Words by Ash Kissane

Little Boots AKA Victoria Hesketh burst onto the electro-pop  the scene back in 2009, with a Gold-selling dance-pop debut studio release, Hands. Four years later, she’s running her own record label, On Repeat Records, and has returned with a self-released sophomore album, Nocturnes produced by DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy. I had a chat to Victoria about the new album, her label, On Repeat Records and what it’s like to be your own boss.

MM: You would have been asked a million times, but for people who don’t know, where did you get the name, Little Boots? VH: I got it from my friends because I’ve got small feet. It’s stupid, it’s one of those things that’s you curse the day you chose it because then you have to explain it forevermore. It was just a name that stuck.

What was the music scene like when you started out in Blackpool? It’s probably like any small town in that there’s not a huge music scene It was difficult for me to figure out how to break into it. I know it’s kind of good to go through all of these challenges but the North is a good place and people have good hearts there. London is kind of rude and intense, I’m used to it now but it’s nice….

What was your first gig like as Little Boots? We were in Brighton and I’m pretty sure everything broke. Things still break all the time when we play live, it’s ridiculous. We were always really ambitious, instruments everywhere – it was kind of stupid. At the start, we were super ambitious it was the most ridiculous technological set ever, I think everything broke. I remember it being everyone in the crowd seemed to enjoy it though, so I guess that’s alright.

You’ve spoken in the past about bringing back ‘classic pop,’ who are some people you listened to growing up? I’m a big fan of classic song writing, a lot of which would be considered cheesy, like ABBA, The Bee Gees, The Beach Boys and Elton John and Bowie and Kate Bush; just really great pop writing that’s interesting and that’s got some heart and some kind of brains behind it. I think I’ve always been attracted to good pop melodies and structures. I would have liked some terrible music at points, I’m sure. Blackpool is kind of known for its pubs but not in a cool way. It’s got a lot of trashy clubs and I was into some pretty awful dance music in, like, 1994, but who wasn’t.

What sparked your decision to start your own label, On Repeat Records? It was a few things, really. My last label, the imprint kind of folded and the guy I worked with there left, and it felt kind of weird to stay. I could have gone with another, more traditional label, but there were a lot of ups and downs and disagreements with them, and they didn’t really understand the creative direction. The whole music industry is changing and a lot of labels just want to bury their heads in the sand and pretend it’s still the 90s and they can carry on doing things the way they always have and they really can’t. Doing deals like this, through Kobolt (Label Services), it’s friendly and you get all of your rights, you’ve got creative control and they’ve worked with some great artists like Nick Cave and The Pet Shop Boys. It just seemed to make sense and be the more flexible option. I just didn’t want to go through all of the politics and other people taking control of things again, because there was a time I felt pretty out of control of things, especially creatively. I looked at people who did this quite a long time ago, she was a pioneer of the whole setting up your own label model an did it amazingly and proved that you can make it work. I just kind of thought, “Other people are doing it now, why can’t I?”

So did you feel freer then when it came to writing Nocturnes? Definitely; it was really empowering. The fact that I could release other artists, which is amazing; I mean, I’m not thinking about doing that yet but it is really empowering. It’s a lot of work, I didn’t really think it would be any extra work but it is, there’s a lot to do, actually. It’s great, it just means I can put music out when I want, and I don’t have to…It used to be a bit like taking your homework in to be marked, it was weird. I don’t have to do that any more; I’m not that kind of artist. A lot of artists that I really admire and respect are very independent and I think that is just a better way for me.

So after the huge success of your first album, you’ve been doing huge international tours as well as DJing, do you feel that had an impact on your writing as well? Yeah, definitely. When I’m in the studio, I can get real cabin fever and I really miss gigs because you feel like you’re sitting on this music and there’s no reaction to it. For a while we stopped touring so I started DJing more, I’ve always DJ’d, but I started taking it more seriously. I was doing it more internationally and I started finding it more rewarding, and I think that whole night time, clubby feel definitely fed into quite a few bits of the album, you can really hear it in there. So, it was a good influence, taking it more seriously and seeing what other DJs were playing. Learning more and digging out older records and filling gaps in my knowledge, it really helped me actually.

Production-wise, for Nocturne, you worked with people like Tim Goldsworthy (DFA Records co-founder) and James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco) how did that come about? Really naturally, actually. With my first label, and of labels do now days, is the record labels call your management, they set up for you to go to this country to work with this person, you’ve never met them before, it’s all very engineered. Most people I work with, I have some kind of connection to, like, James, I’ve known for years because we had the same manager and were always in and out of the same studio. For years we‘ve said, “We should do something.” He’s, like, from uber-cool world but I think he had this kind of curiosity about pop, so I was like, “Yeah, let’s write a pop song!” Tim, I met through Andy Butler from Hercules because he produced Love Affair’s first album and my manager knew him as well. We just met up and got on and got in the studio. A lot of people like that, like, Andy came to my gigs beforehand and that’s just nice. If you both have a respect for each other and you’re both up for doing it on your own terms without someone else manufacturing it, that’s when it’s going to work. When you both really want to do it, you’re not doing it just for the money or for some kind of name on the print or something.

What kind of stuff do you listen to in your own time? I listen to a lot of stuff when I’m planning my DJ sets so I tend to go on blogs. When I’m travelling or whatever, I quite like listening to different music because I have to change my brain up a bit. If I’m listening to anything vaguely similar to my own music, it’s like doing work in a different way; I have to tune it out. There’s a lot of good new stuff out at the moment; James Blake’s new album is really good, I love Jessie Ware… I like a lot of stuff that’s out at the moment.

What would be your dream gig? Maybe, if Daft Punk decide to do this tour that they’re saying they’re not going to do, maybe we could support. Or maybe just join the band. I love the new record, I love Daft Punk, all of their releases are really cool but there’s no girls. All of these collaborators, I don’t know if you’ve been watching it, but it’s all boys. They need some girls in there. I know they’d let me in just on the side of the stage. That’d be cool.

What else is coming up this year that you’re excited about? We’re really, really busy. I just got Japan and then we’re off on the album launch tour next week, we’re doing the UK, I think we’re doing some Asian shows, then we’re doing Glastonbury, which will be wicked and a bunch of festivals. So, it will be mainly touring, but I really planning to lock down some writing and recording time. Part of the problem with this album taking so long was that when I was on tour, I didn’t really think about anything else and I was so focussed on being on tour and promo, it kind of turned the creative part of my brain off. So this time I’m planning not to do that. I feel like we can write some new material and hopefully get to Australia at some point. Fingers crossed.

Published – Moustache Magazine