La Roux

It has been five years since we heard La Roux’s emotionally charged synthpop. With indisputable hits like “In for the Kill” and “Bulletproof”, along with a 2011 Grammy win for Best Electronic/Dance Album, some wonder why it’s taken the UK duo so long to follow up on their success. Setbacks like the controversial departure of long-time producer/collaborator Ben Langmaid and frontwoman Elly Jackson’s stress-induced vocal troubles help explain the delay. Now a solo act, La Roux is poised for a new horizon with the 2014 release of its new album, Trouble in Paradise. We caught up with Elly Jackson in Montreal to hear more about where she’s been, why she’s been gone and the process of her new album.

G—Welcome back to Montreal.

Elly Jackson—Thank you. It’s nice to be back in Canada. I love being here. It feels very homey for some reason.

G—How does it feel to be back from your hiatus? Do you want to call it a “hiatus”?

EJ—Everyone keeps calling it a hiatus, but I didn’t go anywhere. It definitely wasn’t an intentional hiatus. It was just to make sure the record is right.

G—Five years.

EJ—Everyone keeps saying that, but I didn’t start making it until two and a half years ago. Everyone is counting from 2009, but I didn’t go into a studio until 2011 because we were touring. For me it’s more like three years. I can’t make music on tour. I hate it.

G—How does it feel that this is all you, and that the new album is mostly your writing?

EJ—It’s always been me. Everything La Roux that you see is my doing.

G—So you could say you are pretty hands-on?

EJ—There’s not a single thing I don’t oversee. Oversee is putting it lightly. I’m at my artwork guy’s house for days on end. I have books of images that we’ve referenced and I sketch things. We’ve been working out the stage stuff for a year. There’s nothing you see that I haven’t approved or done. I’m a massive control freak. I wouldn’t let anyone else do it.

G—Is it difficult controlling everything?

EJ—I think you have to otherwise it looks like a label has done it. I’m not a fan of things looking like a company has done it, PR stunts or anything like that. That’s why I won’t go on Twitter anymore, unless it’s purely about creating a better visual or it’s creative. If it’s not enhancing the visual or musical aspect, I’m not interested in doing it.

G—You’ve said you won’t do any of the social media but do you feel any kind of pressure to have a presence on there?

EJ—Yeah, of course, I have arguments constantly. In meetings I get people just looking at me like, “You’re a fucking nightmare.” I don’t really give a shit. Only you know what’s right for you.

When I was on Twitter I got allot of, “You do a tweet, you haven’t done a tweet for two weeks.” If I’m not tweeting naturally, what’s the point of doing it?

It’s like I’m just doing it to remind people that I’m there. I don’t understand it. I never will. I think it’s what’s ruining pop stars.

G—What’s it like being back on stage? I read that your voice suffered from performance anxiety.

EJ—Yeah, it’s hard to describe because I was never anxious about going on stage. I never had stage fright as it were. Over time, I was doing dates in the US and noticed there was something really wrong with me. I didn’t understand it. Later found out I had pharyngitis.

I had been letting all kinds of pressures and expectactions get on top of me. I basically just got worse and worse and, without going into too much detail, a muscle in my throat became paralyzed. There’s nothing you can do about it until you sort out the issues of why you’re so stressed. So it just took a while.

I wasn’t scared of going on stage, I was just scared of singing because I couldn’t. Now I can sing and have been able to for a couple of years. I’m really enjoying singing again.

G—Now that you are back, do you feel any pressure to continue where you left off?

EJ—Definitely not.

G—Does it feel like a new beginning?

EJ—I can’t say that it’s like a new beginning because that would feel like I’m somehow shitting on what I did before. There is a gap, whether it was intentional or not or whether it was a hiatus or not there still was a gap. In that time a lot has changed in me and in the music, what I like and the kind of performer I want to be.

The best way to describe it is that I don’t want to completely change from what I did before, but more so add to it. The shows will hopefully be a journey from the beginning to wherever I am at that time.