Cover Feature Little Boots: ‘Fucking Great, Be Confused’

What is success? Trying to measure the difference between a loss and a win is easy if someone is keeping score, but often it’s more complicated than that. A top five debut album for a solo artist, for example. That has to be a good thing, right?

Of course it is. But everything is relative. At the start of 2009, Victoria Hesketh had the world at her diminutive feet. Under the Little Boots pseudonym she’d just topped the influential BBC Sound Of poll, and was nominated for the BRITs Critics’ Choice award. In the former she’d bested Florence + The Machine, La Roux and Lady Gaga. Expectations were stratospheric. Anything but a chart topper and world domination was going to feel like a missed opportunity.

So, when ‘Hands’ didn’t hit the top spot, and dropped quickly out of the top forty altogether, many feared the worst. The fact that it spawned two top twenty singles and, since then, has been certified gold in the UK barely makes a footnote when the world of pop passes judgement. Those same acts critics had backed Little Boots above at the start of the year were quickly becoming major superstars. In a world where everything is distilled to a list, the comparisons were inevitable.

So far, so downbeat. There’s no need for long faces, dear reader. For a start, ‘Hands’ was actually a brilliant record - immediate, clever and harder to box than many would like. But more than that, the events around it can only have led to what we’re presented with now; Little Boots is back, and she’s brought along a second album that’s even better.

With a title like ‘Nocturnes’, it’s no surprise that Hesketh’s new full-length is a more mature affair. Not only does it suit her well, but it firmly casts aside the baggage that surrounded her debut. On her own terms, Little Boots is simply a talented artist with a great record and control of her own destiny. The difference is there for all to see.



“There were times in the last few years where, if I’m honest, I was completely depressed. I’m a creative person; to keep creating things, and then having to keep them vacuum packed in a bubble, and no one to hear them, you start going crazy. Questioning what you do, questioning if you’re any good. It was really difficult. I was so frustrated to not be getting the album out, and I felt the pressure from all the fans who’ve been waiting for ages. I was as frustrated as the people waiting for it.”

When we meet Hesketh, she’s in a confessional mood. It’s obvious she’s been through a lot to get to where she is today, though it’s firmly behind her now. At the heart of the issue seems to be a need for control; something that isn’t always easy to find when you’re another cog in the hype machine.

“It was like banging my head up against a brick wall with the label situation,” she admits. “They were really good, but they never really shared a vision. I think they just got excited when I started getting hyped. Ultimately, it was holding me back, although I didn’t see it at the time. It wasn’t until I parted ways that I thought, shit, well, I’ve got to have faith in myself now. It made me get the guts to follow my own instincts, to realise that actually, I could do it.”

An artist isn’t supposed to see their label as a millstone, but not many are as obviously creative as Hesketh. As we talk through the four years between her debut and its follow up, it’s her decision to work by her own rules, releasing ‘Nocturnes’ via her own label, that provided the platform for what followed.

“It has been a complete new lease of life, it’s made me realise that there are other ways to do it. It’s harder work, because I’m doing it all my own way. There’s a lot more nuts and bolts work, which does take up a lot of your time where you could be being creative. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to be successful or have a good career, or create good things, but ultimately you get a lot more control. It’s definitely a lot better. The whole move was really scary, but I feel a lot more empowered now.”

Rightly so. If there’s one thing Little Boots is definitely not lacking, it’s self-awareness; you get the impression that there’s little need for industry analysts to tell her what’s going on. As bright as the future looks, it would be impossible not to cast an eye back on the past. Few artists experience the whirlwind she encountered and come out the other side to tell the tale. Certainly, most would be a lot more jaded. Despite it all, there’s little bitterness to be found.

“The BBC thing helped me hugely. Not just that; the whole hype thing. It’s enabled me, especially internationally. You don’t realise the impact that it has. We haven’t stopped touring, all over the world, ever since. Even in years when I released no music, I was doing huge South American tours. It’s really positive, but the pressure on home ground, in the UK, before the record was even finished in my case; it’s good and bad, obviously.”

So far, so balanced, and it isn’t long before she’s nailed both the reason we love her, and quite probably why ‘Hands’ never hit the heights it should have.

“A lot of people’s problem with me as an artist is, ‘you’re not Kylie Minogue, but you’re not Hot Chip. We’re confused, can you tell us what you are please, because otherwise we can’t figure it out.’ They’re probably my two favourite artists, but if you can’t decide which one I am, fucking great, be confused. I realised that I don’t have to answer to anyone like that anymore. I don’t have to decide.

“I’m not being like, ‘oh, you can’t put me in a box!’ I really hate that. But it’s just about not worrying if you don’t live up to other people’s expectations. Because the first record was all about everyone’s expectations, and a lot of people’s problems stemmed from that I didn’t necessarily live up or fit, in terms of the record, or what the project was about.”

“One time I was playing at Trump Towers for the launch of his daughter’s diamond range,” she continues, “and getting paid in diamonds. It’s like, what the fuck is going on here? Even though that’s amazing, how the fuck does that relate to what I’m doing?

“It spun out of control. Not in a bad way. It’s just it didn’t feel like it was about music, and I hadn’t written a song for eight or ten months because I’d been living on planes and in airports. It’s just unsustainable; I should’ve kept going, but it was so intense. And when I got back, everything just stopped.

“People like Florence, she’d kept writing on tour and when she came back she had another album to put out, but I find it really difficult to be touring and writing at the same time. I really kick myself now for not keeping up writing when I was touring. But you’re so busy. I ended up a bit detached from my art.

“I’m a lot more comfortable in my own skin now. Where I fit or where I don’t fit. I don’t have to live up to someone else’s ideals.”



The road back to our ears has been a drawn out one. Over the past year or so, we’ve all known Hesketh has been at work. The odd 12” here, a track appearing there. Each showed an artist that was going back to her roots; more concerned with the art than simply the charts.

“I did a few things last year. Part of me thinks, would I have been better not doing anything, and sitting on it all until now, when it’s totally ready? That’s what a lot of people do. But I was finding it really hard, like I say, being in this vacuum, having all these songs and no one hearing them. But now people are saying, what’ve you been doing for four years, like I’ve just been on holiday. Having a pina colada in Tenerife or something. And it’s like; no, I’ve been working my arse off.

“I did become a bit of a night owl. Seeing the night as escapist. Because the first album, a lot of it was escapist, but it was very safe, bouncy, dreamy. And this album, I really wanted to make it more of a reality. More relatable, more realistic. Your own time, you go crazy, get away from your obligations and really see what it is that sets you free. And music is part of that. There are songs that feel like going out clubbing, and songs that feel like 3am, coming home, or crying your eyes out. Or just getting ready to go out. All these different characters that inhabit night time.”

‘Nocturnes’ certainly achieves all of that. It’s born of the club but is, crucially, wonderfully tempered. The infectious hooks of her previous works are obvious for all to hear, but they’re matched alongside the kind of light and shade that removes any suggestion that this is simply throw away, disposable fare. This isn’t day glo, hands in the air abandon, but a rounded, considered work that captures everything that’s brilliant about electronic music. And yes, it’s pop, but like all great pop records that’s no dirty word - it’s simply intelligent enough to relate.

Part of the plaudits have to go to the album’s producer. Not that Hesketh ever really believed DFA co-founder Tim Goldsworthy would be interested.

“I think my manager put me in touch with him originally. The Hercules And Love Affair album he produced, I’m a huge fan. But I didn’t really think the guy who started DFA; he’s never going to take me seriously, he’s never going to produce my silly pop songs. When I met him, he totally got it, and I was like, wow. Because he got all the influences, and he knew that I was taking it seriously, that I was musical, that I wasn’t just trying to jump on some bandwagon. He just got me, and I never really expected that. It was a really amazing surprise.

“I actually worked with him a year and a half ago, and I curse myself for not saying at that point, this sounds great, let’s do the whole record together. I got distracted by my A&R, I listened to my record label, saying this is too weird, it’s not commercial enough, keep trying. And it wasn’t until I broke with the label that I was like, these songs are great, and they sound immense, I’m going to give Tim a call and grovel. ‘Are you still up for this? I know I should’ve made this call a year ago… I’m in charge now though, will you still do it?’

“It was wicked because he’s got an amazing studio in Bristol, with literally the most analogue synths you’ve ever seen. I went down there every week for six weeks, and we just went through every track and stripped it back down, before building it back up again. Every track was done in the same room, with the same instruments, the same time period, and I think you can really feel the cohesiveness. I’m so pleased we did that.

“It doesn’t sound overproduced. I’ve written with a lot of pop writers, but it’s not been chasing radio play. I’ve just tried to shut that out and follow what I think it should be, and what I think would work musically. It’s quite hard not to buy into that pressure, and it’s that pressure that was, I think, blocking me musically. Trying to please other people.”

Like a phoenix from the flames, it’s that that’s made the return of Little Boots so perfect. In not trying to please others, she’s made the record we always knew she could. She isn’t Kylie, nor is she Hot Chip - she’s not even Alexis Taylor in gold hot pants - but by simply being herself she’s recorded one of the standout albums of the year. If that isn’t a success, we don’t know what is.

Little Boots’ new album ‘Nocturnes’ will be released on 6th May via On Repeat Records.

Taken from the May 2013 issue of DIY, available now. For more details click here.