Inside Nokia Music

There’s not much to being in a boy band, surely? Look pretty, make sure you don’t wear the same outfit twice and lip sync along to the backing track and that’s about it. Right? “There’s a lot of hard work and thought that goes into our music,” disagrees Jay (far left in the photo above), one fifth of new boy band challengers The Wanted. The last six months, he says, have been frenetic, writing material for their upcoming album, meeting co-writers, doing promotional work and then recording the songs themselves. And I end up believing him, despite the fact that I’m talking to Jay while he’s backstage at a Saturdays gig and sounds like a 14-year-old who’s just been told he never has to go to school ever again.

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You’d be forgiven for thinking that to be part of Scissor Sisters – a band known as much for the on-stage antics of its flamboyant vocalists Jake Shears and Ana Matronic as its infectious glam rock and pop songs – an insatiable desire to be in the spotlight is a must. But not so says Del Marquis, lead guitarist with the New York band. “I’m so thankful that I do not have to be front and centre, because that’s not where I want to be. I love to be in the shadows. If I’m in a pissy mood, and if I want to sulk and hide, I can do.” At first glance, it’s not an admission to set the pulse racing, whether you’re a writer after a story or a music fan keen to gain a peek at the inner workings of one of 2010’s most-anticipated album releases. But Marquis’ satisfaction at taking a backseat to the high-profile duo of Shears and Matronic masks his private joy at living a dream, though at times the past two years and the eventual release of Scissor Sisters’ third album, Night Works, have been harder than anyone in the band would have anticipated.

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Preconceptions are a funny thing. When the ever-considerate Shazza got word that I’d be interviewing Kele Okereke, she emailed over a quote from an interview he did with the San Francisco Chronicle a couple of years ago that made him out to be a difficult customer. Thanks. Then, in the same week that I’m due to give Okereke a call and see what’s up with his soon to be released solo album, he’s all over the front of NME and labelled the most fearless person in music. Great.

So, when I phone at the allotted time only to discover I’ve interrupted his lunch, I’m not feeling terribly optimistic. But within minutes it becomes clear that Kele Oekereke is in fact softly-spoken, given to bouts of introspection and seemingly anything but the arrogant rock star that some journalists have painted him as. ‘I’m not fearless,’ he explains, ‘I just don’t take anything too seriously.’ Asking him if whether what the press say about him and his work matters, he’s eager to explain himself better. ‘I shouldn’t have said that really. I take my job very seriously but, you know, I’m only striving to be honest and to do what is right and make something I’m passionate about.’ Unprompted, he goes on to address the idea that he’s somehow abrasive. ‘I’m not trying to be difficult, contrary, or rub people up the wrong way. I’m just trying to do something I enjoy. When people hear the record or when they see me perform, it’s coming from a genuine place.’ Read the rest of this entry »

‘I love to kiss and tell’ says Courtney Love in a hushed, confiding tone. And just as well. The ladies of Nokia Music – Shazzamj and Hannah – have caught Courtney right in the middle of getting pampered in her hotel room before playing a London gig. And she is more than ready and willing to engage in what turns out to be a proper girlie chat, complete with stories about dates with Lords, gossip about celeb pals and a tirade of info about her obsession with all things fashion (but this is a music blog so we shan’t be boring you with the ‘kook’ stories).

Courtney’s in town to promote the new Hole album ‘Nobody’s Daughter’ – a much anticipated release having been 5 years in the making. Finding out about the album, the struggle to make it and what she thinks of it isn’t an easy task however, as firstly she has a few things she wants to get off her chest. Namely one of her most recent tabloid scandals… ‘This Gavin thing’ she drawls, ‘Let me just clear this up please! I dated Gavin Rossdale in 1996. I handed him to Gwen Stefani on a tray!’ A bold statement that does seem to be true. Love dated Rossdale for 8 months, something which is public knowledge. Back in the day Courtney missed a Bush show one night to go on a date with Edward Norton and as a result ‘the next day he kissed Gwen’. So this is a something that seems to happen to Courtney a lot, the papers are bored, they want a story, they go digging? ‘Yeah it’s like, Gavin?! Like, what-EV! I don’t get it but, there was an overlap for a little while but it wasn’t like cheating; because no-one was engaged to anyone’. There we have it, those cheating rumours – well and truly quashed.

So that was back in ’96, what about now…is Courtney ready to date again? While in London she’s been catching up with Gwyneth Paltrow (who, according to Love is ‘a bigger bad ass than you’d think’) and Chris Martin, and there’s been some recent interest from a certain Lord friend of theirs who’s 38, can play tennis, and more importantly – is clean. ‘He used to do drugs! AND he quit them! So that makes him sort of perfect?!’ she exclaims.

Much has been made of Courtney’s struggle with drugs over the years, but right now, where is she with that? She claims to ‘drink a little rosé once in while’ whilst at the same time going to AA meetings with Ozzy Osbourne. She’s been on and then off of antidepressants which she claims make her suck. ‘So, here’s the thing, you take the anti-depressants, and suck, or, you don’t take the anti-depressants and take the pain’. As she’s now off them, a certain antidepressant called Abilify to be precise, she’s taking the pain. Of late there’s one constant source of pain for Love, the ongoing legal battle to retain guardianship of her daughter Frances. There’s no mention of this though, or the other dark times in Loves not so distant past. The spells in rehab, the ‘lost’ Nirvana fortunes, the battles with drugs, etcetera.

Famously dubbed ‘the most controversial women in the history of rock’ by Rolling Stone, interviewers can never be sure what they will come up against when faced with Courtney Love. But she speaks coherently, with a confidence and a real passion about her music and what Hole are currently doing. Asked if she thinks Nobody’s Daughter is her best piece of work so far she instantly declares ‘Absolutely. And people a lot of the time will say that, but you know my last album was my worst piece of work, and I never said it was anything different. It took 5 years, it was thrown out, it was bought back in, I spent all my savings on it; it was self-funded’.

The album has received mixed reviews on release, the single ‘Skinny Little Bitch’ was the most added song on Alternative Rock radio in early March, yet Pitchfork launched a scathing review of both Love and Hole stating the album was a ‘forgettable collection of fairly generic, overproduced rock songs’ and ‘She’s buried, hiding behind a deliberate holler and dopey choruses, compulsively over-singing without ever saying much’.

So what is she trying to say with this album? When asked if this album displays a different side to her, a more vulnerable side, than we’ve seen before she replies ‘Yeah, that’s because Celebrity Skin was really a response to “I’m not doing the widow record so f*ck all y’all.” You know what I mean? Like, I just became a movie star at that period of time so I thought it was a good moment to reflect on that and deflect from doing any kind of really introspective, other than the song Northern Star. It was more a comment and it was Los Angeles, and you know there’s some Los Angeles songs on this, but it is set much more truthful to the tragic kind of poetry that I am in a lot of the time’.

Regardless of what those ‘in the know’ seem to say on the subject, it’s fair to say that in the UK Hole have always had a large, loyal fan base and continue to do so. At the Hole Brixton gig Love seems psyched that the band still manage to get the crowd worked up ‘When I held the mic out into the audience they knew the words to every f*cking song, including the new ones, so that was wild’ she states proudly.

Love really seems to relish being back with the band, and being a musician in general. ‘Making your own kind of dirty blues that you made yourself I mean, there’s nothing like it. Then there is the satisfaction of doing something that you do with your own hands, you’re not dependant on anyone else for your income or for what you get out of it’. And she has high expectations of Hole and how they should be treated. ‘When we played in Japan last, the White Stripes opened for us and I’d like to keep it that way!’ So will Hole be gracing the stages at any of the UK’s summer festivals? ‘I think Reading and Leeds. But Glastonbury, I mean unless we get surprise guests and we get to go right where Muse or U2 are, like either before U2 or before Muse, I don’t wanna do it. I’m picky about billing’.

Back to all things girlie, the album took 5 years to make, and evidently that time was a struggle in more ways than one… ‘I didn’t have sex, or romance, for five f*cking years, I wanted to disentangle from anything romantic, I had to do it, I had to stop giving my power away to men’ .This power is something Love seems to be clued up about. She receives guidance from a life coach who tells her such things as to not text a guy back for two days (‘She coached me through this sh*t, like she taught me to like, sit on my hands, do not text back! It’s so hard man.’)

Courtney’s now coached on texting, sexting –‘oh they like those’ she says cheekily, and also the tactical ‘negging’ that some guys choose to practice on girls they like. ‘Someone did this to me recently, um “Yeah I didn’t look at your schedule because it was irrelevant”.’ and did she let him continue to work his ‘charms’ or kick him to the curb? ‘No, no, no, that was a shotgun, that was bad’. Interesting turn of phrase maybe, but it certainly displays that she is now no longer a fool when it comes to matters of the heart.

But it also seems to baffle her as to why more girls aren’t taking control of their power, by not joining her in a very exclusive club of hot female rock-stars. ‘There’s not a lot of chick rock-stars, and the secret is, you get up, you play and dudes want to sleep with you, or like marry you or something, it’s like a strange power and it’s so funny more girls don’t do it, I don’t understand it.’

So can a female rock start literally have her pick from any guy on the planet? What about other rock stars, and how about say, Jared Leto, one of the hottest and most talented front men in the scene at the moment, could she have him? ‘He was at the side of the stage working me so f*cking hard, but I think its cos he wants to play Kurt. We played in Dallas, they were headlining, and Jared came in, and he’s like really adorable, but he’s pulling on me and I know why, and I’m like, “no sweetie, we don’t roll that way”’.

Here, the ‘playing Kurt’ remark is in reference to the much debated planned biopic of Courtney’s late husband, Kurt Cobain. This is Loves only mention of Cobain throughout the interview, and it’s one which is a far cry from the normal perception that she uses his namesake to cash in or open doors for her own career.
She remained in good spirits throughout this interview, and never once needed to use shock tactics, or controversy. At best Courtney came across as very confident and dignified, and at worst, a lonely 45 year old woman. Talking about the lack of other female lead singers, she says ‘Well, I wish more girls would do it, y’know? I mean, it’s really kind of lonely’ and when discussing Hole and the new line-up (now sans bassist Melissa Auf der Maur) she freely admits that ‘the thing I miss most is having another female in the band’.

So how about jacking in the States and moving east side to the UK? She would surely have a lot of fun with Gwynnie and co as neighbours. Could she ever see herself pulling a Madonna, settling down in the country and shacking up with the Lord? “I definitely have a great fondness for the country, and I’ve had dual citizenship since I was 16, my mother married a Brit, and so we lived in England as well, so I had a passport for the commonwealth, so I’m not actually an anglophile, I actually was English”. She even shares a body guard with Chezza, name checks Kerry Katona and practically loves Jordan ‘I am obsessed with Jordan!’ she exclaims excitedly. So then it could be a pretty easy move, there’s the sure fire adoration from fans already in the bag, celeb mates on the doorstep and a love interest to boot. And after all, Lady Love does have a certain ring to it…

“Nobodys Daughter” is available to download at  Nokia Music Store. If you’ve got Comes With Music download it for free.

‘How cool is that?!’ exclaims Sophie Ellis-Bextor, a mix of excitement and disbelief in her voice, even though she’s heard the story before. I’ve managed to get 20 minutes of telephone time with the singer during the hectic publicity schedule preceding the launch of her new single, Bittersweet, on May 3^rd, and we’re talking technology. Specifically, the fact that Groovejet, the single which catapulted her into the public consciousness in the summer of 2000, was the first track ever played on an iPod, on a prototype in Apple’s labs. ‘I love that story! Can you tell your friends that I don’t think enough people know about that.’ She laughs, an infectious sound somewhere between a giggle and a chuckle. ‘I think that’s really cool,’ she adds. A self-confessed gadget fan, she’s just bought her first Apple iPhone and is enthusiastically praising it when I mention that I write for the Nokia Music blog. ‘You know what, I’ve kept my Nokia, don’t worry,’ she playfully reassures me. ‘I’ve been using Nokias since I was 18, so there you go. 13 years of Nokia use.’

It’s also been 13 years since Sophie Ellis-Bextor first appeared in the charts, singing with Theaudience. That single, I Got The Wherewithal, and the subsequent self-titled album, didn’t make the impact the band was expecting. ‘Theaudience was very hyped when we first got together and then nothing really happened, so it was over before it began,’ she recalls. ‘No-one really knew about Theaudience. It was a wonderful time for me and a very steep learning curve, but I was aware that we didn’t really break out of music industry circles and the Camden scene.’ While it might not have been the success that Ellis-Bextor and her three bandmates had imagined, the then-18-year-old was able to learn from the experience. ‘That stood me in really good stead, so I can always take everything else with a pinch of salt. That’s meant I’ve kind of kept part of myself back, I suppose.’

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“Steam rooms,” says Jamie Cullum, with a grin on his face. “I really love steam rooms. It’s almost unknown, but Frank Sinatra used to travel with his own steam room and he loved spending time in it with his cronies and gossip. I think that’s one of the reasons he could smoke, drink, stay out late and yet still be able to sing very well.” Anyone hoping for reports of Rat Pack-inspired bacchanalia will be disappointed, however. Cullum, the UK’s biggest-selling Jazz star, is far more likely to be found with his nose buried in a book or tinkering with musical instruments.

“These days we have this great opportunity to travel with so much fun gear, I’ve got loads with me. I like to make funny electronic music and play on my laptop with this Akai USB keyboard I have, or do non-music stuff like taking photos,” Cullum says, revealing that he takes a lot of camera equipment with him when touring. Meanwhile, his love of reading led to several songs on his 2009 album, The Pursuit, being inspired by Nancy Mitford’s novel, The Pursuit Of Love, a romantic tragicomedy set against the backdrop of World War Two. “It’s actually Sophie’s favourite book,” Cullum says of his wife, the author and cook (and ex-model), Sophie Dahl. “She’s read it hundreds of times. Some parts of my album got their inspiration from the book. Now I’m reading this big heavy book, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, which I’m really enjoying.”

His happy home life permeates his work, and while his work also permeates his home life, it’s a balance he enjoys. “I’ve got a piano practically everywhere in my house,” he says enthusiastically. “I have a piano in my kitchen because it combines my three favourite things, cooking, eating and playing music. My cat often sits on it and helps me get some inspiration for my work. I realised that there were also some things we couldn’t recreate in a studio, so the kitchen it is.” This homely, intimate vibe infects a couple of songs on The Pursuit, particularly I Think, I Love, one of Jamie’s more typically skewed love songs. But if anyone was in doubt about the debt Jamie owes to The Pursuit Of Love, the album cut “Love Ain’t Gonna Let You Down is probably the first love song I’ve ever written without a joke in it,” he admits. “The only pure love songs I’d sung before were by George Gershwin, not my own. It is totally written for one particular person,” Jamie adds, with a look in his eyes that radiates contentedness.

The Pursuit by Jamie Cullum is available to download at Nokia Music Store. If you’ve got Comes With Music you can get it and a world of other music for free.

Here at Nokia, we know how to recognise a good tune, and that’s why we chose Alan Pownall’s “Chasing Time” to feature in this vid for the N900 back in October 2009.

Look how ahead of our time we were!

Fast-forward to April 2010, the recently released track has been lauded as an essential for the perfect summer soundtrack, with the likes of Fearne Cotton making it it her record of the week and media pundits queuing out the door for a bit of the Pownall action.

And quite right too; his infectious folk-pop melodies and catchy hooks are none other than addictive (in a good way of course), putting him at the heart of the burgeoning London folk scene he shares with fellow artists Mumford and Sons, Laura Marling, and Noah and the Whale.

If you’re not already familiar with him yet, here are a few factoids that might interest you:

- In 2008, Alan approached Adele and asked her to check out his myspace address. To his surprise, she did and promptly asked him to support her on tour, which he did.
- He’s played gigs with Paloma Faith, Florence and the Machine, Jack Penate, Kid Harpoon, and Mr. Hudson, to name but a few.
- He used to live with Jay Jay Pistolet, and 2 members of Mumford and Sons (fellow folk gods who had great success last year with their album “Sigh No More”).
- Tob Hobden of Noah and the Whale plays the fiddle on Pownall’s forthcoming album.

Right now, Alan’s supporting Angus and Julia Stone on the UK leg of their tour, but he kindly took some time out to provide us with some crucial answers to some crucial questions.

Thanks Alan, you’re the best, x

Alan’s debut album “True Love Stories” is due for release in July
Q. From previously supporting acts and watching them get some good mainstream recognition, it now seems that 2010 is your year to make it big. Does this add more pressure to your performances?
A. No, I don’t really think about what other people are doing. I just try and concentrate on being the best I can be. I’m constantly inspired by the people making music around me, but they do their thing well and I’ll try and do mine. Read the rest of this entry »

As a child, Craig David was already a big Michael Jackson fan and then he broadened his musical horizons and discovered artists that would influence his musical direction and taste for the rest of his life. Artists including Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Al Green captivated the young Mr. David and now, almost 20 years later, he’s paying homage to them on his new album, ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’. “I think that I have taken a different approach to making this record,” Craig explains. “For me it is an album of songs that I have wanted to put together, that had an impact on me growing up as a kid. Influencing me both consciously and unconsciously. I felt like this album was not as much about new material but about me having the challenge to vocally step up to perform these iconic songs.” Despite his passion and enthusiasm for the Motown sound, David was concerned – even anxious – about the project. “I could easily crash and burn on this album, songs like ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’, like ‘Mercy Mercy Me’, like ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’. These songs have a place in musical history and are performed by iconic artists so the pressure is on me to step up and do it properly… I thrived on this challenge.”

It’s obvious that Craig’s relishing this new focus and direction, along with the freedom of the new contract that he signed with Universal Records. “Universal showed a lot of interest in me and my talent as an artist. I had the opportunity of staying with Warner or going for a new deal with Universal. It sounded a bit too good to be true because Universal is by far the biggest label in the world right now. While not having a record of new material, and for them to sign me on the basis of my talent, I felt that I could make the record that I wanted to make.”

To cover a few songs on an album is already a big ask as people will instantly compare it to the original. But to create an album full of covers, that’s quite dangerous. “As a song writer I can respect what it is like when someone covers your songs. I think that it makes sense to bring something new to the table by adding your own style while also respecting the original. With Stevie Wonder’s ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’, it is a song that technically you try and sing but it’s not a technical song, so it is more about the performance. You can only capture that if you approach it in the same way that he recorded it back in the day.” With modern recording techniques it is possible to create an almost perfect vocal track while not being an accomplished singer, and Craig was keen to avoid over-producing the tracks. “We did use Pro Tools but without the plug-ins and effects, keeping the process as basic as possible. When you are singing a track from start to finish, you get those points when you capture your breath which has knock-on effects with the next notes.”

With a new sound and technique in the studio comes the challenge of delivering a live show that’s equally as engaging. Something that Craig’s looking forward to. “I have the eight-piece band that I always had and we are thinking of stripping that back for some of the shows. It has been 10 years since Fill Me In, so with my repertoire of past hits plus these new classic songs, it is going to really make it a show for someone to see who hasn’t seen or heard it before. Or someone who has and give them something a bit different that they wouldn’t expect from my usual shows.” It’s not all about the heady decade of the Seventies, though, and Craig enjoys getting fired up for live shows with something a little more contemporary. “Notorious B.I.G and Faith Evans’ remix of ‘One More Chance’ is the best song to get me going and my favourite song to play when I DJ.” Is there a chance the Craig will be showing off his talents on the wheels of steel anytime soon? “I still DJ and have my 1210s here, but I don’t play as much. I think that I do it when people are least expecting it. If there is a house party then I would rock up and play with some vinyl. It is one of those things that if I wasn’t singing then I would be a DJ. There’s something fascinating about watching a DJ who loves what he’s doing.”

As Craig’s musical influences are highlighted throughout the new album, it’s easy to see this most recent project as the sound track to his life. He agrees and, when asked to pick out a particularly significant track, thinks quietly. “To be honest, a song by Curt Stigers, ‘I Wonder Why’, which is on the record. It was a song that when I heard it, it struck a chord with me. I wanted to write classic songs with a structure where every part had a meaning and a reason for being there. Some songs have a section that you want to skip to get to the better parts, this one just has it all and that is why this song is on the record.”

Craig’s top tips for 2010? “The door was open back in the old garage days, even with acts like the Artful Dodger, and this has set a foundation for acts like Tinchy Stryder, Chipmunk, Tinie Tempah and Dizzy Rascal. They can be deemed as credible artists and also have commercial success and I am excited about the movement, they just need to keep it at a consistent level.” The thorny issue of commercially successful versus so-called‘credible’ artists prompts a question from OggieMusic, a Nokia Music follower on Twitter: Does Craig feel that the UK music industry hasn’t supported him fully, for example, by not awarding him a Brit award despite creating an album that sold over 11 million copies?
“I have never really been about the industry for me. It has always been about the music and making an impact, which is why I used to DJ. People who want to come and see you will do, and that’s why I do it.”
Craig Davids new single “One More Lie (Standing In The Shadows)” is in stores on with the album signed Sealed Delivered released on the 29th March.

All of Craig’s albums are available to download at Nokia Music Store or if you’ve got Comes With Music get them all for free!

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.