DigitalSpy interview:
First of all congratulations on 'One More Sleep'. It sounds like a future Christmas classic.
"Oh, I hope so! That would be awesome. I think people weren't really expecting something like that, maybe they were expecting something a bit slower. It's been really good and I've liked hearing what people think of it."
We remember being slightly confused when you described Christmas, With Love as a Motown Christmas album, but as soon as we heard it we completely got it.
"You got it! Yeah, that was the intention. Every year in my house a play a lot of Motown music, especially at Christmas and especially stuff like the Phil Spector records, so that's where the influence kind of came from."
You're the lead songwriter on the three original tracks, but did you find it easier to write a Christmas song because there's already a strong idea there, or did you find it harder?
"'Mr Right' and 'One More Sleep' were very much together already - the ideas were already formulated - but with 'Your Hallelujah', that was not really coming from a Christmas place at first. We kind of were just sitting down to write and then it kind of came. I think it's the least Christmassy, but it still has that feel in the track."
You've previously said that Simon suggested you do a Christmas album, so did you sign up straight away or did he have to convince you?
"Well, I had been thinking for a while to do one and he kind of read my mind. At the time I'd just finished my third album, I went on tour and I wanted to get into a completely different headspace. So the idea of the Christmas album came up again and I was just, 'Yeah, yeah - let's just do it, go for it'."
One track that stands out on the album is 'Ave Maria' because it's more classical than we've heard you do before. Do you think the public will be shocked to hear you sing like that?
"Probably, yeah. I think a lot of people don't know that I was classically trained. That's the first thing that I ever did and I really thought that's the market that I was going to head towards, because I didn't sing contemporary music or train contemporary until I was in my teens. So that's the foundation of my singing. It was cool to be able to actually perform that because on any of my other records I haven't been able to do that before."
Was it easy to pick up again?
"Well I haven't trained in it for a little while because I was doing my tour. I just wanted to focus on my vocals for that, which is obviously coming from a contemporary place. So I had to have intense training with my opera coach to just get back into it and to make sure it was all good. Also, it's in Latin, so I had to make sure all the pronunciations were correct and stuff."
We'd quite like to see you perform it live at some point.
"I might be. There's a show that wants me to perform it so I think that I will. It's weird, because I don't really think anyone's mixed classical in amongst doing contemporary, so it all depends on how I feel and how my voice is feeling."
The obvious question now is whether you have plans to record a full classical album in the future?
"I'd love to do a classical record at some point. If the opportunity came up I definitely would."
Talking of future albums, how is work coming along on your next record?
"I was working on it for a while in the summer time. I was going in, getting ideas together and working with some different producers, but now I'm focusing just on this record for the next little while. I'll be back in the studio in January doing an album."
Do you have any idea where you want to go next with your music?
"Well really this year I took the time to become re-inspired, and after my tour I thought that it was gonna be a chilled kind of year, kind of, you know, going in the studio. But then I did a film and recorded a bunch of '80s songs for it, so I was in the '80s headspace for a while.
"Then I went straight into recording all these Christmas classic Motown kind of songs, so it really gave me a chance to just get out of my head and go into something completely different. I feel like for the next record I'm re-inspired to do something a bit different, maybe even go into that kind of retro throwback sound for the next record. I definitely want to work with the Smeezingtons. I'd love to do something with Bruno Mars, so I'm reaching out to a few different people and also some Motown people, maybe doing something with them. So I'm still thinking about it, but maybe I'll try something like that on the next album."
Bruno Mars really mastered that retro sound with his last album Unorthodox Jukebox.
"Even though it was a huge album, I still feel like it's not as rated as it should be. And he's not rated as highly as he should be because he is phenomenal. I think he could be one of the greats."
We love your last album Glassheart, but it didn't perform as well as people expected. How are you feeling about it one year on?
"After bringing out the album, I think a lot of people were like, 'Are you releasing everywhere?', 'Where are you releasing?', 'What's happening?' But when I recorded Glassheart, I recorded it all in the UK and it was our intention to just release it here - and that's what we did. Then I released it in Europe as well, and after that I got to tour in Europe, which I've never done before so, even though it would have been amazing to have a global release, it allowed me to actually concentrate on Europe where I've never toured before. At the end of the day, as an artist, I want to tour. I want to go and do as many live shows as possible and, in a way, it was a good thing because it allowed me to do that. But yeah, for me, I want to better everything. Everything has to be better, so that's kind of my intention."
Do you think that because of the huge international success you had at the beginning of your career with Spirit, you'll always have that pressure to perform well?
"Well that's the thing. The first album just blew up everywhere, so then people are always anticipating and it's like, 'What's she gonna do next?' To me, Glassheart did amazingly well. It didn't do as well as my first album, but it still did amazingly, and that's what matters to me. As long as it's getting to the people. It's about being able to do what I love and do my live show and go to Europe and go to places I've never been before, and that kind of is what counts to me. And I'm hoping that I'm going to be an artist that can have a long career. Not just a quick one and then gone, so you have to build on that."
You're going to make your movie debut next year in a new musical called Holiday!. How did you find it going from the recording studio to a film set?
"It was mental! Again, it was something that just came along really, really quickly and this year my intention was to get refocused and re-inspired and it was perfect timing. I have done a lot of theatre work before, but it was quite a few years ago so getting back into that was kind of scary. It gave me a chance to learn a lot from the people on set and for a lot of people it was their first movie as well, so we kind of felt the nerves together. It was so fun and hopefully people like it."
Elle.com interview:
It must have been a bit bizarre recording Christmas songs in the summer with the sun blazing, no?
I thought "Oh, this is going to be so weird. How am I going to feel Christmas-y?" First off, I recorded it in the U.K., which is not the sunniest [place]. Of course this summer was literally like the sunniest on record. But it ended up being a blessing in disguise because I started playing loads of Christmas songs and really kind of delving into all of these kind of classics. And I discovered some really amazing recordings that I probably never would have had I not had to really get into that kind of Christmas vibe.
This was also much quicker than you would normally return to the studio.
It came together quite quickly because I knew exactly which songs I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do a Motown vibe and that just kind of came together really organically and quite quickly, which is kind of crazy for me. I usually take quite a long time to record.
These songs are certainly a lot peppier than your normal material.
It was just so different to write songs that are really super joyful and super happy. It was just so much fun. And I think when I was writing with the writers none of them had really written a Christmas song before. So it was coming from a completely different place. Everyone was super excited about doing this.
The first single off the album is called “One More Sleep,” which I’ve read is about that night before Christmas anxiousness. It’s funny because my wife and her mom say the same thing to each other when they’re counting down the days before they get to see each other.
Yay! Yeah, I didn’t realize that [Americans] say that. But in the U.K. and Europe, it’s quite a popular thing for the kids to say. And I would say it loads. Like especially when I was looking forward to Christmas or before I was going vacation, I would be like, “Oh my God, three more sleeps until I go to blah blah.” So it’s quite a popular thing, and it’s like a really cute sentiment that we wanted to capture on this Christmas record.
I imagine getting in the Christmas spirit brought back some childhood memories.
When I was really little I remember my mom would wrap all the presents. She’d put them under the tree, and I’d always try and do little tears in [the wrapping paper] so that my mom couldn’t see—so I could try and look at what she got me. [laughs]
I hear your label head, Simon Cowell, came up with the initial idea for the Christmas record?
So I just finished my third record and we had spoken about doing a Christmas record and Simon said, "Well, why don’t you do it now?" I was in the mode where I wanted to be really inspired and I wanted to try something new. And he suggested it and it kind of came together. I really wanted to do something completely different and come up with a different sound and get away from what I was [previously doing].
We’d love to hear some of these songs performed live. Do you plan to tour the States anytime soon?
Well, I got to tour the rest of Europe, which I’d never done before which was an amazing vibe for me. I learned so much. But I’d definitely like to visit the States some more and do a tour. I think that’s what I grow the most from, from touring. So it’s something I’d definitely like to expand upon.
How big of a role has style and fashion played in your life?
I love fashion. And one of my favorite things about it is being able to do these shoots with these awesome magazines and having all these stylists picking out all these couture dresses. It’s so cool. My mom and dad had fashion stores when I was little. My mom used to design a lot of clothes. And we’d go to New York a lot and literally walk around for hours and hours. My mom would buy pieces and bring them back to the U.K. and sell them. It’s definitely a big part of my life.
Would you ever start your own label?
As far as having a label and going into it myself, the main thing is since I’m a vegetarian I don’t wear leather, and I don’t believe in harming animals for fashion. That’s a big thing I’ve been involved in. I love designers like Stella McCartney who are totally animal friendly. If I was able to do something like that that would be my inspiration and reasoning for doing it.
RollingStone.com interview:
Motown has a long tradition of classic Christmas music. Do you think Phil Spector would dig it?
I hope so. His Christmas album plays in my house every year – that's why I decided to go down this route for my record. When we were making the record, I immediately knew that I wanted that Motown "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" vibe, because that's what reminds me of Christmas.
When did you discover A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector?
When I was really young my mom would play "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" [by Darlene Love], and I didn't even realize that was a Christmas record when I was younger. I didn't connect it until when I got older.
"Your Hallelujah," one of the original songs on your record, has a similar season-less feel. It's more of a ballad like your earlier songs.
The intention wasn't a Christmas song for that. We were writing Christmas songs at the time, but that came about and we knew that it wasn't really a Christmas song. I just loved it so much that I wanted it to be on the album. We gave it more of that feel in the production rather than the lyrics. It's not about Christmas.
What's the story behind the song?
We wanted a prayer kind of song that had a gospel vibe. I wrote it with my man in mind. I had lost my man a few years ago and was going through a struggle of "Where is she now? I can't feel her anymore," and that feeling stuck with me. The song was a comforting song for myself because it's about knowing that she's OK. That was what I wanted to get through in the song.
Did you write it for another release in mind?
Yeah, it was around April, and I was just getting into the studio, writing and recording a lot of different things. Not for anything in particular, really – just to see what would come out, and that's what came out.
Were there any tracks that you made during that period that will be on your next album?
There are some tracks that have a lot of potential. I'm still working on it. I released an album last year and then I went on tour, and I really wanted to get out of the headspace of anything I had done before – be reinspired and refocused. I did a film earlier in the year [Holiday!] where I recorded a bunch of songs for that. For this album, we went totally Motown, and I touched on a bit of gospel as well. I've been so inspired by different genres and able to get out of the headspace I felt locked into.
What releases this year have you been excited about?
I really love Haim. I like their vibe – Fleetwood Mac-y with a little bit of R&B. I really love the Neighborhood, another California band. They've got a song called "Sweater Weather," which I really love.
What are your thoughts on U.K. pop? There haven't been as many big albums from across the pond this year.
I feel the same. I really love the Emeli Sande album. I worked with her a while ago and she's so talented. But there have been a lot of people trying to follow suit, and I think that's a bad thing. Everything sounds the same – genres kind of start to mold into one – so I wanted to do something different and throw it back a bit.
I used to listen to records for such a long time, and now I think they're thrown away easily. I don't like that. I like classic songs that will be around for a long time. I put a lot of work into it, and I hope people will cherish it for a long time.
Have you and Emeli Sande worked on a followup to "Trouble?"
We worked on a few other songs as well when we made "Trouble," which didn't get on the album but were still really strong. We also wrote a song called "Sugar." They may get released, depending on where I decide to go on my next album.
You mentioned your acting debut in Holiday!. Anne Dudley worked on Les Miserables. Aside from being Eighties-themed, how does the music compare?
I haven't heard final mixes. From what I've heard, the songs are all covers and we're interpreting them in our own way. Although I did record a lot of songs for this, and backgrounds and lines here and there – I don't have one song that I sing on my own. The kinds of songs that we sing are, like, Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." We do "The Power of Love," "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" – classic Eighties tunes.
Growing up, were you a fan of those songs?
Yeah. I'm an Eighties baby, so I listened to a lot of them. Although some people feel like the Eighties wasn't the greatest time for music, I actually love it – especially the Cyndi Lauper stuff. She just blows me away. It was so fun doing it.
Is the filming over, or did you do the music first?
We did the music first, which is so strange. I know in Les Miserables they recorded the music live, but we couldn't do that with this film. The studio recorded everything first and we have a few re-records that we're working on, but everything is pretty much done.
How have you been preparing for the acting portion?
I've been training for a while, and I did a lot of theater when I was younger. I hadn't done anything in a couple of years. This role came up when I was available, so I went in and auditioned, not really expecting to get it, but they offered me the part. I took a really intense course to prepare for it, but nothing can really prepare you to do film. It's so technical, and I didn't realize that, so I've learned a lot.
What was the most surprising aspect of the process?
The amount of time it takes – it takes such a long time! – and the amount of focus you need. If you're trying to do a really short scene, it could take a whole day or three days to do a thing that's going to be on screen for 30 seconds. The focus that it takes to always be in the zone when all of this craziness is going on around you . . . I didn't realize how much is going on behind the camera.
You've talked about keeping your privacy since your early X Factor days. Are you nervous that you'll have to struggle harder to keep your private life private after you've moved into acting?
Yeah, it is quite difficult. I'm very guarded about my friends and people around me and, obviously, the more you get involved in, people are looking at you more and wanting to know more about your life. And that's fine, but when it gets intrusive, I don't like it and want to step away from it. I think I've pretty much figured out the balance between trying to be private but let people know what I'm doing.
How did the dance come about for the "One More Sleep" video?
I wanted to start learning the dance moves a while before, because I don't call myself a dancer by any means. The performances that I've been doing for the song are very Supremes-inspired. People have been sending in videos of them doing the moves, and I've had such a laugh watching them. Some of them are amazing and some of them are crazy.
What's been the craziest one?
A nurse did it in the hospital, and the moves were all wrong, and it was just a weird environment to be doing the song. I was like, "Shouldn't you be helping the patients?"
+ Upcoming Appearances
29th November: Daybreak
5th December: Live! with Kelly and Michael
8th December: X Factor (UK)
14th December: The Jonathan Ross Show
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