La Roux October 18, 2009

Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats, for the show is about to begin. 'The red haired one' will now start making electro-pop mean something again. Elly Jackson is 20 years old, she has a short ginger bob, freckles, a nose that makes your heart turn to a puddle, but more importantly a way with melodies that makes everything else around you completely vanish. The Brixtonite's experiencing all the things girls of that age tend to: heartbreak, frustration, wonderment, invincibility and fragility. But unlike most girls her age, Elly has a staggering ability to channel all these feelings and experiences into wondrous blasts of crystal-clean ear candy that hit the listener with instant resonance. But La Roux (French for 'the red haired one') isn't about disposable dancefloor fodder or meaningless pap. "It's not that I can't listen to music without words that mean something, I do all the time. It's just not the kind of music I want to make. I've cried between vocal takes. I want to connect with people at that level."

Whilst her weekends may be full of moshing around slippery sweat pits to the likes of Justice and Boyz Noize, her creative waters are stirred most by the artistry of the original electro chart pioneers like Eurythmics and Depeche Mode. Now the baby-faced siren is preparing a similar triple pronged attack; targeting charts, clubs and hearts.

Elly hasn't always ruled an off-kilter world of synths. Growing up her father's daughter musically speaking, her house-husband dad made sure his little girl was versed in the kind of heartbreak earthquakes only a poppa bear could. And so, the high-school class clown grew up strumming along to soul-searching sage's like Nick Drake and Neil Young, starting points that still ground her today. On pals requests, six form college saw her acoustic bedroom compositions getting tentative, inebriated airings at the odd house party, one of which alerted a local sound engineer who began feverishly calling every producer he'd ever known at 4am. One of the producers happened to be Ben Langmaid, an up-and-coming London studio kingpin. Upon hearing her sultry serenades, he immediately vowed to drop all other projects, devoting his energies solely to Ms Jackson, and so the creative partnership behind La Roux was complete. All Elly needed now was a final nudge of inspiration to kick her vision into overdrive. This came courtesy of a small black box with Korg emblazoned on the front. She happened to pick-up the keyboard in Ben's studio and began tinkering one restless afternoon. In something of an epiphany, the synth inspired them to write new tunes and rework older songs energised by her latest discovery. Before long the six string ballads had mutated into taught robot rhythms and surges of synthesised symphonics.

The electro rebirth saw the duo immerse themselves in the world of synths, digging up classic tunes from the likes of Blancmange, and caning new school heroes like The Knife and Chromeo. Her musical coming-of-age also coincided with a social one, as she threw herself into London's warehouse party culture. Soon her clubbing endeavours were seeping into her work. The result of this gestation period are a spread of tracks where a timeless electronic utopia and a Noughties' head-nod danceability is underpinned by a classic sense of songwriting and a painstaking way with words. It's a collision that evokes the heart-palpitations of Jelly Bean era Madonna, but stands alone, loud and proud in 2008's crop of cool new pop. It's a collision that has already made notorious Myspace anthems of tracks like the snaking 'In For The Kill', cued up a highly anticipated release for the defiant 'Quicksand' on taste-making French electro label Kitsune, and earned her signature on a long-term contract for both Polydor and Klaxons manager. Ultimately, it's a collision that's made 'the red haired one' unquestionably one of 2009's sure-fire new Brit stars.

Official Website: http://tickets.gamh.com/events/46757/La-Roux