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WATCH: Our Shock Session with Little Boots.
WATCH: Our exclusive video interview with Little Boots.
Electro-pop siren Little Boots — aka Victoria Hesketh — got her start singing covers and playing keyboards in YouTube videos... while wearing her PJs.
“They were full of mistakes," she says of the clips. "A phone would go off or a dog would be barking and they’re kind of dodgy, but that’s why people like them. They just really connected with people. They were just a very genuine thing that I started doing, absolutely for a joke. It just grew into this whole thing,” she modestly explains.
The “whole thing” she's referring is the whirlwind of stardom that she's since found herself in the middle of: A record deal with Warner, her debut studio album Hands — produced by the Bird and the Bee’s prolific talent Greg Kurstin — and the huge UK hits “New in Town” and “Remedy.”
Released in the UK in June 2009, Hands has turned Hesketh into a British pop icon. But since the album's only just come out in the US, she's basically having to start from scratch on this side of the pond. Her first headlining US tour starts the first week in March, and includies a stop at Coachella; we have a feeling she’ll have no problem winning over American crowds.
With her collection of other-worldy electronic instruments such as stylophones, Tenori-ons, and a self-constructed laser harp, Hesketh's mission is to put her audience into a state of synesthesia — seeing sounds and hearing colors.
“Electronic music can be just as exciting as seeing a metal band or a guitar band," she insists. "I’m interested in anything that makes electronic music physical, like anything that’s visual. You’re playing it or touching it or moving it where people can see the sound you’re creating.”
ShockHound recently caught up with the British dance-pop darling to chat about starting over in the States, the power of a good pop song, and how her musical taste hasn’t changed since elementary school. She also treated us to a stripped-down ShockSession, taking a break from her array of music machines to take the stage with only her voice and her keyboard, just like she used to do in her jammies.
— Courtney Lear
