Indiana makes Top 20 with debut album

February 2015

She knew it; Indiana predicted that her debut album, No Romeo, would be number 17 when the chart was announced. “I was in the shower, the glass was all steamed up and I said to myself ‘write the number you think you’re going to be in the glass and you will be that number,’”says the singer-songwriter who released the album just a week ago.


“And I wrote 17. I wish that, if it was some sort of witching power, that I’d written number one,” she laughs.


The 27-year-old mum of two celebrated at home in Long Eaton by drinking tea and eating chocolate. Last night she was at the cinema with her boyfriend while mum babysat.


“I’m really pleased to have a Top 20 album, it’s what I was hoping for,” she says.


The news came at the end of a busy and anxious week for Indiana, real name Lauren Henson.


“I’ve found it really difficult to sleep,” she admits.


The album was launched in London, followed by a singing and signing session at Nottingham’s Rough Trade in Broad Street, radio and TV interviews and using her Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts to promote the album.


“I’ve been busy on social media more than I have ever,” says Indiana, whose music is dark, electronic pop.


“I think people are sick of seeing my face because I posted so many selfies,” she laughs.


The success, the first for a Nottingham artist in the album chart since Jake Bugg’s Shangri La reached number three two years ago, comes just three years after her very first gig in the Old Market Square.


That was part of the Future Sound of Nottingham competition organised by local music champions Nusic.


“I’ve had a lot of support since then and I want to thank Nottingham for helping me, especially Mark Del from Nusic, who has really been campaigning hard for me. I’m really grateful.”


She’s now planning her next single, which will be album track Blind As I Am.


“The photographer Rankin wants to shoot the video for it and I’m excited about that,” she says, adding: “I want people to keep discovering the album. I want it to be known as a classic over time. I think it deserves to be higher than number 17 but I’m a new artist and my music hasn’t been heard on many platforms yet. I’d like to be played on Radio 2 and commercial radio. Maybe with the release of Blind As I Am, which is a ballad, that will happen.


“I definitely want more. I want No Romeo to be heard by more people, in other countries and it to take me around the world.


“And now it’s a Top 20 album, doors will open; there’s a lot to look forward.”


The number one album was a new entry by Bob Dylan, his 36th release called Shadows In The Night.


Others in the Top 20 included Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Mark Ronson and Meghan Trainor.

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.

Lucy Kay

January 2015

ON the first night of the UK tour, Lucy Kay plunged down a flight of stairs on stage. Fortunately, this was during the rehearsal. And fortunately, thanks to what she calls “Christmas padding”, she wasn’t hurt.

“I did a Beyoncé. I walked down the top few steps, tripped on my dress and fell all the way to the bottom,” laughs the 25-year-old, who is on a tour with Britain’s Got Talent winners Collabro.

“Although I did carry on singing.”

She adds: “Christmas was good to me so I kind of fell on my flab.”

It went to plan in the concert... because she changed to singing after she’d descended the stairs.

“I can’t multi-task, apparently,” giggles the soprano, who is singing highlights from her debut album, Fantasia, which reached No. 18 in the UK chart and topped the Classical chart.

The tour opened in Carlisle on Monday.

“I got a standing ovation,” she says, sounding surprised, despite experiencing the same from the Britain’s Got Talent judges on last year’s show.

“I wasn’t expecting it because it’s Collabro’s tour and they’re not there to see my warbly opera,” says Lucy, a former Cantamus choirgirl who grew up in Sutton-in-Ashefield and Kirkby-in-Ashfield, where her mum still lives.

Since the show, on which millions watched her come second to the theatrical boy band, she has performed for celebrities like Elton John, Kate Moss and Samuel L Jackson, as well as royalty.

The tour, which comes to the Royal Concert Hall tonight, sees her sings two arias in the first half, another two after the break, then join “the boys” for a duet.

Exchanging the spotlight numerous times is not the usual structure for a concert but Lucy isn’t billed as the support act (that’s Philippa Hanna), rather a special guest.

“Some people have asked what time I’m on stage because they want to watch me then leave but it’s not like that,” she laughs.

Apart from touring the Far East with Cantamus while a schoolgirl, this is her first proper tour.

It’s a long time to be on the road, so what will she do during her downtime?

“I like to chat. And eat. The chef on the tour is amazing. I’ve been told off so many times because I keep going back for seconds.

“The sweet stuff is so nice. I’ve got a bit of a pouch going on, which isn’t ideal when you’re wearing a tight dress.”

Her essential items (apart from a knife and fork), are “girly things”.

She says: “My make-up, dresses, hair curlers, my phone is my bloodline.... and my iPod, with lots of heavy metal music on it. I was listening to a bit of Killswitch Engage in the gym this morning.”

The metal fan, whose first concerts were at Rock City, dreams of playing Download Festival. Or even just going would be nice, but commitments don’t allow her to make such plans. Her family will be at the show tonight; mum, dad, nan and sister. As well as her boyfriend, David.

“He’s my tour manager. I don’t think he could cope without me for seven weeks,” she laughs.

Lucy was back in Kirkby-in-Ashfield for two weeks at Christmas.

“The furthest I went was Mansfield. I went shopping but I didn’t go partying.”

Was she recognised?

“People tend to stare, as if they’re wondering ‘is that her?’ Very rarely does anyone approach me. But then they’ll ask me on Facebook ‘was that you?’ So I spent a lot of my time in the café at Asda in Mansfield being stared at.”


Lucy Kay joins Collabro at the Royal Concert Hall on Friday, January 30, starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are £19.50 to £38.50, from the venue, call 0115 989 5555 or go to trch.co.uk.

Jake Bugg: Shangri La

November 2013

WAYNE Rooney has more guitars than he has but the England star can’t play a note.
“He came to the gig in Manchester the other night and he wanted his guitar signed,” says Jake Bugg.
“He’s got about 40 guitars but he can’t play; he gets them signed by people. He said he’d got one signed by Paul McCartney.
“It was nice because he gave me the shirt he wore for his last England game against Poland and signed that.”
The Manchester Utd forward tweeted a photo of the meeting saying: “Just been to see @JakeBugg in Apollo. Great gig.”
On this tour Bugg has also had the likes of comedian John  Bishop and British tennis player Laura Robson turning up to see him.
“To be honest, I don’t know who most people are,” says the 19-year-old, making a rare visit back to the city.
He was only here for 12 hours before heading off again to continue with his sold out UK tour.
After checking in to his hotel (he no longer stays with his mum in Clifton), he went to see his cousin and “had a few cans.”
There was a lie-in,  a couple of interviews, then the gig at The Maze.
“I’ve only been back to Nottingham maybe three or four times this year. It’s pretty full-on.”
And it will continue. Tomorrow he’s heading to Scandinavia, then Europe, back to the UK, more European dates, then North America in the New Year.
“Hopefully the routing of the tours will be a bit more organised so we’re not going from New Zealand to Canada to Japan,” says Bugg, who kills time on the road by playing darts, table tennis, football and computer games.
In February, he’ll be at the Capital FM Arena, not just his first headline arena show but the first for a local musician at the city’s biggest venue.

“Yeah man, it’s great,” says Bugg, who headlined the Splendour festival in Wollaton Park in July.
“I never thought I’d be playing it. Obviously you dream of it but you don’t actually think it will happen. I remember how many people were there for Kings Of Leon; it’ll be crazy.”
Tickets to the Maze gig on Saturday afternoon were free to those lucky enough to win them through his website. It brought him back to one of the first places he played four years ago as a 15-year-old.
“It’s nice to do those little gigs again,” says Bugg.
“The first time I played The Maze there weren’t many people there. A lot of venues wouldn’t let me play because of my age. I played a few Monday night gigs in the little bar at the Rescue Rooms after school. People were eating their dinner and not taking much notice. I was probably wearing a tracksuit, maybe that freaked them out.”
Not as hideous as the one worn in the video for Slumville Sunrise, filmed in Nottingham by director Shane Meadows.
“That was a pretty bad one but that was the idea,” he laughs.
“It was a fun day shooting that. I was in Malibu finishing the album the day before. Coming back brought me back to reality. Although I was robbing a jewellery store in a shell suit with old ladies running after me, which I’d never done before.
“It was funny, man. I haven’t had that much fun for a while.”
The video featured Rosamund Hanson and Andrew Shim, both graduates of The Television Workshop. Its director has watched the five minute scene at the end of the video where Bugg has to deliver dialogue. He reckons he’s good enough to join the Workshop.
Bugg seems surprised: “Acting is an exaggerated version of yourself. I can probably express more emotion like that than I can by being interviewed. I’m not very expressive in interviews.
“I like the idea of putting myself in a situation that I’m not used to.”
There won’t be much of an opportunity for any more acting as the momentum gathers pace with the release of Shangri La next week.
It comes just 13 months after his self-titled debut topped the chart.
“Music is about making records,” he says of the quick turn around.
“You’ve just got to get on with it.”
Shangri La is released the same day as the new Robbie Williams album and it’s not a battle he thinks he’ll win.

Besides, if it does reach No. 1 next Sunday, it’ll mean knocking One Direction off the top spot and he’s not keen on the tabloids reviving his verbal spat with them.
Like the debut, Shangri La is a diverse collection, jumping from hillbilly Elvis, to Neil Young country rock, with a fair few folk and pop ballads.
Lyrically, it doesn’t name-check Clifton like the debut but still includes tales of working class life; of drugs and fighting.
“That life is strange to me now because it’s not mine any more,” he admits.
“I’m an outsider looking in from a completely different perspective.”
It was named after the studio in California where it was recorded by Rick Rubin, the co-founder of Def Jam Records and producer for the Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jay-Z, Metallica, AC/DC and Adele.
Rubin also revived the career of Johnny Cash during his final years with a series of acclaimed  American Recordings albums.
“We became friends and I’m sure I’ll go back to hear a few Johnny Cash stories because when I was there I had to be pretty focused on making the record and didn’t really have time,” says Bugg, who has sold a million copies of his debut album.
He has indulged in his passion for guitars, buying two vintage models worth over £20,000 each but he has yet to buy property, despite rumours that he had bought a house in Southwell and a Mercedes with the personalised number plate 8UGG.
“I don’t know what that was about,” he says.
“I can’t drive. And I’m not sure I’d live in Southwell. Is it a nice place? I’ve never really been.
“I’d like a little retreat in Malibu or a flat Paris.
“But I’m not in one place for long enough to buy anywhere. The two weeks that I recorded the album in Malibu was the longest I’ve stayed in one place for two years.”
Does he miss home?
“I miss the people. I don’t really miss Clifton because I was there for 17 years. I knew there was a big world out there and I wanted to see it. That’s what I’m doing.”

Shangri La is released on Monday. Tickets for his date at the Capital FM Arena on Thursday, February 20 are £22.50 from the venue, call 0845 413 4444 or go to alt-tickets.co.uk.