Indiana

January 2015

SHE isn’t new to having her music critiqued but Indiana admits reading reviews of No Romeo has been difficult.

“To begin with I was just concerned with what the fans thought about it more than anything else,” says 27-year-old Lauren Henson of the album, which is released on Monday.

“And that I was baring my soul with something I’ve been working on for years.

“Then, when the reviews started coming in, I found that really hard. Some of them were really good but some of them weren’t so good and I was like ‘who the hell are you talking about my music!?’”

Despite very positive reviews from the likes of The Guardian and The Observer, for which she should be punching the air, Indiana has been sensitive to any negative feedback, even on Twitter.

“I’ve found it really hard not to come back at people,” she admits.

“It’s been really hard for me to bite my tongue.

“I’m not a volatile person but when people are talking about my livelihood and my passion...”

Both her manager and boyfriend have told her to celebrate the critical acclaim and stop reacting to tweets that wind her up.

“They’ve told me to ‘stop feeding the trolls’ but it’s hard,” she laughs.

The album, released on Monday, is a classy collection of moody, brooding, dark electronic pop that is part-dance music and part-trip-hop.

It follows last year’s No. 14 single Solo Dancing and phenomenal support from Radio 1.

She admits she had battles with the record label about what does and doesn’t go on the album and has had to suffer delays for its release, originally planned for September.

Rather than celebrate its arrival, Indiana is nervous.

“It feels horrible because there’s so much riding on it.

“If it’s a flop I won’t be able to carry on doing it on this path. I will most definitely find another path making music but it’s scary. And I don’t think I envisaged these feelings.”

You get the impression she’s never satisfied.

The Guardian gave No Romeo a 4/5 review describing it as “smart, inventive, thought-provoking pop music”.

And yet...

“It was supposed to be the lead review in the paper,” says the mum-of-two.

“But then Björk’s album got leaked so she took my place and my review never got printed.”

The paper did post the review on its website with a streaming of the full album.

And, despite Radio 1 championing her with interviews, sessions and playlistings (a re-released Solo Dancing recently made the station’s A list), she’s hungry to be played on Capital FM.

“I don’t think Capital like me,” she giggles.

“I think I’m too leftfield for them. Maybe if I have a Top 10 single they’ll play me. Being on that playlist will widen my audience massively.”

Well, at least Durex like her, using her Bound song on their latest ad for Embrace Pleasure Gels.

“They asked to use it and I said OK... actually I asked to see the advert first. It’s not sleazy, so I was happy for them to use it.”

She adds: “And apparently Solo Dancing was on Hollyoaks the other night, while someone was stripping.”

There’s a theme developing. Acclaimed journalist and writer Caitlin Moran tweeted her approval of the album using a phrase that’s not printable in a family newspaper.

“I’m getting quite a name for myself,” laughs Indiana, who lives in Long Eaton.

“I really tried not to be a anything like that.”

This week it was announced that at the end of her next UK tour she’ll be playing the main stage at Rock City, the only female Nottingham artist ever to do that.

“That’s so cool,” she says.

“I’m most excited about having my name above the door. I don’t think I’ve ever had that before. It’s the little things that keep me going,” she laughs, adding that it will be a Nottingham artist supporting her – she’ll be rifling through Soundcloud to find one.

It was through social media that Indiana got her break, posting her version of Gabriel by Grammy-nominated songwriter John Beck on YouTube, prompting him to get in touch.

Boyfriend James Alexander, who she met in Loughborough, where she grew up, encouraged her to apply for the Future Sound of Nottingham competition in 2012, leading to her very first gig in the Old Market Square as part of the semi-final.

Three years on and there’s been the major label deal, Radio 1 support, major festival dates, sold out tours, singing for the Queen and the Top 20 single.

And there’s baby Etta, now 17 months old, sister to six-year-old Harvey.

This week she’s been signing copies of the album at home.

“Harvey asked me: ‘Mummy, are you going to hand these out to people? Will you be sad if nobody wants one?”, she laughs.

“Then he said: ‘Don’t worry mummy, I’ll have one.’ I could have cried.”


Indiana will have a launch party for the album at Oslo in London tonight then at Rough Trade in Broad Street on Monday where she’ll play a short set from 7pm. Details at roughtrade.com.
Tickets for her date at Rock City on Friday, May 29 are £12.50, call 0845 413 4444 or go to alt-tickets.co.uk.

Ronika

March 2012

THE outfit is retro sportswear. Her eyes are as bright as the shoulder length platinum hair. The lips are Marilyn Monroe deep red. And her mood is as uplifting as
the music she makes. Music that has led Ronika to be dubbed “The Madonna of the Midlands”.

“I’m happy with that,” she chirps, over a lunch of bread and paté at Broadway’s café. It’s a vegetarian paté; Ronika, a.k.a. Veronica Sampson, has been a convert since a bad experience with a chicken while on holiday in Bulgaria at the age of nine.

“I love Madonna,” she continues.

“Early Madonna was the first music I ever got into. I was a massive fan. She has an amazing back catalogue of pop tunes but she’s not my main influence.

“I guess we do have similar sounding voices. For a long time I tried to fight against that but then I accepted it’s just how I sound.”

She adds: “I make pop music inspired by 1980s dance music – disco, old school hip-hop and early Chicago house.”

Her first three EPs, released on her own RecordShop label, won Ronika national attention from the likes of the NME, The Guardian, The Mirror and The Sunday
Times, tipping her for success in 2012.
Her latest EP, Automatic, is due out next month and has already earned the approval of Chic’s Nile Rodgers, who sent her a message on Twitter saying the
track was “dope”.

“Which is amazing because he is a musical hero of mine,” she beams.

Ronika met the disco legend last year when she was picked to appear at the Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid.

“Up and coming dance music producers from all over the world apply for it and they choose 30. I was lucky enough to get picked with one other artist from the
UK.

“There were lectures by people like Nile Rodgers, Bootsy Collins, Bowie producer Tony Visconti and RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan.
“Then at night Red Bull took over the city and there were shows in all the key venues by the likes of Chic, Aphex Twin and Peaches, who I got to support.”
In June she’ll be playing the Lovebox Festival in London on the same day as Chic.

Tonight Ronika teams up with fellow Notts ladies Nina Smith and Harleighblu at The Bodega and in July the trio are part of an array of local talents playing the
Splendour Festival at Wollaton Park.
Few Notts musicians can claim to have had such national acclaim as Ronika, particularly for an artist who is self-releasing her music.
“I got a BBC bursary to set up my label,” she explains.
“My name was put forward by 1Xtra DJ Mistajam. He’s a friend of Joe Buhda who is a producer I worked with.

“That money got me started. I employed a press company to promote my first EP and they’ve stuck with me ever since.”

She is also managed by Partisan PR, who do the press for the likes of Aloe Blacc, Damien Rice, David Gray and Rumer.

It has helped spread her name across the country and beyond.

As well as Madrid, last year she played New York, as part of the CMJ Festival, a showcase of new music.

“An American booking agent who books shows for Robyn, the Gallaghers and Keane asked me if I’d like to do it.”

She’s also been interviewed for Time Out in Japan and is due to play a show in Poland soon.

And listen out for her voice on Radio 1 soon, as she’s featured on the next single by hit dance producer Herve.

Like many wannabe pop stars, Ronika started out with a guitar.

“After Madonna I got into old soul music like Al Green, Curtis Mayfield and Sly Stone, so I was learning jazz chords and writing soul inspired songs when I was 13.

“When I was 14 I got into a band with two guys from school making trip-hop and drum ‘n’ bass. We even had a track played on BBC Radio Nottingham by Dean Jackson, who was actually my science teacher.
“And we’d play in nightclubs around the city.
“At 16 I got my first set of decks and began DJing at house parties.”
She was born in Sherwood but grew up in Lowdham with two older brothers, whose music tastes had a big influence on her.
“Chris was very into all kinds of underground dance music so I started quite young on house and techno, drum ‘n’ bass and hip hop.

“Andrew was into Pet Shops Boys, New Order and new wave.”

Andrew runs Lee Rosy’s Tea Shop across the road on Broad Street, while Chris works at West Notts College in Mansfield.
“They’re both musicians and definitely influenced what I was listening to growing up”, she says.
Her parents, who are now retired (mum was a social worker and dad worked at the CPS), were not musical at all.
“Their hobbies are chess, crosswords and gardening,” she laughs.
“They didn’t listen to music at all. Maybe we are all into our music because we were musically starved.”

At 13 Ronika was searching out house parties in Forest Fields and clubbing in the city a year later.

“I’d also go to all-nighters in Brixton when William Orbit was DJing because he was the dad of one of my friends at school.”

After A levels at Clarendon she studied sound engineering at Confetti, at HND then degree level.
“I wanted to make my own music inspired by producers like Squarepusher, who blew me away. It was hip-hop and old electro mostly.”

The sound engineering skills helps her create her own music but she also passes them on to youngsters, working for Nottinghamshire County Council.
“I do music production with teenagers who have problems or are in care. It’s really good because they get a lot out of it. And we have a good time because I’m not like a teacher. We have a good laugh.”

She lives in Carrington with husband John Sampson, himself a musician, frontman with alt-rock band Swimming. His brother, Pete, is the band’s drummer but is also acclaimed beatboxer THePETEBOX.

“We get home from work and sit on our laptops making music until it’s bedtime,” she says of life at home, which is also shared by their cat, Chairman Miaow.

“It’s been an amazing year so far and I’m ready for the rest of it. First there’s the release of Automatic and then I’ll be looking to releasing the album, which is already finished.”

Automatic is out on April 9, available as a limited edition 7” vinyl and download, Go to ronikamusic.com for details.

 

“Destined for pop greatness in 2012”

The Guardian

“Ronika might be your next favourite pop singer… you have no excuse not to be very excited by this”

Popjustice

“Immaculate… the sort of effortlessly-confident, natural pop sensibility that labels spend years and millions of pounds trying, in vein, to manufacture”

NME

“Let’s party like it’s, er, 1984”

The Mirror

“Her handling of the source material is so adept and the results are so fab.”

The Sunday Times

Ronika

October 2011

 "A stranger shouted out their car at me “You sad *@&%***!!” – which made me proud to be a Notts girl."

I LIVE in “Costa-del-Carrington” these days. I moved here quite recently after an 11-year romance with Sneinton.

On Friday nights I might allow myself a trip into town to Broadway Cinema or for some tea at Lee Rosy’s, then maybe a gig or some comedy.

I’m a gig-goer and a comedy-goer. I’d like to be a theatre-goer but that’s just too much goer-ing for me.

The last couple of gigs I’ve been to were Swimming supporting Love Inks and also the relaunch party of the Rescue Rooms with Dog Is Dead, Kirk Spenser, Yunioshi and You Slut.

Friday night is also good for dancing and the best place to do this, of course, is on the steps of the Council House completely alone. What? Just me then?

I normally spend the weekend working on music – writing, recording, producing, making videos and mixtapes, practicing – I don’t often have many days off just to do nothing.

I’m not even sure what nothing is or how you do it, but I do like to have friends over and spend quality time with my cat – Chairman Miow.

In terms of TV I’ve been watching the latest series of Shooting Stars, which I love. My guilty pleasure has been Made In Chelsea, which I love for all the wrong reasons.

I try to go to the cinema at least three times a day if possible but most days this isn’t possible. The last film I saw was Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy at Broadway. I thought it was brilliant but it made me glad I wasn’t a secret agent as it’s a bit stressful.

I don’t cook much any more. And I eat a bit like a chimp – lots of bananas and leaves. Today I ate four bananas, lots of lettuce, two milkshakes, some rice and two dates. Yes, chimps do drink milkshakes.

I also powerfully resisted a Hula Hoop which was offered to me.

If I do get around to cooking or rather baking then it would be a banana-related pudding – banoffee pie or banana cake.

My favourite food at the moment is juicy nectarines or mangos but not the rock-hard ones from the supermarket.

When we get a takeaway it’s a lunchtime curry from the Indian Community Centre on Hucknall Road.

I do go to the gym or go for a run most days. A couple of days ago I was running on Mansfield Road and a stranger shouted out their car at me “You sad *@&%***!!” – which made me proud to be a Notts girl.

The book I’m currently reading is Donald Barthelme’s Sixty Stories. I like surreal or funny books that confuse me.

Radio? I sometimes catch up with Benji B’s and Annie Mac’s shows on the BBC iPlayer and, of course, The Beat on BBC Radio Nottingham with Dean Jackson.

I listen to loads of different music at home. Lately I’ve been digging up lots of old and new disco for when I’m Dj-ing. Some all time faves are Chaka Khan, Prince, Tom Tom Club, Shannon, early Madonna, Arthur Russell and a more recent favourite is Dutch producer Shook, who just remixed a track off my new EP.

My favourite place to go in Nottingham is Go-Ape in Sherwood Forest, which is like doing the Krypton Factor up in the trees.

Friends and pudding would also have to feature heavily. I could live on pudding alone. If you make me a cake I will be your best friend – it’s that simple.

Ronika’s new EP, Only Only/In The City, was released on Monday through RecordShop and is available to download on iTunes. You can find her on Facebook, MySpace and follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ohronikagirl