Is 2009 the year of the Lady? We’ve got Lady Gaga on top of the pop charts and Ladyhawke on everyone’s buzz list, so it seems like a perfect time for Lady Sovereign to return. With the opening single, “I Got You Dancin,” Lady Sovereign is declaring her intention to get the party going as she smashes up electronica beats. The follow-up, “So Human,” explores some of the emotional baggage from her experience working in the label machine. From grime queen to indie-dance MC, it has been a wild ride for the ess-oh-vee!
DJ Ron Slomowicz: You got your start in the UK grime scene – for those of us on the other side of the river, what is grime?
Lady Sovereign: Grime is quite full-on, very bass-influenced music with a raw edge to it. When I started, I did one or two grime songs. It was different anyway, but I kind of got labeled as a grime artist, but I'm not a grime artist.
Going Electronic
RS: Your first album was very hip-hop and off the cuff while this new album seems like it’s going more electronic dance. Why the transition or what was the motivation behind that?
Lady Sovereign: I like making music and every time I get in the studio, I always want to do something different, so I never like really stick in one direction. So, I place myself everywhere, try different things out, and always seem to nail it in the end. It always works out.
RS: The video for “I Got You Dancing” was really shocking; you did something that I never thought you would ever do.
Lady Sovereign: Oh really?
RS: You did choreography.
Lady Sovereign: Well, sort of. That was a really fun video shoot and obviously I had to try things out and dressing up as all the different gang members was quite funny. But I didn't have to do that much in that video, to be honest, because I don't dance and obviously there were dancers in the video and they did their thing. I did one little quick, swift arm movement I suppose, and with my dancing got in that. But, you know, it was fun.
Is she "Human?"
RS: On your new song “So Human,” there's a line saying “It’s OK for me to feel this way.” Where's that coming from?
Lady Sovereign: Frustration. Last time around, when I was signed to Def Jam, I just felt like I wasn’t really in control of myself. If I didn't want to do something or I felt like I needed to walk away or I got upset about something, people would not really understand why I was feeling that way and just kept pushing me more and more and more to work harder. It was like I'm falling apart here and I’m allowed to take a break if I want to, The world is not going to end if I don’t do an interview or a show. With the song, I am saying that I'm allowed to get upset, I'm allowed to get angry, I'm allowed to say no. Do you know what I mean?
RS: Exactly, you're human. When you worked on this new album, which producers did you work with?
Lady Sovereign: Medasyn, the same guy who I worked with on the first album. That's it.
