La Roux talks “more earthy, more organic” third record

By the time that La Roux released their second album ‘Trouble In Paradise’, it had been six years since their debut had first landed. It’s no secret that the writing and recording process boasted its fair share of issues along the way, and by the time it was out in the open, it also marked the departure of Elly Jackson’s musical partner Ben Laingmaid. Yet, while ‘Trouble In Paradise’ is clearly the end of one chapter for her, it’s also provided a new lease of life for her current one.

“For live,” she begins, sat backstage at Latitude 2015 in the midst of a fairly busy festival season run, “what’s nice about it is that it’s much, much easier to develop than the first album. The first album really doesn’t take that well to development,” she continues, referencing her 2009 eponymous debut. “It kind of wants to be what it wants to be and it is what is, which is a fairly simplistic, punchy, no frills electronic pop record. I feel like I made it a long time ago now and creatively, I’m a long way away from that and I’m glad to be actually. I still like songs like ‘In For The Kill’ and ‘Quicksand’, but there are other sides to the record that I’m certainly not so keen on anymore.

“The new record ‘Trouble In Paradise’,” she goes on, “there’s no part of it that I don’t love. Because it has more depth and it is more intricate, there’s more for me to love as its maker and as a listener. I feel like that every night on stage. Every time we do a soundcheck, or a rehearsal, it always feels like there’s something to be done. With the old songs, we always try stuff but it just never seems to want to work. It just wants to be what it is, so having this record to mix with it live has been a real joy and so much more creatively fun.”

Unsurprisingly, after so many changes in the band’s camp around its release, Jackson does feel to have moved on from the record. After waiting six years to follow-up her first record, she’s clearly already feeling the itch to try something else new. “I think in terms of the album itself, I’ve totally moved on and started writing another record,” she confirms. “We’ve made more than a start, I will say.”