Inside Nokia Music

Should you happen to see Gabriella Cilmi leaping buildings in a single bound, clad in tight blue leggings and sporting a fetching red cape, don’t be alarmed. “This is my superhero record,” the Australian singer-songwriter says of her upcoming album, Ten, with a hint of laughter. “One track is called Invisible Girl and another one’s called Superman, which is quite smooth and sexy… Another track, Defender, is all about going into battle to protect people that you love. I am a bit of a guard dog like that, so if anyone messes with my friends or family then I get a bit mad.” It’s a departure for Cilmi who, following the success of Lessons To Be Learned, could have conveniently been pigeon-holed as yet another white, female Jazz and R’n’B singer. Ten, Cilmi tells us, is “not quite what you’d expect. It’s definitely more electronic than my previous album, which sounded quite retro and fifties.”

The themes of empowerment and musical diversity percolate through the entire album. “I didn’t just want to make Lessons To Be Learned Part 2, that would be a little too easy and probably a bit boring,” reasons Cilmi, who talks with the sort of self-assurance you need when you’ve signed a recording contract aged just 13. Now 18, she’s keen to show that she’s not going to conform to anyone’s expectations but her own. “I had so many different possibilities for this album and have toyed with lots of different ideas. One was to do a New Orleans piano album, but I sat in front of my piano and realised my playing isn’t quite up to the standard of Dr. John or Professor Longhair.” The artists Cilmi references – two of the most celebrated Louisiana Jazz pianists – aren’t part of the average teenager’s CD collection, but they highlight her eclectic tastes and influences. Ultimately it was Donna Summer, the seventies disco diva, who set Cilmi on her way to Ten. “One of my mates gave me I Remember Yesterday and it kind of rocked my world and inspired me, so I started listening to Giorgio Moroder, who did Flashdance and worked with Blondie when they went disco, and other things like Amy Stewart and Gloria Gaynor with I Will Survive. Powerful women on a mission.”

Now Ten is in the bag – it’s released in the UK on 22^nd March – has Cilmi settled on this new sound? “Oh no, probably not,” she responds with enthusiasm. “I have a zillion ideas and don’t know which road to go down. I love all different types of music, so I’m always looking at new things to try out. I would like to make a country record one day but don’t tell my label that,” she adds jokingly. The only constant that Cilmi will admit to, is making music that people can relate to. “I remember this video of Cat Stevens playing Father And Son. The video is him sitting in a corridor playing and I remember watching it and thinking that this is why I want to make music, music that people can feel.” Returning to her musical tastes, Cilmi admits to enjoying everything from the Macarena (“because they say ‘Gabriella’ in it”) and Shaggy (at the mention of whom she bursts into song, giving a quick medley of his hits) to Curtis Mayfield and Led Zeppelin. The latter’s House Of The Holy is a particular favourite. “I am a massive Led Zeppelin fan and there’s something for everyone [on that album], with a bit of everything on it, even some Reggae. I love the variety of it.” Asked if she’s heard Them Crooked Vultures (a collaboration between Led Zep’s bassist and keyboard player John Paul Jones, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and Queens Of The Stone Age Josh Homme), Cilmi says she’s only heard one track. “My brother’s into it, so I will have to go home and listen to it. I did like Robert Plant’s collaboration with Alison Krauss, it sounded really good.” There’s a pause. “I got to meet Robert Plant backstage at the O2 and made the biggest fool out of myself,” Cilmi says, unable to stop herself. “I was in the queue for food and he was in front of me, so I tapped him on the back and the only thing I could think of asking him was, ‘Are you having the pie or the salmon?’, it was the most embarrassing moment of my life.”

It’s refreshing to hear that Cilmi’s managed to keep her feet on the ground, despite the global success she’s enjoyed so early on in her career, and the number of superstar artists she’s come across in her rise to stardom. “I played in front of Ronnie Wood when I played Jools Holland. When I played Sweet About Me he was tapping his foot along with it.” Cilmi gives the impression that she doesn’t take what’s happened for granted and still gets massive enjoyment from the journey she’s found herself on. “I felt super-special playing the main stage of Glastonbury, it was the best thing in the world,” she explains. “When I got up on stage in front of all of those people, it was amazing.” She readily owns up to still getting nerves prior to performing, despite doing live shows for the last five years. “I used to get really nervous and had to do meditation classes to calm myself down, but now I find that the best way to deal with it is to use my nerves as a fuel tank, to just throw myself into it.”

Cilmi is equally open about the fact that she doesn’t know quite where she’ll be, musically, tomorrow, next month or next year. It’s a trait she finds appealing in others, too. “I would love to collaborate with Danger Mouse,” the innovative producer behind The Beatles/Jay-Z mashup, The Grey Album, Gnarls Barkley and, most recently, Broken Bells, among others. “He is so versatile from all of the different artists that he has worked with. I would love him to produce one of my albums,” wishes Cilmi. “Also I would love to work with Justin Timberlake. It’s really interesting to see how he has evolved out of NSYNC to what he is doing now. He would be a good guy to take home to meet your mum. But probably not the type of guy I would take home,” she adds slyly. “I love his music. For a pop artist he is just the king, has some great melodies and when he’s on stage you just can’t take your eyes off him. Yeah, I would definitely love to work with him.” It’s this mix of youthful honesty, unadulterated talent and willingness to acknowledge and expand her musical roots that make Cilmi so compelling. So much so, that you can’t help hoping that she gets her wish.

You can download Gabriella’s single ’On A Mission’ from Nokia Music Store – if you’ve got  ‘Comes With Music’ , it’s completely free! Her new album, ‘Ten’ is out on 22nd March.

To say things are going well for Justin Bieber would be the biggest understatement of 2010 so far. His debut album, My World, has gone platinum in Canada and the US. He is the only artist in US Billboard history to have four songs from a debut album chart in the Top 40 of the Hot 100 before the album’s release. When My World was released, it debuted at number one on the Canadian albums chart. It’s an impressive start to anyone’s career, but what’s truly impressive is that he’s only 15.

I managed to catch up with him in the middle of his huge promotional tour of the UK, full of TV appearances, interviews and shows. It seems I can’t even turn on the TV or pick up a magazine without seeing an interview or feature on him. It’s certainly been hectic for Justin. “This week I’ve been too busy to listen to music,” he says pragmatically. “I’ve been everywhere. I’ve been all over the UK, I’ve just been to Manchester and Glasgow and I performed at Wembley arena. Today I’m on my way to Bedford to meet some girls and sing some songs.”

It’s a life at odds with his beginnings. Justin has spent most of his life in Ontario, Canada, and according to his MySpace page, below the poverty line. However modest his upbringing, though, he was fortunate enough to be introduced to music as soon as he could pick up an instrument. “I started music roughly at 2. My mum played at little guitar and sang, my dad played guitar and sang a little bit too and played piano.”

After entering a local singing competition in Canada, he posted the footage online just for family and friends. “My parents are always encouraging me,” Justin remembers. “I posted some videos on YouTube and a lot of people started viewing it. Then I got found by a manager named Scooter Braun who flew me to Atlanta where I got to meet Usher. Then I was flown to meet Justin Timberlake a week later and they both wanted to sign me.”

“I ended up signing with Usher over at Island Def Jam and I put out My World in America and Canada.” Not only did Usher sign Justin to Island/Def Jam, he also makes an appearance in Justin’s video for One Time and lends his vocals to First Dance. The album is the kind of R&B Pop you would associate with Usher, which is nothing new for Justin – the cover versions in his early YouTube footage are almost exclusively R&B. Even then his voice was impressive and reminiscent of childhood footage of Justin Timberlake and other child prodigies. It comes as no surprise when Justin admits that “I listen a lot to Michael Jackson… It would have been cool to meet him but it was sad he had to go so early. The Thriller album was really good.”

Justin’s eyes are fixed firmly on the future, though. “I’d like to work with Beyoncé, I think that’d be fun. And maybe Little Wayne,” he adds. Given his track record, we wouldn’t bet against him.

Justin’s debut album, My World, is available to download at Nokia Music Store.  Please open this link in IE.

We’re all super-excited here at Nokia Music as we’ve just received the video of our recent interview with the amazing Rihanna in L.A. We’re off-camera but that’s okay, our interviewer is a little camera shy and besides, Rihanna’s the star of the show here and we’re just happy to have been there.

Amidst the whirling dervish of celebrity lifestyle I cast my nerves aside as I roll into the Roosevelt Hotel off Hollywood Boulevard for an interview with the formidable Pop force and surprisingly tall Rihanna… this is what she had to say.

Nokia Music:
Your first 2 albums had more of a Caribbean vibe to them and Good Girl Gone Bad was more pop – Any new style changes on Rated R?



Rihanna:
Rated R in comparison to my previous albums is different, it’s very honest, the sound is darker, I didn’t want to make the same album that I did last time, everyone expected me to make a similar album but I grew up a lot in the past two years. It’s different making an album at 21 because you speak about different things.



Nokia Music:
I’ve been reading that some of the songs on Rated R have a rock influence – Is there anyone in Rock music that may have inspired this?



Rihanna:
The new album is inspired by a lot of different songs like Hip Hop, there’s a lot of Bass and there’s a lot of Rock, I listen to a lot of Prodigy and Chase and Status, we actually worked with them on a lot of the production and they helped develop the new sound and we have collaborations on there, people like Slash, who is the ultimate Rock Star and the song happens to be called Rock Star.



Nokia Music:
Are there any other exciting collaborations you can mention?

Rihanna:
Yes, we worked with Young Jeezy on a song called Hard and we also worked with Will.I.Am on one of my favourites on the record called Photographs, it’s a really really cool song.



Nokia Music:
The launch party with Nokia on the 16th November in London is expected to be the world’s largest live streaming launch party, millions of fans from Finland to Italy, New york to Rome and Helsinki to Dubai can see you perform tracks from your new album – How does this feel?



Rihanna:  
It’s a live stream world wide which means everyone can watch it at the same time all over the world, live, all at once, which is exciting, it makes me nervous because it’s not just the venue but it’s millions of people across the world watching it all at once…it’s exciting though, it’s a big thing that everyone can see it, there’s no better way to launch an album.


Nokia Music:
It’s being held in London as mentioned before – Is this city special to you in any way?



Rihanna:
London is one of my favourite cities to go to in the world, it’s where I get most of my creative energy. We made a lot of the album in London actually, we took two big trips up there and spent some time each trip just figuring out the album. The first trip is when we really figured out what we wanted to do sound wise and lyrically, the second time we came back with some hits so I hold a very special place in my heart for London and this album so it was only right that we had the launch party for the album there.



Nokia Music:
Which city boasts the best audience in the world and why?



Rihanna:  
Is this a trick question? (laughs) I love performing anywhere, just for fans anywhere and that’s the good thing about this launch party, I’m not only doing it in one city, the entire world gets to see it at the same time so all my fans don’t have to feel left out, they can see it too and be a part of it.



Nokia Music:
Do you interact with your fans a lot and are you looking forward to getting closer to them?



Rihanna:
I spend a lot of time paying attention to my fans, what they like and how they grow with me. I pay attention to their comments on a lot of things, whether it be negative or positive. I want to keep them close with me and I want them to grow with me and the only way they’ll do that naturally is if the growth for me is natural.

Nokia Music:
Your fashion sense is admired around the world – Have you found any new designers or trends you will be showcasing in your videos and live performances?


Rihanna:  
In the past few months I’ve done a lot of research in the fashion world because I wanted to work with a bunch of new designers that are kinda underground, people that aren’t the obvious and I found this guy Alexander Voltaire, his stuff is just so amazing, the colours are really beautiful and feminine but the structure is really strong, which I love.



Nokia Music:
How would you describe your own fashion style?



Rihanna:
My style is very edgy, very daring, I like to take risks, I hate to do the obvious. Style is all about creativity so I like to put things together in my own way.



Nokia Music:
Have you got a special message for your fans?



Rihanna:
I just want to thank you guys for all your support, sticking and waiting with me this entire time, but the wait is ova and just tune into nokia.com/rihanna to watch me perform live on the 16th, I can’t wait to see you guys there.