La Roux

All Music Guide:

Meaning "red-haired one" in French, La Roux is the synth pop project of flame-haired singer/songwriter Elly Jackson and keyboardist/producer Ben Langmaid. Before they collaborated, Jackson, the daughter of actress Trudie Goodwin, grew up listening to folk artists and singer/songwriters like Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell, and drew inspiration from their sounds for her early music. However, Jackson's style changed as she got into the rave scene, taking her music in a more electronic direction. Meanwhile, Langmaid had gone to school with Rollo from Faithless, and the two recorded as house duo Huff & Puff in the mid-'90s; Langmaid also recorded as Atomic and as one half of Huff & Herb for Rollo's label, and was a songwriter for the group Kubb. Jackson and Langmaid began working together in 2006, when they were introduced by a mutual acquaintance. Initially, they called their project Automan and wrote largely acoustic music before scrapping that name and sound for the sleek Prince, David Bowie, and the Knife-inspired style they pursued as La Roux, a moniker Jackson found in a book of baby names. Their debut single, "Quicksand," was released by Kitsune in fall 2008, and earned the band acclaim from the BBC and the Guardian. La Roux supported Lily Allen on her 2009 U.K. tour around the time their second single, "In for the Kill," was released that spring and debuted at 11 on the U.K. charts, reaching a peak position of two; that summer, the single "Bulletproof" debuted at number one a week before La Roux's self-titled album was released. La Roux arrived in the States that fall. Late that year, the duo began working on new material that steered away from the heavy '80s influence of its debut. In early 2010, Skream's remix of "In for the Kill" won Best Dancefloor Filler at the NME Shockwave Awards. That summer, "Bulletproof" entered the Top Ten of Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart, and La Roux released the mix album Sidetracked.

Wikipedia:

La Roux (/ɑːˈuː/ lah-ROO, French: [laˈʁu]) are an English synthpop duo composed of singer, keyboardist, co-writer and co-producer Elly Jackson, and co-writer and co-producer Ben Langmaid. Jackson describes their relationship as "very much a half and half sharing situation [...] not like a singer producer outfit", but also recognises that due to her prominence, it may "look like a solo act". The supporting band members to the duo are Mickey O'Brien (keyboards and backing vocals) and William Bowerman (on drums).

La Roux's music is influenced by 1980s British synthpop including Yazoo, Erasure, Depeche Mode, OMD, The Human League, Heaven 17 and Eurythmics. The band's name refers to Jackson's red hair and tomboyish appearance, mingling the masculine (le roux) and feminine (la rousse) French terms; she has said:

At the 53rd Grammy Awards on 13 February 2011, La Roux's eponymous debut album won the Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Contents

Career[edit]

Formation[edit]

In 2006, Jackson and Langmaid were introduced by a mutual friend. Their first project was named "Automan" and they wrote largely acoustic music due to Jackson's great admiration of acts like Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell.

Debut album[edit]

La Roux's debut single, "Quicksand", was released by French independent record label Kitsuné Music in December 2008. They then signed to Polydor Records in order to release their debut album.

La Roux's second single "In for the Kill" was released on 16 March 2009. Later, two prominent dubstep producers, Skream and Skrillex, created remixes of the track. Another remix was made by Lifelike. "In for the Kill" debuted at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart on 22 March 2009, peaking at number two four weeks later. "Bulletproof," later remixed by dubstep producer/dj Chrispy was released on 21 June 2009 and debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart. The song was released on 11 August 2009 in the United States and topped the Hot Dance Club Songs chart the week of 17 September. As of 11 June 2010 it had peaked at number 8 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and had sold over 2.0 million copies. The band's debut album peaked at 70 (number 4 on the Dance/Electronic chart). "I'm Not Your Toy", released on 29 September 2009, reached number twenty-seven on the UK chart. On 10 September 2009, Elly confirmed in an interview with French musical website Hall Musique that "As If by Magic" would be the fifth single to be released from the album.

In order to promote La Roux, the band was the supporting act on Lily Allen's UK tour of March 2009. La Roux headlined the Samsung NME Radar Tour 2009 and played alongside Magistrates and Heartbreak. They were scheduled to perform at the Glastonbury, Reading, Oxegen and Leeds festivals as well as the Scala, Southend Chinnerys and Coventry Kasbah venues. In July and August 2009, La Roux toured North America. The eight-city tour included performances at Osheaga Festival, All Points West Music & Arts Festival and Lollapalooza. On 23 July, the group performed on the late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The group returned to North America for a seven-date tour in October. The group sold out their two Australian dates within minutes forcing an upgrade in venues. In November, the duo embarked on an eleven-date United Kingdom and Ireland tour. La Roux gained fifth position on the BBC Sound of 2009 poll. The Guardian website featured La Roux on their New Band of the Day column. The Guardian also featured La Roux as one of the "Best New Acts of 2009" in January of that year. The album has been nominated for a Mercury Prize.

Sales of "In for the Kill" spiked 600 percent when "Skream's Let's Get Ravey remix of the song appeared on the HBO show Entourage in August 2010. Later that month, it was announced that an EP remix has been released in tandem with the November US tour. In October, a second video for the song was released that was shot at New York's landmark Hotel Chelsea. The song was released in the United States 7 October.

Hiatus and second studio album[edit]

La Roux were scheduled to start writing material for their second album during Christmas 2009 at their manager's home. Jackson said, "I think there will be a natural instrument or two on there though, which will make a change from the first record." She added that due to limited time, she did not think there would be "anything in terms of a second record for a while".

As of January 2011, La Roux were writing their second album with a somewhat established indie rock band whose members are friends of Jackson. Jackson told the NME, "I know I'm not going to stop writing until we've got songs that can compete on the same level as 'In For The Kill' and 'Bulletproof'".

In January 2012, Jackson described the second album as "a lot cheekier. Not "Touch My Bum" cheeky or Carry On cheeky—just slightly suggestive [...] A lot of music that's quite sexual is aggressive, but the music itself doesn't sound sexy—it's more people shouting, 'Look at my bum! Look!' I'm not turned on by it, I'm terrified." She also noted she feels a lot of pressure to replicate the quality of the duo's debut album.

Unlike the first album, album two will draw more on acoustic sounds and instruments, including guitars, organs and percussion; however, analog and digital synthesizers will still feature as part of the overall sound. Jackson has confirmed she will be playing instruments on the record, in addition to co-writing, co-producing and providing vocals.

La Roux started a low-key comeback tour on 28 March 2013 in Brighton with two more venues in Bristol and Coventry during the following week. It was confirmed via a copy of the setlist that there are four new songs: "Uptight Downtown", "Kiss and Not Tell", "Sexoteque" and "Tropical Chancer". Early reactions to the new material have so far been positive.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Compilation albums[edit]

Sidetracked[edit]

In July 2010, La Roux curated and mixed the latest volume of Sidetracked, a compilation series from Renaissance that allows artists from the electronic field free rein to showcase their musical interests. The mix eclectically features the likes of Japan, Heaven 17, Joyce Sims, Fever Ray (lead singer of The Knife), Doris Troy, Tears for Fears, Gerry Rafferty and many more of their influences. It also includes an exclusive recording of The Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb", a cover La Roux have been featuring in their then-recent live sets.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Guest appearances, Grammy and performances[edit]

On 26 January 2010, La Roux duetted with the 1980s synthpop group Heaven 17 on the 6 Music Live Combos show. Heaven 17 keyboardist Martyn Ware said that he was surprised at how well his and Jackson's voices connected.

La Roux also performed at T in the Park Balado, Scotland, V Festival (Chelmsford and Staffordshire) and Oxegen Festival (Ireland) along with many other artists in 2010. La Roux have also been popular with music publication NME, with Jackson gracing the front cover of their 'Future 50' edition. They won the NME Award for Best Dancefloor Filler with the Skream Remix of 'In For The Kill'. They were also the only band to be featured 4 times on the NME 50 Best Tracks of 2009 list with Im Not Your Toy placed at 41, Bulletproof at 24, In For the Kill Skream Dubstep Remix at 19 and In For The Kill riding high at 8.

Elly Jackson of La Roux was the judge at the 2010 "fantasy dress" at Bestival festival.

On 25 June 2010, La Roux played the Glastonbury Festival. In addition to their own material the group dueted with Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 on Heaven 17's "Temptation" and played a cover of The Rolling Stones "Under my Thumb". La Roux have played "Under My Thumb" since early 2010, including their March tour of Australia. Elly Jackson also performed a cover version of Terence Trent D'arby's Sign Your Name with Heaven 17 at Bestival in 2010.

On 9 August 2010, Skream released the album Outside the Box which features a song called "Finally" featuring La Roux.

On 31 December, La Roux appeared on the American television program Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.

In February 2011, La Roux won the Best Electronic/Dance Album Grammy Award for their self-titled debut album. Their single "In for the Kill" was nominated for Best Dance Recording; Jackson wrote on Twitter "This is the happiest I think I've ever been". This contrasts Elly Jackson's previous comments at the 2010 NME Awards, where she lightheartedly stated that the group "rarely wins awards". Ben Langmaid stated in a post-award interview, that the day before the Grammys, the duo were rewarded with a double platinum set of discs from their record company, describing the weekend of the Grammys as "My happiest weekend ever". On the 2010 hit hip-hop album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West, Jackson provided vocals on the hit single "All of the Lights" and some more vocals on the song, "Lost in the World" and the Outro, "Who Will Survive in America". Jackson worked with Kanye West again on the 2011 collaboration album Watch the Throne, which featured Jay-Z, providing vocals for the track "That's My Bitch".

La Roux appeared in a cameo role as themselves in the revival of the BBC's Absolutely Fabulous on 1 January 2012, singing alongside Jennifer Saunders' character.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

Members[edit]

Festival appearances[edit]

List of La Roux festival appearances:

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Awards[edit]

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