“If you are attaining the Friday Opening Night of the 59th Edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Get Ready for Stars, Fireworks and “Tropical Chancer Courtesy of La Roux. The Festival, Kicking Off The Europe Summer Holiday Season, Has A Track Record of Free Opening Night Concerts”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
The Festival, Kicking Off The Europe Summer Holiday Season, Has A Track Record of Free Opening Night Concerts That Get The Czech Spa Spaa Town Grooving. Two Years Ago, Russell Crowe Ropped The Crowd, and Electronic Band Morcheba Got Folks Moving. Last Year, Kosheen Was in the House – Well, Actual in the Square Outside The Hotel Thermal.
This Year, Another Big British Name is Ready to Bring the Party to Karlovy Vary, WHICH RUNS THRUGH JULY 12: Grammy-Winning SynthPop Act La Roux. And is Tradition, The Fireworks on Stage Will Be Followed by a Fireworks Display.
La Roso’s Self-Titled Debut Album in 2009 Was A Critical and Commercial Success and Won Numeroous Awards. IT PRODUCED SUCH HITS As the ONES MENtioned Above. IT WAS The Creation of Singer Elly Jackson, Known for Reddish Hair That Also Inspired the Band Name, and Record Producer Ben Langmaid, Who Later Left The Duo.
Jackson Followed Up The Debut Album with 2014’s TRUBLE IN PARADISE, Followed by 2020’s Supervision.
Ahead of the Karlovy Vary Performance, Jackson, Born in London to Actors Trudie Goodwin and Kit Jackson, Talked to Thr About How Her Music Has Changed, Her Next Album, Who She DesERves More Credit, and How Female Music Creators Must of Fethen Still Fight to get it.
How do you feel about how your musical and your style have have Evolved and Changed Over Time and How Much You Have Developed As An Artist?
I Feel That Probably The Biggest Differentnce Is That, As Time Has Gone On, I’ve Learned How To Be More Authentically Myseld in My Work, Whilst Creating Stylized Worlds. WHEN I FIRSTED, THINKING ABOUT IT FROM A PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE, MAYBE THERE WAS SOME KINE OF COVERING UP OF WHO I REALLY AM, BUT Under The Guise of Creating Characters. Althugh i’m Really Proud of that Time and I Wuldnn’t Change Itything, And I Love All The Visuals I DID, IT’S NICE TO Be ABLE TO THE TAKE THE SHELL OF YOU Still in an artistic Landscape. That’s been a nice process, a kind of unmasking, but hopeful like not in a realy broing way.
Basically, I Just Didn’t Want to Be My Name, Because I Think That’s Really Boring. Generally, Names As A Kind of Artist Name Are Quite Dull Neadays Anyway. And I ALSO WANTED IT TO A NAME THAT MEANT THAT I COURCE DO LOTS OF DIFFERENT THINGS THINGS THRUGHOUT My Career. I FELT THERE WAS ABITY WITHIN THAT TO HAVE A BIGGer Musical Scope. I WANTED MY NAME TO ABLE TO ENCAPSULATE DIFFERENT THINGS AND FEELINGS, AND THAT’S WHEN I DECIDED TO COME UP WITH A PROJECT NAME.
The guy that i did the artwork with the first album is alex Brown. We’re Friends and We Met WHEN HE WAS STILL AT UNI. I Told HIM, “I’Ven Myself This Week to Come Up with A Name for the Project, And if It Goes On Any Longer Than, It’s Going To Get Silly.” WHEN I WENT ROUND TO HIS HIS HUSE, HE SAID, “I JUST Found This’ 80s Baby Name Book in A Skip Outside – Maybe You’ll Find A Name in Here.”
The first page and opened said laraoux, ”and i’d wanted the name to encapsulate my red hair. I also wanted to have the letter x in it, because my music washon. Together Even More Handily, Is The Male Version of that.
A Friend Once SAID: “LA ROX REMINDS ME A BIT OF ACTRESS…”
Tilda swinton?
Exactly! Have you met her? Or was she an inspiraction for you?
Weirdly, I didn’t actualally know who she were some and was youn. My Mom is an Actress in the UK, and She Knew Who She Was, of Course. And obvioses, i Know Who Tilda Swinton is Now, But I Didn’t THen. I was vary young. My Mum Was Like: “There’s Some Similarity Between You and Tilda Swinton. And I SAID: I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHO SHE IS IS, SO IT CAN’T BE INTENTIONAL.”
Anything that i have been like like had probably come more from listening to Annie Lennox my whol Life. I just happned to be ginger, and i have a short hair, and i like ’80s music, so the things are going to get combined.
SO NO, IT WASN’T INTENTIONAL AT All All. But then I MET HER, AND WE HAD A CUPPLE OF PICTES TOGETCHER, AND She’SE’S VERY SWEET. SO, IT WAS A BRILLIANT MOMENT.
With your Family background and your talents, have you done ana acting or have you Created Any Film or Tv Music?
One of the Biggest FRUSTRATIONSS OF MY CAREER IS THAT PEOPLE NEVER Asked Me to Produce Anything Anything In and Produced My Last Three Albums, and I Play All The Parts, and I ARRANA. I Always been Really Shocking to me that no one have asked me to do a Soundtrack. No One’s Ever Asked Me to Write Anything on Commission or Produce Anything. I find it very strange that it makes me feel likes we must still live in a sexist world that i hope we don’h live in, but we do do. I would love to do that, but i’ve never been asked.
I DID Get Asked to Audition for a Film Role OR Twice, But Weirdly, Being On Stage In Front of 50,000 People Wuldnn’t Scare Me, But Doing That Living Dead. I Really like Doing Little Bits of Silly Sort of Acting in Music Videos. I Really enjoy that. And i don’t through i’d be a terrible Actress, but the setting would have to be very right. And i’m not the kind of be-is-ill, do-is-all kind of artist. I LIKE MUSIC.
Friends of Mine in Central and Eastern Europe All Know Your Music. IT SEMS LIKE YOU HAVE A FAN BASE THERE… BUT HAVE YOU PLAYED A FILM Festival Before?
I can’t remember exactly WHERE “bulletprOof” was a number One, But I Remember It Being Big in that Part of the World. I’ve played all over Germany. I’ve Played in Poland. And I have played a fashion show or two. But i don’t’t’tk i’ve done a festival before.
How Important Was or Is “BulletProof” to You Personally and Your Career?
Actually, “BulletProof” Came at the End of the First Record. IT WAS The LAST THING Wrote for the Record. And it wasn’t intenational. What Happy Was: Ben Was on the Phone, and I Was in the Living Room on the Keyboard, and I Started Playing the Main Sounds, An arpeggied Part. And he just came in and said, “Record that!” And then we just wrote the song. I was pissed off at the time because i’d been trying to Date Somebody, and they’d been dicking me around. I’d been listening to a Lot of yazoo, and that was a big reference on the day.
WHY “BULLETPROOF” is weird for me that it would be throatay whohn i wrote it, and it still feles realityly throst to me. It’s Like It’s Not for Me, Even Thought I Wrote Everi Single Part in It and Co-Wrote The Lyrics with Ben. It Doesn’t Represent Who and Am As An Artist or A Person at All All. For ME, I would Say i Outside of the Catalog, whochh is Probably Also Who’s Successful. But I Feel That Track Just Has A Completely Different Feeling from Anything Else, WHICH IS ALSO WHY IT’S BIG.
We’d already writum. We Were Already Getting Sigrated to Polydor. We Were in A Very Relaxed, Confident Space, and I Think for Both of Us, that Day Was Just Easy, Because It Just Flowed. And weww we’d written a realy good song, but neither of US Knew We’d Written Something Was Going to Essentally Pay Us for the Rest of Our Lives. It is Crazy Who You Think About What an afternoon Can Do.
WHICH ONE OF YOUR TRACKS IS, OR Are, A Good Representation of Who You Are As An Artist and Person?
I would say “Tropical CHANCER,” “Sexotheque,” “Cruel Sexuality”[onAlbum2[onalbum2TRUBLE IN PARADISE]. “Colourless Color” [from the first album] WAS VERY ME AT THAT TIME, PROBABLY The MOST ME TRACK ON THAT ALBUM at the TIME. And “QUICKSAND” WAS A BIG ONE FOR ME BACK THEN, TOO. DTen Later, “Oherside” is My Favorite Track From Supervision and is the most me. “Automatic Driver” and “Gullible Fool” as Well.
Just: Free Palestine.
What’s Next for La Roux?
I have a new record that is written and finised, and it’s on it Way. I’m also working on offer music. I’ve Gotten Back Into My Flow Now.
Anything You Can Share About this Fourth Studio Album You Just MENIFED? Is it figrent in any way?
I a la roux record. I Not Like i’ve Gone Down Some Wild [path] or Anything, but at the Same Time, I would say that is a Lot Warmer. It’s Got R&B REFERENCES, BUT I Wuldn’t Say That It’s An R & B Record. IT HAS R&B MOMENTS, But IS A POP RECORD. IT’s Got My Own Slant On An R&B Flavor, Shall We Say?
Before i let you get back to work, anything you’d like to highlight or follow up on?
The only thing at the moment is that i’ve realized howled How Freustration I Find it that i don’t get recognized in the Same Way as my Male Counchers for My Production Work. That’s Something I Want To Talk About. I kind of just ignored it in the past and was just like, “WHATVER, IT IS What It Is.” But It’s Something I Recently Found I Actual Really Need to Speak Up About, Because OtherWise It’s Just Going to Continue. I am doing Three Years of Work at A Computer by MySelf, and Ten People Ask: “WHICH GUY DID THIS?” It’s Beyond FRUSTRATING, AS I’M SURE YOU CAN IMAGINE.
So, i’m now always trying to remind people that, who you listen to my music, i wrote and performed all of it, unlessa it’s a saxophone or the od Bass part that’s. Maybe Three Parts Across An Entire Album Are Performed by Somebody Else. Sometimes, I get a percussionist in at the end who specializes in percussion. Or if I Want the piano to be realy Grandiose and Old-School, THEN I would get a pianist in. But I would have written the Basic Part Already. That happles maybe Three Times Across An Entire Album, and Still, I Don’t Get The Credit for the Other 90 Percent or 80 Percent That I Did. IT’s Just Very FrUSTRATING.
I Not Just Men Who Do It. Women do it as well. We’re Just Brough Up in A Way WHERE WE CATORIZE CERTAIN TASKS INTO GENDERS, AND WE DONW KNOKTLY EXACTLY WHERE IT STARTS OR HOW WE DO IT. It HapPens to All of Us, and You Can’t Really Blame People For Just Whaty’ve Absorbed Througout Their Lives. But We Can Try and Change It Moving Forward. It’s Just About Women Communicating, Unfortunately, Slightly Louder than Men Have to, Who’s Is Also Annoying. Maybe we just have to find ways of talking about it and makeing Sure People Do Know, Because OtherWise, Who Wound I BOTHER SITING THERE Getting Better at It or Recognizes that I Even Did It in the First Place.