushed in a direction I didn’t want to go in, I’m quite strong minded and I just wanted to do things my own way.
- So why the name change?
It was a new start, and a way of getting away from a lot of people in the industry who knew me. I also got a lot of complaints, believe it or not, about people not being sure of the spelling of McLaughlin.
It was kind of clumsy and I just wanted something strong and simple, I’ve got blonde hair and it was very simple, there was no great depth to the name change except that with this album I knew it was all my best work, all my ‘gold’ records.
- Are you pleased that it’s happening now you’re in your late twenties as opposed to when you were younger?
Absolutely, I do feel like I’m a little bit older than my contemporaries and I feel like I’m really bloody enjoying it because of that.
I really just love playing my music with my band, they’re just wonderful guys and I’m having a ball at the moment.
- How do you think that life experiences have shaped you as an artist?
Fundamentally. I’ve lost people, many people have but a lot of the songs on the album have that as a backdrop. Trying to figure it all out, life and those strong emotions that we all go through, is everything.
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