Sophie Ellis Bextor has been waiting patiently
for her time. At just 22, she is a veteran in today's ever-changing
music scene. It's five years since she started her career as a
pop star. But it's only now in the summer of 2001 that Sophie
Ellis Bextor is about to step into the limelight as a solo artist.
As sophisticated front woman in sharp-suited indie-popsters theaudience,
she earned the approval of the style cognoscenti; as chart-topping
disco diva who sang Spiller's 'Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)'
she transformed an Italian deep house groove into one of the most
enduring records of recent years. But anyone expecting this elegant
star, with the voice of a disco Chrissie Hynde and the poise of
a young Audrey Hepburn, to simply retread her Spiller success
will be surprised.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor's solo material has sassy grooves
and disco licks a-plenty, but like Madonna's finer work it also
balances crisply funky dance rhythms with 80s soul, pop dynamics,
and real songs. "Sophisticated pop," is how she describes
it. "Stuff that doesn't talk down to people. I just want
something that has got a bit of conviction to it and a bit of
depth. I don't find there's too much of that around."
There's a bountiful of conviction on Sophie's debut
album 'Read My Lips'. The lead single 'Take Me Home' has already
received a rapturous reception with its cool disco groove, crisp
French beats and the mesmerising line: "You deserve a girl
like me." 80s soul rhythms jiggle under swish strings and
glittery funk guitars for the sassy 'Murder On The Dancefloor'.
With its church bells and sense of broken love, the slower 'Move
This Mountain' is a theatrical pop drama. The dinky electro-pop
'Everything Falls Into Place' has its tongue in cheek and its
white stilettos on. 'Lover' is a seductive march of a groove with
off-the-wall synth and melodies.
It's quite a definitive statement: Sophie knows
exactly what she wants. "I think there's quite a lot of cowardice
in music. I don't mind if it goes wrong, I just want to go for
it. This is a great opportunity, I don't wanna look back and think,
'I should have been a bit bolder.'"
It was Sophie Ellis Bextor's voice that first struck
the masses. That voice on Spiller's 'Groovejet (If This Ain't
Love)' was deliciously infectious, with a sexily-composed vocal
that sang, "If this ain't love, why does it feel so good?"
The question on everyone's lips was, who's that girl? Weeks later
everyone knew the answer. Sophie and Spiller were Number One.
And you can hear this distinct personality in those
archly deadpan vocals, clever and velvety, that weave themselves
over 'Read My Lips.' This is grown-up pop with a post-watershed
groove that tells stories of love, desire and discos with grace
and a mischievous tongue in its cheek. "I'm a bit coquettish,
it's flirty stuff, I'm 22," chuckles Sophie. "I really
like to have a poise when I'm singing, a certain character. Hopefully
she's quite bright."
Growing up in London, the daughter of a television
director and a television presenter Sophie has always had fairly
definite ideas about who she wanted to be. She edited her school
newspaper at Godolphin And Latymer and whenever debates about
music came up in the playground, would confidently declare: "I
prefer the original." Whether she knew it or not. "I
was quite outspoken and cheeky and opinionated, but I wasn't like
a rule breaker."
By 16 a love of Madonna and Michael Jackson had
been swapped by Britpop as Sophie, clad in Adidas, hung out at
West End clubs like Popscene. "I loved that very tongue-in-cheek
English thing," she says. "I also liked that feeling
of being a part of something. I think that's what being a teenager
feels like - being with people who understand." She'd already
started singing and at the club Uncle Bob's Wedding Reception
met musician Billy Reeves and handed him a tape.
Two years later theaudience emerged, dressed in
black, with spiky guitar pop and a bona-fide star in the shape
of chicly glamorous Ellis-Bextor. Sophie had always felt Britpop
was too grubby. "I think whoever's on stage should look like
they're supposed to be on stage," she notes. "I think
performers should be a bit larger than life."
But despite the media acclaim, two Top 30 singles
and a breezily confident album that owed more to classic Pretenders
than it did Pulp, the audience crumbled when Billy Reeves, the
brain of the band, walked out. "It was all a bit Spinal Tap,
we kept having all these arguments." Sophie was left at something
of a crossroads.
During six dispiriting six months Sophie decided
a solo career was the next step. Whilst writing solo material
Sophie's publisher sent the Spiller track over, then one of four
instrumental grooves on the Italian producer's 'Miami' EP. Sophie
originally dismissed it but then she started playing around with
verses and choruses, eventually writing the final verse and co-writing
that famous chorus. "I thought, 'I'll have a nice time doing
something, it'll be a real breath of fresh air to do a dance track.'
It was still going to be a song-based thing." Sophie could
hardly have been prepared for the way the pop world welcomed her
with open arms. Because Sophie Ellis-Bextor can sing. And when
she sings, you can hear she means it.
"There's so many singers, you watch them and
a lot of it is waving around. You don't get this feeling that
they're really thinking about what they're saying," she concludes.
But just because Sophie is a musician who sings with conviction
doesn't alter the album's breezy sense of fun, or its wickedly
funky mix of house, electro and pop. For Sophie Ellis-Bextor it's
about bringing it all together. "There's music as a way to
be famous, and all of that side of it. And there's music because
you love singing," she concludes. "For me, I love a
good mixture of both."
From
Her Official Site
