VV Brown Interview
Pyroradio.com recently caught up with the loveley and extremely talented singer, songwriter and producer VV Brown whose mix of vintage and futuristic sound and style have garnered a massive amount of interest. VV’s single “Shark in the Water” is released on July 6, followed closely by her debut album, Travelling like the Light, on July 20.
V V first came to attention after landing an upfront slot on Later With Jools Holland. Her performance on the show won her a lot of admirers including Damon Albarn who invited her to perform on his Africa Exprez adventure in Lagos. A chance meeting on a transatlantic flight with a Select Models agent, who’d read about V V in Vogue magazine, saw the 6ft. star sign up with the Select Agency. A few weeks later she was strutting the catwalk during Naomi Campbell’s charity fashion show.
Pyroradio.com: You’ve got a very unique sound and style, when you first started singing what was your style like?
VV Brown: I’ve always been the type of person who gravitated to the alternative side, I’ve always loved doing things differently. I never felt like I fitted in at school. I always liked to search for music that challenged me and wouldn’t conform to everything else. When I was young I was in a funk rock band which was unusual because most of my friends were more in toRnB groups or Hip Hop groups which I do love, I just wanted to try different things that would break the stereotype that all Black girls can only do Hip Hop or RnB. I’ve always been in love with the eccentric side of life.
Pyroradio.com: What sort of artists and even fashion figures inspired you I know you love fashion.
VV Brown: Musically huge influences from the Rolling Stones, Ruth Brown, Joni Mitchell, Jay Z, Wu Tang, David Bowie, fashion sise Vivienne Westwood, Grace Jones I just like people who are good, I don’t like to be boxed. I don’t like things that aren’t real, I like people who come across as honest whether you’re making classical or Hip Hop, if it feels real I like it. It’s all about reality for me.
Pyroradio.com: Your albums finished, what’s your personal favourite track on there?
VV Brown: Mine is a song called ‘Back In Time’ I’m hoping that will be a future single, I love it because it’s a very intense song, I feel that people will love it too, there’s some songs that I’ve put out that not necessarily everyone will automatically connect to it, Leave and Crying Blood are very alternative, it takes a while for people’s ears to adjust to what they haven’t heard before. It’s different but it’s more likeable, I wanna get a rapper on it to be honest, I quirky sort of rapper, someone like Lupe Fiasco I love his stuff.
Pyroradio.com: Shark In The Water is the current single for those that don’t know how did that track come about.
VV Brown: It’s one of them ones, it came to the end of the record and we thought we were finished but we ended up writing this track, it’s the only track on the album that I co-wrote every other track I wrote, myself, it just popped out. The record label loved it.
Pyroradio.com: When you perform live you’ve got loads of energy, do you have to get into a certain mode or is it natural?
VV Brown: I think it’s a natural thing, when I first started performing I was very nervous especially with TV, but now because we’ve done so many gigs, we do like 4 gigs a week with my band so now we’ve become comfortable in our own skin, it’s natural now, it’s like being in water. I love it, our live set is growing now as well, we’ve got a Japanese Gong, bells, a xylophone our live experience is now turning into a show. When you watch it you feel apart of an experience, I love it.
Pyroradio.com: What do you enjoy most, performing live, song writing, creating the music?
VV Brown: My favourite part is live, it’s really difficult to pick one because each one is unique, with creating you sit in a room and all you have is you, air and a keyboard and before you know it you’ve put together a formula of melodies that can change your life, that alone is powerful, but there’s nothing better than having that melody and connecting with people , music for me is about people, it’s not just about yourself, it’s about sharing and energy. When a gig goes right and everyone’s jumping and connecting with you it’s better than having 4 million orgasms (laughs)
Pyroradio.com: This year you’ve had a lot of achievements with the BBC sound of 2009, performing at Cannes film festival and Jools Holland amongst others what has been your highlight?
VV Brown: My highlight of the year has been 1 being in Vogue, that’s a huge achievement, I love Vogue even though I wasn’t a hundred percent happy with the pictures who cares it’s Vogue, secondly was going to Africa with Damon Albarn and performing with Femi Kuti, Fela Kuti’s son which was sick, it was such a spiritual experience, Africa Express is amazing, I support it all the way.
Pyroradio.com: If it was December 31st and you were looking back on this year what would make you happy with what you would have achieved?
VV Brown: I’d like a top 10 album, a good selling single, being on the radio, a sold out headline tour, my comic sold a little bit, and to look back on the year and know everything I did I did it being me, I would never wanna look back on it thinking I changed, that’s it really. That’s quite a lot (laughs). There’s still just over 6 months left, I’ve got time.
Pyroradio.com: Talking about comics have you checked out the Wolverine film? I personally was a little let down.
VV Brown: I haven’t seen it, I didn’t want to see it because it looked rubbish with the trailers, the original X Men wasn’t heavy either, Watchmen was really good, they delivered that quite well, they tend to Hollywood these great comic books and they tend to lose the grit, it always happens in the factory of entertainment, I just wish indie film makers would do them.
Pyroradio.com: So what sort of Comic books do you check?
VV Brown: I would always go for the classics Superman, X Men, Hulk, go for the old school ones, I like them ones, explore the new ones as well because there’s so much good stuff and new ways of drawing and Manga, but for me I love the old ones, the classics.
Pyroradio.com: When’s your comic book coming out and what’s that like?
VV Brown: The pencil version is going to be limited edition, that’s coming out in June, the colour version is coming out in July same sort of time as my album. To be honest me and my friends are doing not really caring too much if it will be big, we wouldn’t care if it sold 10 copies we just want to be creative, if 10 people bought it we would be happy
Shark In The Water is available for pre order now http://www.7digital.com/stores/island/artists/v-v-brown/shark-in-the-water/
VV Brown’s debut album ‘Travelling Like The Light’ is out July 20th
http://twitter.com/vvbrown
http://www.vvbrown.com
Words: Matthew Power
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