English sylph Victoria Hesketh is better known to you as Little Boots and best known to everyone as 2009’s next big thing in electropop. Being cute is a huge advantage in the pop business but years of study means that this bright young thing can play flute and harp as well as sing like a bird. Looking like Sienna Miller as just icing on the talent cake.

While she’s played in jazz bands and promising girl group Dead Disco, her sets at Parklife make more sense. Little Boots revived disco with her 2009 debut Hands, which sparkles with synths and throbs with beats. We’re sure the miniskirts haven’t hurt either.

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What kind of a creative influence did you draw from your hometown of Blackpool?

It's definitely a part of who I am, you know? But I certainly didn't set out to write songs about decaying holiday towns. It holds a special place for me, but I was more interested in boys I fancied and worrying about having spots!

By 13 you were proactively travelling to Manchester for harp lessons, training in the classics of music, and beginning the journey as a song writer. Was it apparent at this stage that your future would lie in this industry?

I always knew I wanted to be in music. It was more a case of finding out how, and why. I was going to attend a music college but decided not to, and I am really glad I didn't. Classical music is even harder than pop music and I doubt that I would have made it as a classic musician.

So your next step was Pop Idol?

I literally just went to a day of auditions, I tried a lot of things out around that time; it was really just about going to as many things as possible and trying to make as many contacts in the music industry as I could. I didn't get any from that day. I tried it and it didn't happen for me, so it was just another day in my life.

Tell me about Dead Disco.

Dead Disco was an indie-pop trio with me and two other girls that we started in Leeds, while at university. We got signed to a label, did a couple of CDs and then I left the band.

What happened?

I wasn't enjoying it, I wasn't enjoying the gigs. I don't think we were on the same page with writing either.

This led to you starting a YouTube channel. How beneficial was that for finding a new audience?

I guess it got me a lot of attention, but I wasn't really playing any of my own songs on it.

That's fairly important still, an audience is an audience, right?

Yeah, I guess. Once you've got them, then you can put your original stuff in front of them.

I watched your Hot Chip cover on the Tenorion earlier. Where did you find that thing?

I found it in a studio actually. I tried to use it again the other day but I couldn't do it.

Is it just a sampler?
Yeah like a sequencer, you just program in your patches. You can see that I'm playing it live.



Little Boots - 'Ready For The Fun'

The music industry loves a buzz story more than anything. Especially in conjunction with words like 'hotly tipped'. You were the buzz story at the start of the year. Did it have an impact on your album?
I think it put a lot of expectation on the album, but um...yeah, I guess I was pretty pressurized by it. It's just about getting on with it, though. It's better to have people talking about you than not talking about you.

There were just such high expectations that I don't think I could ever fulfill them. The fact that it has done okay is a massive relief. There have been artists in a similar position who have totally bombed after release. I think it can be quite detrimental to some artists; you have a magazine cover out before you've even released a single.

I get the impression, with due respect to the artists, that you are trying quite adamantly to distance yourself from the suggested 'movement' that's coming through at the moment: the three 'Lady's in particular.
Oh yeah, I do actively try and distance myself from them, but the whole female pop movement has been totally made up by the press. It allows them to do pretty little features on us, and line us all up in nice dresses.

Ok, your live show - what's it all about?
It's me, a keyboard player, and a drummer. We then attempt to make as much noise as possible through lots of synths.

And aesthetically?

 Aesthetically it's two nerdy looking guys and me in a sparkly dress. We can't really afford too much of an elaborate back-drop just yet.

So you have visions of the grandiose performance?
Yeah, of course, but try going to your record label and asking for ten grand for some giant wolves. It's not going to happen. In the UK we have a big set with lots of back-up singers but you can't bring it out here. I saw the Empire of the Sun show at Parklife in Brisbane, and it's brilliant. It's so visual, it's like a whole world, very cabaret-style. It's taken them almost a year to get it together and cost them a fortune.

Surely there's an economic way to do it? Students are good for that kind of thing.
Yeah, we're trying to figure it out. It's moreso the props. Every extra bag you take costs you another hundred pounds or something, it becomes a total nightmare. We really need things you can inflate and deflate really easily.

So how is Parklife going for Little Boots?
Good. It's very different - we've just done a sold out US tour and UK festivals where everyone knows all the words and are going nuts. We're very new here, but yeah, they've been going good.

How does the Parklife circuit compare to the UK festivals?
I think Parklife seems quite specific. It's fun, but it reminds me of kids who have just finished high school and have gone on a big bender - just loads of wasted teenagers. In Brisbane there were loads of people jumping the fences and by two o'clock they were throwing up. We played at 4pm and people were passed out.

To be fair, I don't think a lot of the kids actually know what they're standing in front of.
(laughs) They have no idea, it could be anything, they're that wasted. But I'm very jealous of the Empire of the Sun shows.

What's their set-up?
Well, I'm not sure how much music is actually getting played, but there's loads of different costumes, dancers, props, and the visuals are really amazing. I had a really weird dream about Luke Steele and now whenever I see him I get completely freaked out.

Blue eye-liner on a man will do that to you.
The whole Parklife thing is like an 18-30s for bands. It's pretty funny actually. Everyone's in the same coaches, everyone's in the same hotels, they organise things like day excursions to the zoo - so I'm watching Lady Sovereign asking questions about a spider. They also organised football matches... it's just funny, kind of like a school camp.

Nic Holt

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