Cheryl who? Nicola Roberts, the surly red-haired Scouser from Girls Aloud, may be the Girl who gets the cream. She tells LAUREN MURPHYwhy her stonking solo album is popping everyone's corks
IT’S THE QUIET ones you have to watch. Clichéd, perhaps, but true – and it sure applies to Nicola Roberts. The Girls Aloud member spent most of her time in the background while her bandmates hogged the limelight. Now it’s time to settle the score.
If there was ever any suggestion that Roberts was simply "making up the numbers" in one of pop's biggest girlbands, that theory is blown out of the water with Cinderella's Eyes, the 25-year-old Scouser's debut solo album. Like most wallflowers, Roberts has peeled herself away from the perimeters and is ready to take centre-stage with a record that will surprise many with its creativity and vibrancy.
The album has been in the works since Girls Aloud first decided to take a hiatus almost two years ago. “Usually, what would happen was by summer 2009 we would have been in the studio working on another album,” the endearingly down-to-earth singer explains from her home in London.
“So when it got to September and I wasn’t working on music, it really saddened me. I’ve always loved to write anyway, and I did say when we went on a break that I wanted to perfect that, and work hard and learn more about songwriting and being in the studio. And learn more about myself, vocally, too. Just be... better. So I ended up just making my own record. I didn’t have a holiday and I didn’t really give myself a day off – it’s been every day for 18 months.”
Her dedication has paid off. Not only is Roberts’ voice at the forefront of each song on her album – hiding behind studio trickery and wacky effects is not an option – but her eagerness to develop her songwriting craft has resulted in one of the most well-rounded pop albums you’ll hear this year. There was no sense of trading off her Girls Aloud background to broker a deal, either. The album was completely finished before it was presented to various labels, subsequently being snapped up by Universal offshoot Polydor. The adjustment from band member to solo artist has certainly been “different”, Roberts admits, but her personal investment – not least in the lyrical content – has meant that this album means more to her than any of the largely Xenomania-written Girls Aloud material. Yet putting such personally important songs out into the world for critical and public appraisal is a frightening process, too.
“I really want people to like what I’ve done, but you can’t really force that to happen, and that’s what’s a little bit scary,” she says. “But I’m just really thankful that I’ve got my own record under me little belt, just to have it for the rest of my life. If I never do another one, at least I’ve made my own record.”
Of course, comparisons between her own solo record and those of her bandmates' is also inevitable. There's no question that Cinderella's Eyestrumps both Cheryl Cole and Nadine Coyle's substandard offerings, but Roberts is unsurprisingly diplomatic when pushed on the matter.
"We really don't look at it like that," she says after pausing to carefully consider her words. "It actually kind of saddens us a little bit that people from the outside would think that. We're all probably so close now, that it's more like a sisterly relationship, and whatever we do, we support each other – whether it's Kimberley doing Shrek, or Sarah doing a movie, or Cheryl's record, or Nadine's record... whatever it is.
“At the moment, every single one of us are out of our comfort zone, because the band is where we grew up and where we’re comfortable, I suppose. And I think what’s nice is that regardless of what each one of us is doing, we’re all being challenged on the same level. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and we don’t pit ourselves against each other at all. It’s just not the relationship that we have.”
Nevertheless, the contrast between Cinderella's Eyes, Cole's 3 Wordsand Messy Little Raindrops, and Coyle's Insatiablecan't be understated. Much of the disparity in quality is down to the drafting-in of some impressive co-writers and producers. Diplo ("I loved the stuff he did on the Major Lazeralbum") takes lead single Beat of My Druminto another stratosphere, and Joseph Mount of Metronomy's input on the superbly unnerving imakes for one of the best pop tracks you'll hear in 2011. Girls Aloud were once referred to as the "pop group it's OK for indie kids to like", but gaining credibility from other factions was never important to Roberts. "It wasn't a conscious effort, it was just what I'm into," she says. "I think that all five of us have our own personal tastes – music, fashion, films, whatever it may be – and I think when you're in a band, people just see us collectively, not as individuals. You'd probably never know my personal musical taste, and why would you? All you're getting is the Girls Aloud sound."
Personality plays a crucial role on Cinderella's Eyes, not least when it comes to the lyrical content. Once customarily and cruelly referred to as the "ugly duckling" of the band (or by ex-Busted "star" Matt Willis as a "rude ginger bitch"), Roberts has addressed the naysayers on songs like Sticks + Stones("Couldn't you tell lies to me? Couldn't you say I'm pretty?"), i's reference to "people who leave comments on the internet", and the MIA-esque Take a Bite, where she addresses the media's obsession with her looks. If revenge is a dish best served cold, then these songs are positively sub-zero.
"I think that when you write, you either write from your head and your heart, or you don't. Some people write generically, I suppose, but with me, everything has to cut a nerve. I have to feel like I mean what I sing 100 per cent for it to work. Sticks + Stonesis probably the most telling of a certain situation song that's on the record. I've been wanting to write that song for a long time, but I didn't want it to be a self-indulgent track. People are supposed to be able to relate to music. The middle-8 part is obviously very personal, but the rest of the song is quite universal."
Roberts recently spoke of how grateful she was to have the opportunity to make a solo album, and how commercial success takes a back seat to releasing an album that won’t sound regrettable in future years. A noble stance, certainly, but is it a realistic one?
“Well, obviously you want people to like it,” she says. “Like I said before, if I never get to make another album again, I don’t want to look back on this one in five years’ time and think that it means nothing to me, or that I didn’t really like the sound but I went with because I knew it was going to sell. What would that be like? I’d rather look back in five years’ time and think ‘D’you know what, that was two years of me life where everything was how it wanted to be, and it’s the record I wanted to make’.
“Will I make more solo albums? D’you know what? Yeah, for the rest of my life, I would absolutely love to keep making music, because it’s what I love to do, but it’s not really my decision. People have to like it. I’m a realist – I know how it all works, so I’ll just have to take things as they come.”
Before thoughts of potentially permanent solo careers, however, there’s the $64,000 question. Given each member’s burgeoning careers – both musical and non-musical – is another Girls Aloud album realistic?
There’s also the question of whether Roberts, buoyed by her newfound confidence, would be willing to return to the back seat role again. “I can’t obviously say anything because nothing’s been decided for definite, but I really do hope – and would look forward to – making another record with the band. I really do genuinely love being in the band, with every little piece of my heart, and I love the girls. But after spending the last 18 months in the studio, and writing, and being around the producers I love to work with – it’s a massive part of my life.
“So obviously, if Girls Aloud were to make another record, then yeah, I don’t think I could not have that level of involvement. I would have to, I think. It’s just in me more now than it ever was before.”
Kinda ooh: what the Girls have been up to
CHERYL COLECole has had a higher public profile than any of her other Girls Aloud bandmates, largely because of her divorce to Chelsea's Ashley Cole and her role as an X Factorjudge (and the unresolved controversy that went with the US version). Her two solo albums have been moderately successful but utterly lacking in imagination. Oh yeah, and she contracted malaria last year, too.
NADINE COYLECoyle's solo album Insatiablewas released through her own label Black Pen Records (canny move) and made available solely through Tesco (not so canny). Now based in Los Angeles, she recently split from former American Football-playing fiancé Jason Bell – but at least she has her own Californian pub, Nadine's Irish Mist, to drown her sorrows in.
KIMBERLEY WALSHWalsh has occasionally appeared on soundtracks and other artists' singles, but most of her free time has been spent modelling, acting and presenting, including a music chat show called Suck My Pop. Her resumé will be further augmented by her forthcoming role as Princess Fiona in the West End production of Shrek: The Musical, replacing a pregnant Amanda Holden.
SARAH HARDINGHarding went as far as to announce a solo album last year, but we're still waiting for it to materialise. In the meantime, she's turned her hand to acting and TV, although her dead-behind-the-eyes presenting on Dating in the Darkscares us. She also invested in a nightclub, models knickers for Ultimo, and has ditched her fiancé. And she's changed her hair colour: "at the moment, I'm Team Ginge like Nicola!"
Cinderella’s Eyes
is released today on Polydor
