La Roux Talks Music and Bands She Likes
November 20th, 2009La Roux is actually a partnership comprising the 21-year-old Jackson and the reclusive Ben Langmaid, who has been involved in the dance scene since the 1990s and is rumoured to be in his early forties. An equal partner in the studio, he doesn’t appear live – that job is handled by a touring band – which means that, for most people, Jackson is La Roux. But it’s actually a classic dynamic – the poker-faced musician and the gregarious singer – that recalls synth duos from another era such as Yazoo, OMD, Soft Cell and Eurythmics.
Meanwhile, Jackson, with her shock of red hair plus gravity-defying elongated sculpted fringe and outspoken views, is like a pop star from a more colourful age. You could imagine her on Top Of The Pops circa 1981-2 alongside Boy George and Marc Almond.
Like her predecessors, she is “very hands-on” about what she does, right down to the font used on her record sleeves. “I can’t imagine doing it any other way,” she says. “I’m like, ‘Are other people not?’”
Instead of “auteur”, however, some say “hauteur”: they think La Roux is cold and distant, arrogant and superior, snootily looking down her nose at the rest of pop. Indeed, her team describe her image as “future regal”, while if you spend time with her discussing the current scene, you come to expect harsh judgments of her peers. Take That are “gaylords”, and The Ting Tings are brushed aside with an “I hate them”.
“Maybe it would be better to say what you do like,” says her keyboardist Michael Norris, backstage at a TV studio in Belgium where the band were due to perform Quicksand. “That would be a short conversation,” Jackson replies. “I like Tears For Fears. See ya!”
