Archive for the ‘In Conversation’ Category

The Idolator Interview: Kate Nash

Erika Brooks Adickman
May 19th, 2010 // 1 Comment

Fame caught Kate Nash a little off-guard – after a sudden burst of popularity on MySpace helped land her a record deal, she saw her album soar to #1 on the UK charts – and promptly suffered a breakdown. Two years later she’s back, with an album that reads as a determined effort to wrap her arms around it all. The piano-pop diary confessions of her first album have been sharpened with a biting, retro-rock energy and the power of Kate’s own gaze, now fixed on topics much bigger in scope than those in her everyday life.

In My Best Friend Is You, Kate offers her distinct perspective on the roles of groupies and homophobia, while still trying to grasp at something that seems to be lying outside the fame machine, just out of reach. “You’ll never listen to me. You’ll never listen to me. No you’ll never listen to me.” she sings on her opening track “Paris”. We were all ears when she sat down with us last week to talk about My Best Friend Is You.

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JLS On ‘Glee,’ ‘The X-Factor’ And Who Should Replace Simon Cowell

Becky Bain
May 17th, 2010 // 4 Comments

Our favorite pop lads, JLS, continued their British Invasion of the American airwaves this past weekend by performing a set at Wango Tango. We caught up with the quartet (standing in a very familiar fashion) to get their thoughts on traveling the U.S., The X-Factor‘s chances of hitting it big here in the States, and what kind of Glee-centric episode they’re eagerly awaiting. Jump below to read our chit-chat with the charming Brit boy band! More »

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5 Questions With Adam Lambert At Wango Tango

Becky Bain
May 17th, 2010 // 29 Comments
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We caught up with our favorite glamdroid Adam Lambert on the red carpet of Wango Tango, the day-long concert produced by radio station KISS-FM. And although the pompadoured pop star was in a hurry to prepare for what would turn out to be a thrilling, pitch-perfect four-song set for a cheering Staples Center crowd, we managed to sneak in a few quick-and-dirty q’s with him. Jump below to find out if Glambert (who, FYI, says he’s Team Bowersox!) is putting serious thought into a film career or that little style war he’s in with other spike-minded musicians.  More »

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B.o.B On Loving Hayley Williams And Hating “Rap Politics”

Becky Bain
April 20th, 2010 // 3 Comments

Bobby Ray Simmons—who you may know simply as B.o.B, the brilliant mind behind the hit “Nothin’ On You”—was in desperate need of some nourishment after entertaining the crowd surging around the main Coachella stage. “I think that was the biggest stage I’ve ever been on,” he told us in the press area, almost dumbfounded that he got the chance to perform on the festival’s prime real estate. “It was ridiculously huge.”

He’d better get used to it if he plans to keep on writing smashes. We talked to the Atlanta rapper (whose debut album, The Adventures of Bobby Ray, drops next week) while he downed a cheese pizza and touched on everything from the real death of Auto-Tune to his battles with “rap politics” to the one band he just might love more than Paramore. Read our sit-down with B.o.B below.

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Little Boots Hands Us A Few Tips On Pop Star Style And Toga Parties

Becky Bain
April 19th, 2010 // Leave a Comment
Little Boots Shakes!
The UK pop gal shakes it up with a new song. Read More »
Coachella 2012
Check out all of Idolator's coverage from the festival! Read More »
Ellie On Bjork
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We took a break from the desert heat this past weekend at Coachella, and sat down in the shade to have a lovely chat with Victoria Hesketh–aka Little Boots, whose shimmery album Hands was finally released in the U.S. last month. The pint-sized British pop star (who got her stage name from Roman Emporer Caligula, who translates to “little soldier’s foot”), performed for the roaring crowds in the Gobi tent, complete with a wild laser light show that could make Daft Punk jealous. But first, she gave us details on writing her second studio album, feeling pressured to blog, and partying with Lindsay Lohan. (Well, not with her, but next to her.) Kick off your boots and take the jump for our exclusive with Little Boots. More »

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Goldfrapp: The Idolator Interview

Robbie Daw
March 24th, 2010 // 4 Comments

If you’re on the hunt for perfect springtime music, then you could do a lot worse than picking up Goldfrapp’s synth-laden new release, Head First. After the more meditative 2008 LP Seventh Tree, the UK duo have returned with a thinly-veiled penchant for early ’80s melodies torn right out of the Xanadu playbook on their fifth record.

“We definitely did set about making an ‘up’ album,” Alison Goldfrapp admitted to us. And so far it’s resonating—Head First has now been lodged at #4 on iTunes for two days and counting. But while we tried to get the British singer to spill any details on a possible upcoming tour of the States (“I can’t talk about that right now!”), we do at least know she’s headed to Los Angeles to perform at the Hollywood Bowl on June 27 during KCRW’s World Festival (alas, without her seemingly stage-shy musical partner Will Gregory in tow).

Hop below to learn about Alison’s rather unglamorous experience making the “Rocket” video, and why it was time for Goldfrapp to dust off the synthesizers once more. More »

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Seven Questions With Taio Cruz

Robbie Daw
March 19th, 2010 // 9 Comments

British singer/songwriter/producer Taio Cruz is no stranger to the top of the charts in his home country—in addition to his own hit “Break Your Heart” reaching #1 last year, “Never Leave You,” a track he wrote for Tinchy Stryder and Sugababes member Amelle Berrabah, also achieved the same feat.

Now Taio has found himself in an enviable position in the States. Recently signed to an American deal with Mercury Records, the 26-year-old Londoner paired up with Ludacris for a reworked version of “Break Your Heart” that managed to shoot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 last week. (Cruz also set a record for the largest jump on the Hot 100 by an artist with their debut single when “Break Your Heart” flew from #53 to #1.)

After the jump: our Q&A with Britain’s latest hot export, who’s currently preparing the stateside release of his album Rokstarr.

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Sia: The Idolator Interview

Robbie Daw
March 9th, 2010 // 4 Comments

Sia Furler knows full well that she can come off like an exuberant teenager. “There’s certainly one part that’s never grown up,” the 34-year-old singer declares one chilly day in late February. “There’s like the five-year-old, there’s the adolescent and then there’s the adult—and I’m really embarrassed, because the adolescent is the one I have to watch out for.”

We’ve been watching out for Sia for a long time—though, these days, you can’t really miss her. If you’ve flipped on the television in recent months, you’ve no doubt heard the Australian singer’s ubiquitous 2004 track “Breathe Me” in the Winter Olympics-themed Coca Cola ad, or her cover of The Church’s “Under The Milky Way” in a Lincoln car MKT commercial.

And now Sia—who penned four new tracks for Christina Aguilera’s upcoming album Bionic—has found herself in the midst of a major label bidding war ahead of the release of her own fourth studio LP We Are Born. It’s a record that contains guitar work from a Strokes member and production from The Bird And The Bee mastermind Greg Kurstin.  And after the jump, you’ll catch Sia revealing new details about her Christina Aguilera songs, her plans for Coachella weekend, plus her charitable dalliances in the underworld.

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The Idolator Interview: Robin Thicke

Becky Bain
February 24th, 2010 // 6 Comments
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It’s no wonder Robin Thicke tells us how impressed he is by 15-year old Justin Bieber, whom he calls “wonderful”—the seductive singer has been making tunes since he was basically the same age. Thicke has been in the limelight since he was a kid—at first by association with his famous parents (TV actors Alan Thicke and Gloria Loring), and then in his own right as as a 16-year old writing and producing wunderkind, knob twiddling and penning tracks for the likes of Christina Aguilera, Pink, Mya and more. 

Sixteen years later, Thicke is a grown, sexy man and heading down a whole new path professionally and personally—he and his wife, actress Paula Patton, are expecting their first son this May, and his latest release, the seductive Sex Therapy, is full of determined beats that allow Thicke to stretch beyond his customary boudoir R&B into dancefloor-ready hip-hop. (He’s a student of history, too, as his opening track, “Mrs. Sexy,” is a clever cover of Eric B. and Rakim’s classic “Mahogany.”) “I just kind of wanted to explore my hip-hop roots a little more on this album,” Robin tells us. “Take some chances and work with some new people.”

That he definitely does. Read on to hear what the silky-voiced crooner thinks of the state of hip-hop, whether it was a mistake to re-record “We Are The World,” and the significance of Justin Bieber.
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David Guetta: The Idolator Interview

Robbie Daw
January 27th, 2010 // 3 Comments

The Grammy countdown has begun, and five-time nominee David Guetta is gearing up for a flight from Paris to L.A. “I’m going to go eat, pack and take the plane,” he tells Idolator while in transit. “I made a few tracks, because every time I’m in Los Angeles I’m meeting artists. So I’ll have a little bit of a studio session and then the awards.”

Guetta’s global floorfiller “When Love Takes Over,” which features a booming Kelly Rowland on vocals, is up for Best Dance Recording and Best Remixed Recording, while his LP One Love snagged a nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album. But the sought-after French DJ has earned acclaim far beyond clubland and the Academy’s dance audience: he also received a Record Of The Year nod for producing the Black Eyed Peas’ inescapable radio hit “I Gotta Feeling,” and thus could also share in the wealth if the band wins a statue for Album Of The Year for The E.N.D.

Guetta, who recently whipped up material for Madonna’s upcoming album, explains that what he loves about working with such varied artists “is that our music can reach people that are not even from hip hop or electro” scenes. “It’s just music that touches your soul.”

And now he says he and the Black Eyed Peas have yet another “I Gotta Feeling”-sized smash waiting in the wings. Head below to read our full interview with David Guetta!

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