INTERVIEW - The Ultra Girls

The Ultra Girls are Lauren, Lucy, Amy and Laura – currently supporting Kylie Minogue on tour, they’re bringing their own unique brand of girl power to the world of pop. Their brilliant debut single Girls Will Be Girls is out in April and it comes with an absolutely brilliant airport-inspired video. I caught up with the girls for a quick chat during a break in their hectic rehearsals for the tour.

Hi girls! So, what have you been up to today?

Lauren: Teen press! Going round chatting to loads of people really.

Lucy: We’ve been eating lots of snacks to keep our energy up. We’re really craving a Nando’s though! Maybe one day if we’re very lucky we could get one of those cards that let you get free Nando’s.

I think there are even some celebs who’ve done promotional stunts to get one of those cards...

Amy: We’d do it! Like eat as much Nando’s as possible in a time limit or something like that.

So, you’re supporting Kylie on the UK leg of her Aphrodite Les Folies tour. That must feel pretty good, right?

Lucy: She’s not had a support act in about seven years so it feels amazing to be going on tour with her.

How long is it until the tour starts now?

Lauren: A week!

Laura: We’ve just been rehearsing loads and it really gives you a sense of what it’s going to be like on the night. The whole thing is just feeling more and more real every day. It’s really starting to sink in.

And with all this rehearsing you’re doing at the moment, do you get a real buzz from it?

Lucy: We love it. It’s mental! The thing with rehearsing is that it makes sure you know exactly what you’re doing, and then you feel alright. It really calms your nerves. Every day we just love coming in and doing it. We can’t wait for everyone else to come see us!

So, do you all have a favourite Kylie song then?

Amy: On A Night Like This!

Lauren: I love Red Blooded Woman!

Lucy: That’s where she’s on the truck isn’t it?

Laura: I like the one where she’s walking around in combat trousers and a vest... Love At First Sight!

Lauren: Oooh, and Get Outta My Way as well!

Amy: What I really love is how on the video for Slow where she has all the people lying on towels around her, when they filmed it they had to glue the towels down because they kept slipping.

The video for your single Girls Will Be Girls is set at an airport... but it wasn’t a real airport that you filmed in though, was it?

Lucy: Nope, it wasn’t actually filmed at one. The one in our video would make a great airport though! It’s so colourful! We were thinking about going to Leeds & Bradford Airport to do it but then we thought let’s just get them to design it all on the computer.

And in the video each of you has a certain job that you’re acting out...

Amy: They were kind of all jobs that we had previously done in real life. Like I actually used to be a flight check-in girl. So it was kind of nice to revisit that ha!

Lucy: I’ve never really been a cleaner though! But I worked part-time at a hair salon and they made me mop the floor.

You nearly hit someone with your mop in the video.

Lucy: That was one of the most dangerous things we did when we were filming!

Laura, you’re a waitress serving out food - did you eat any of it?

Laura: Yeah, I ate some of the mushy peas. They were really cold though, and they weren’t green!

In the video you do a special ‘Trouble with a capital T’ dance move, will we be seeing that on tour?

Amy: We want it to catch on! We’d love for everyone to join in and do the dance move with us at the live shows. There’s going to be lots of fun stuff on tour, loads of energy and running around on stage. It’s all about getting the audience really hyped up.

And do you like to cause a bit of trouble yourselves?

Laura: You should ask our tour manager that question ha!

Lucy: It’s been a troublesome day, you could say.

Amy: We’ve had four interviews today and we’ve ended up talking about bogies... farts... poo?

Lucy: No, we didn’t talk about poo! Well... I guess we have now! Hahaha!

Laura: Hmm, what else? Twiglits!

Lauren: Boys!

Laura: Mashed potato... burps.

Lucy: We’re very boyish. Very vulgar actually. Vulgar with a capital V!

That’s the next single! Ha! Going back to the video, how did it feel filming something like that for the first time?

Amy: It felt really weird when we first walked out on set. We were just a bit like ‘What do we do? What do we do?!’

Lauren: The guys filming it will say stuff like ‘Quiet please, artist on set’ and you’ll be like ‘Oooh! Is that me?!’

Amy: Everyone was so nice to us which made the whole thing go really easily.

People getting you lots of cups of tea and stuff?

Amy: We got our own ha!

Laura: It was a bit weird doing everything against a green-screen, having to use your imagination to think about what’s there.

And was it a long day?

Lauren: Oh yes! It got to like one in the morning and we hit a wall of tiredness ha!

Lauren, you used to be in a band with Tom from The Wanted or something like that?

Lauren: People keep saying to me ‘You were in a band with him?!’, but we weren’t ha! Basically we both worked for the same company and we performed tributes. So I did the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud and he did Take That. So that’s how we know each-other.

So do you have a favourite Girls Aloud song then?

Lauren: The Show! I love that one.

There’s a brilliant video on your official YouTube page where you’re all in a car dancing away to JLS.

Amy: They put that up without telling us! And we were like... What?!

I take it you like a good party then? How’s the nightlife up in Leeds?

Laura: Yeah! It’s really good!

Lucy: We actually haven’t been out in a while, so we’re overdue a good night out ha!

You guys have done a brilliant mash-up cover of P!nk’s Get The Party Started and Blur’s Song 2. How did that come about?

Laura: We were just throwing ideas around really and it kind of grew out of that. It always amazes me too how even little kids know the Blur song.

So are any of you rock chicks at heart then?

Amy: I love 30 Seconds To Mars! Jared Leto is amazing!

Lucy: Ask her to name three 30 Seconds To Mars songs.

Go on Amy, name me some!

Amy: Hurricane!

Yes! With Kanye West!

Amy: Oooh, I didn’t know there was a version with him on it! I’ve got the six minute long album version on my iPod.

And there’s Kings And Queens...

Amy: Yes! *sings* “We were the kiiingssss and quuueeeensss!”

Lucy: Which is the one where he takes his top off in the video? Ha! Amy loves Jared Leto!

How did you come up with the name ‘The Ultra Girls?

Lauren: Well we were ‘Project A’ when we started out on the X Factor, but that was a bit of a work-in-progress; we weren’t really keen on it. So we were just trying to come up with some stuff and ‘Ultra’ really felt like us being determined to succeed and being fun.

Lucy: We’re also girls who are nice!

Lauren: And we can get away with anything!

A lot of bands live together when they’re first starting out, what about you?

Laura: We’ve had to really! We live out of our suitcases. It was a bit different for us as we’d already known each-other for about five years so it kind of cut out that ‘getting to know the other guys in the band’ phase.

You recently went on a tour round various schools across the UK, how was that?

Amy: It was cool! Really fun to do!

Lauren: The kids loved it!

Lucy: They were very responsive and really got what we were about. Just loving pop music and everything.

They don’t hold back do they?

Laura: They were all getting up and dancing! At one school we had this little boy that sung on his own, bless him.

Lauren: He was so good!

If you search on YouTube there’s a Spanish version of your song Girls Will Be Girls called Soy Como Soy.

Laura: We’ve been trying to sing it... Soy Como Soy!

Lauren: We might learn it at some point haha! Do a little rendition.

In their video they dance around with really not that many clothes on...

Lucy: Ours is the PG rated version!

Amy: Something for a wider audience.

And can you tell us anything about your plans for the rest of the year?

Amy: Well, Girls Will Be Girls comes out in April, then we’ll probably release two or three more singles and then the album will hopefully be out around September.

And what can we expect from the album?

Lucy: It’s a real goody bag of stuff! A variety pack of cereal!

Amy: We’ve got a few ballads on there. Then there’s some really powerful stuff, lots of good strong bass. Stuff that gets you in the mood to go out!

Lauren: We’re hoping to do some CD signings and we’ve got a lot of radio tours lined up too.

Amy: We just did a nice intimate acoustic performance for student TV which was really cool.

Lauren: We can’t wait to get out on the road and meet lots of people on our travels!

Interview originally featured on M Is For Music.