Glamorous new girlband Vanquish are looking to achieve big things in 2012. Having performed at the British Grand Prix and with songs written by Space Cowboy and Wayne Hector (the man behind many of The Wanted's biggest hits) their pop credentials are in fine form. I caught up with Bee, Holly, Lizzy and Rianna to see what they had to say about breaking into the notoriously difficult pop market.
Hi girls! Let’s talk about the album. Have you recorded all the tracks already?
Holly: We’ve done about half of it.
Rianna: We keep getting sent amazing songs at the moment - we’ve got really, really good material. We’re working with some amazing people too, aren’t we.
Holly: Yeah! We’re so lucky.
That seems to be the thing these days, people will have the whole album ready to go then they’ll land on that one new song that sounds like an obvious first single...
Holly: You have to get the music right, that’s the main thing.
Lizzy: You get one shot at it. If that one song is wrong, then...
Rianna: We’ve recorded lots of different kinds of things, we were just finding our sound at first.
Holly: It’s good for experience too, nothing goes to waste.
There are a lot of other girl bands round at the moment - what makes Vanquish unique? What’s your unique selling point?
Lizzy: Our number one thing is that our songs are so strong – it’s proper powerful pop, there’s no weakness in it at all. And us four, we’re such strong characters - so as a package it’s like a girl power thing going on.
Bee: We’ve got it all! I really feel like a chemistry with us; we feel a buzz and we’re genuinely like the best of friends.
Rianna: And we’ve spent so much time together!
Bee: We’re in it for the pure love of music and we each individually are just so passionate about this, we’re just the best of mates and I think this comes across. Our love for it, our friendship, our chemistry.
Rianna: That’s really, really important.
Holly: I kind of feel like with all these girl bands coming along and Little Mix winning the X Factor, it’s kind of like a test and we’re meant to like win - it’s like a challenge!
Rianna: You need to always be improving yourself, all the time - even someone like Beyonce - who’s amazing - she’s always trying to get better. And that’s what is good for us because we think, right, we’re going to be better than that and we can do this, so it’s good to have competition.
Girl bands like Girls Aloud/The Saturdays are five-pieces – do you think you get to know each-other better as a four-piece?
Holly: Yeah. And you’re a lot more memorable actually - if there’s four of you people get to know the individual personalities better. I feel five is quite lot. If there’s four, I feel like it’s the perfect number.
Bee: It feels nice. It feels perfect in every way.
Rianna: We’re all very similar in certain ways, but we’re also so different - like we’re all different personalities.
What was the appeal of singing as a band instead of trying to make it in the industry as solo artists?
Holly: Oh I’m so glad we’re in a band!
Rianna: There’s the support, that’s it.
Lizzy: And it’s more fun! You go to gigs all together... It’s lonely on your own, like travelling everywhere. When you’ve got three other girls who want to do exactly the same as you and have the same ambitions as you, you’re going to be happier because you’re sharing it with your best friends.
Rianna: Like when we’re on stage, when one of us catches the other’s eye, it’s like, oh this is so exciting!
Holly: Oh I get goosebumps!
I imagine it’s a lot less scary as well?
Lizzy: It is.
Bee: Like before a gig if we got nervous we’d egg each-other on like, yeah, yeah you’ll be fine!
Rianna: And we each bring something to the band. Like Lizzy is like the mum, we call her the mum of the group. And Bee’s the quiet one.
Bee: That’s not true!
How did you decide to cover Linkin Park’s Numb – it’s not a song you’d immediately associate with a girlband?
Lizzy: I think it was a mixture of things; we all thought about it, we all love the song.
Holly: It’s quite nice to do with the piano and stuff. It’s quite raw and we thought that was quite nice.
In your song Headrush you sing ‘looking at you I get a dangerous feeling, but I still wanted to stay’ – have you ever experienced that feeling in real life?
Bee: Yes! Definitely!
Rianna: I think everyone has, to be honest!
Holly: It’s like the whole bad boy thing, isn’t it. I like a bad boy!
Lizzy: Sometimes you just meet a guy that brings out the dangerous side of you...
Holly: And every girl loves that!
Bee: And you don’t want to leave them, you just want to stay there and have fun!
Rianna: You know you shouldn’t, but you just want to.
And when you’re in that situation, how do you make sure you stay on top, stay in charge?
Bee: We don’t!
Rianna: Haha! We’re strong independent women!
Lizzy: We call the shots!
Do you have any random facts or hobbies you can tell us about?
Lizzy: I hate chocolate!
Holly: Lizzy is weird! Rianna is obsessed with Vaseline, like OCD with Vaseline.
Rianna: Yeah, I literally can’t go anywhere without it or I start to hyperventilate.
Lizzy: Holly hates potatoes and has pasta with her Christmas dinner!
Holly: I didn’t think that was weird until now!
Bee: I can make a noise with my mouth and hand, and i’ve met no one else who can do this noise.
[makes weird noise like a robot duck that’s inhaled helium.]
Rianna: Haha! Yeah, Bee’s very deep.
Bee: I haven’t met anyone who can do that noise!
Rianna: Bee likes space and astronauts.
Bee: Yeah I want to go into space, that’s my dream!
Rianna: Bee’s going to be an astronaut one day.
You’ll have to put that weird noise in one of your songs, like a bit of beatbox...
Bee: But I haven’t even met any beatboxers that can do it.
There’s that girl from Little Mix, she does a bit of beatbox...
Rianna: She’s good, that Jesy - yeah, she’s wicked. I just don’t understand how people can do it, I’d never be able to.
Holly: I want to learn, like be really good at one thing. So people are like ‘wow!’
Have you had a look at the BRIT Award nominations - what do you think about them?
Rianna: Jessie J’s got a few. She’s amazing, like absolutely amazing.
Holly: And the battle of the boybands - JLS, One Direction.
And do you have a favourite boyband – JLS/The Wanted/1D?
Holly: I think JLS are my favourite.
Lizzy: I think they’ve all got something going for them.
Rianna: I love the Wanted’s music; like I love Glad You Came.
Holly: I love One Direction, and I still don’t know if that’s bad! I guess if Caroline Flack does, it’s ok!
Bee: The Wanted’s music is quite a current sound.
Holly: You know, we saw them in a dance studio recently; they were practicing for the x factor. We were all plastered to the window looking at them, and they all turned around! We were like ‘eeek!’
Lizzy: They’re quite handsome in real life, aren’t they!
Rianna: Yeah, that Siva, he’s got unbelievable cheek bones!
Lizzy: They’re not your typical boyband look, they’re something a bit different.
Rianna: They’re all attractive, but they’re a bit quirky.
Everyone seems to be going mad for One Direction right now...
Rianna: They are so cute!
Holly: I love them! That song, What Makes You Beautiful, it’s such a perfect song because every girl is going to be like ‘awwww, that’s about me!’
Bee: We’re all obsessed!
Boybands seem to have it easy with loads of teen girls as their fanbase – what do you think the trick is for girlbands to build up a fanbase?
Holly: Yeah it seems like you can only really get one really good girl band at a time, but for boybands it’s like ‘give me a boyband!’ and you can’t get enough of them.
Rianna: The fans tend to all like the same ones. They don’t just like just one. They all love all of them. Although you do sometimes get the die-hard ones who are just really into one.
Back in the day everyone seemed to be really up for all the girl bands!
Bee: The Spice Girls, I was absolutely obsessed with them.
Rianna: I used to have the postcards, you know, the little postcards you’d get of each Spice Girl.
Bee: We hope that we can be like that, because we’re pretty much just normal girls. And young girls can relate to us.
Rianna: And we love to be crazy, we love to have a laugh. We’re always laughing and giggling and joking around, so we hope that comes across.
Bee: We’re just four normal girls!
You’ve done some pretty showbiz things already though - you performed at the British Grand Prix!
Holly: That was our first massive gig, it was scary! Our first massive stage and we had a big TV screen blowing up our faces.
Bee: We had it quite easy though as the crowd was just full of drunk men going like ‘wheeey!’
Holly: Perfect first audience!
Did you see Lewis Hamilton at all?
Lizzy: Nahh, it was so loud, we were right by the track. Those cars were so loud!
Rianna: It was a lot of fun though.
Holly: Though I did walk behind Lewis Hamilton on a catwalk once! When we was with Nicole Scherzinger at some movie awards... I was taking pictures of her bum eh! Ha!
She’s amazing isn’t she?!
Holly: She’s stunning!
Bianna: I want her body!
Lizzy: She’s a proper all-rounder. Like the voice, the dance, the body - she has just got the complete package.
Holly: I think she was kind of always meant to be a solo artist.
Rianna: At the Royal Variety Performance she sung the Phantom of the Opera, if you watch it it’ll make you respect her on a whole other level.
Holly: She hits this note like EEEEEE!
Rianna: Like the high E, she hits it. She’s just perfect!
Bee: We need to find something she isn’t good at. Her hair must be fake, like extensions....
Lizzy: Maybe she’s got like five toes...
Rianna: Five toes? Lizzy I’ve got five toes!
Lizzy: I meant seven toes! Like what’s that where your feet are joined – webbed toes!
Rianna: I’d rather have webbed feet and still have her body!
Bee: Maybe she’s got a tail...
A lot of radio playlists often seem to be quite anti-pop unless it’s already big in America – what do you think about that?
Holly: I know! It’s really unfair! I listen to Radio 1 quite a lot and they’re quite rocky and indie aren’t they? I think it’s luck as well though, like our manager was saying one week they’ll be like ‘let’s have a pop week’, so I think it’s a lot to do with luck. I know a Radio 1 Newsbeat presenter so maybe that’ll help us out... ha!
Lizzy: We’re just going to try and push for every station.
It just seems to be a bit of a shame at times, because Radio 1 - with their millions of listeners - can sort of decide who makes it or not...
Lizzy: And they can sort of make other stations think twice about putting tracks on their playlists...
Rianna: You’ve always got to have something a bit current on your songs, maybe if it’s like dub-step or whatever, something people can relate to. We’ve got some tricks up our sleeve as well that I don’t think people will expect, so it’ll be fun to see what happens.
Bee: I think it’s important for people to enjoy our tracks as much as we do.
Lizzy: Because when we listen to them we just want to get up and dance and hit the clubs.
A few shots, party...
Lizzy: But we don’t drink, ha!
Rianna: Nahh, we like a little tipple, don’t we. A little sherry or port of an evening!
Holly: Suit yourself, blimey!
Rianna: Port and lemon is lovely! It’s a good Christmas drink.
Holly: I like gin and tonic – it’s slimming!
You did a YouTube cover of Kelly Clarkson’s Stronger, what other songs are you loving at the moment?
Rianna: I think Rihanna is absolutely untouchable right now. She’s just completely and utterly amazing.
Holly: She’s like a goddess! Like I think she might even be bigger than Beyonce now...
Rianna: I think she might be a robot! But Beyonce is amazing as well.
Holly: Beyonce always gives it 100% every single time.
Rianna: That’s what’s so inspirational about her. Like constantly every time you see her, she’s always even more amazing than the last time.
Holly: Her stamina!
Lizzy: And seeing her live, it’s like you’re listening to the track on her album.
Holly: Very inspirational!
Bee: The way she’s swinging her head around and around and still singing.
Holly: I love Professor Green as well, I really like him. And that Emeli Sande
Rianna: She’s amazing! She’ll be big, yeah. Good look, good voice.
Holly: Yeah, unbelievably stunning.
Bee: And Calvin Harris as well, he’s wicked. We Found Love, it’s amazing isn’t it, it’s so good. I like his earlier stuff as well.
Rianna: I like LMFAO as well. Everyday I’m shuffling! There’s so much good music right now, there’s been some wicked tracks this year.
How about Rebecca Ferguson – I’m loving her at the moment...
Bee: Her voice is incredible.
Rianna: So chilled isn’t it, and really raw. I love it.
The Cher Lloyd album’s pretty good as well...
Holly: She’s like my guilty pleasure.
Bee: I think she is for a lot of people, isn’t she.
Holly: I really want to hate her but actually I quite like her.
Rianna: Well I’ve got her songs on my iPhone so I can’t really knock her. And it’s good in the gym too.
So, you’ve worked with Space Cowboy and Wayne Hector (who’s written for The Wanted), did you feel in safe hands knowing they’ve written loads of big hits before?
Lizzy: They’ve come up with some amazing tracks for us, we’re so lucky to have them record with us.
Holly: It feels like a dream with people like that on board, but it’s really real! Like it’s crazy! We’re really lucky.
Rianna: We’re working with Jorgen Elofsson as well who wrote our track The Harder You Love. He’s written for Kelly Clarkson...
Bee: He wrote some of Britney’s tracks...
Rianna: Westlife tracks... massive, massive. He wrote the track we’ve just recorded and he’s like helping us with the album as well. We are so lucky when it comes to writers.
And have they given you any tips or stories considering they’ve been in the industry for so long?
Rianna: Well we all do write ourselves too, so we want to bring that out a lot.
Lizzy: It’s like when they’re just throwing great songs at us...
Rianna: Yeah, you can’t turn them down.
Bee: It’s good to see people like that feel enthusiastic about us, want to work with us, and do more tracks with us.
Lizzy: It’s like they’re believing in us.
Bee: They’ve worked with some incredible people and now they’ve decided to work with us, it’s like wheey! That’s amazing.
Has it been exciting getting all the feedback from the fans on Twitter as well?
Holly: Oh they’re so nice! Really loyal.
Rianna: We’ve got some lovely fans, they’re so sweet
Bee: And it’s nice watching it all grow, like gaining fans - it’s like ‘new fan!’
Was it weird going from ‘normal people’ to going into the pop career, with people knowing who you are? Did it feel strange?
Rianna: It’s very odd, it’s strange.
Holly: And it’s hopefully going to get bigger and it’s going to be weirder and weirder, but nicer though.
Rianna: If you have a down day, just go and look at some of the lovely comments they’ve left – you can’t help but be so touched by what they say.
Holly: One of them came like all the way from where she lived, like five hours on her own, and bought us a massive bag of sweets and chocolates and stuff. She was right at the front, waiting there by herself.
Rianna: It was all the stuff that we liked as well.
Lizzy: And we literally performed for like ten minutes and that was it. And she’d come all that way.
Rianna: She was so sweet, bless her.
Bee: And she was singing all the lyrics as well! It was so nice.
Rianna: That’s what we want, we want people to appreciate and love it.
Bee: Especially at that early stage before we’ve properly released anything, to have people coming on board already and getting excited with us.
What would you like to have achieved by this time next year?
Holly: Wembley!
Lizzy: It would be amazing to have a Number One single.
Holly: That’s very ambitious but that would be cool.
Gotta set your sights high, you never know...
Holly: We would love to have an arena tour, that’d be so good.
Rianna: Yeah nothing too fancy, just a small arena tour.
Lizzy: We’re hoping to get on a support tour this year. And then hopefully a few years down the line we’ll have our own headlining tour.
Well that’s the trick isn’t it, get on with one of these boybands that are touring...
Holly: Well, One Direction perhaps...
Lizzy: Oh don’t, I think we’d be a bit dangerous for them.
Holly: They seem fun, yeah!
That Harry Styles, he seems a bit naughty... remember what he said to Matt Cardle when he won the X Factor...
Holly: We met Matt Cardle the other day, he’s so nice. I’ve never met anyone so nice.
Lizzy: He was so humble, and really chatty, and had time for us.
So you’re all big X Factor fans then, did you enjoy the last series?
Lizzy: We really liked Little Mix
Rianna: They were just so sweet and nice, weren’t they.
Bee: It was good to see a girl band win!
Rianna: There needed to be something like that, because hopefully that’ll persuade more people to support girl bands more.
Holly: And hopefully we’ll be caught up in it!
Rianna: As long as you’re not exactly the same, and we’re not. Everyone’s very different.
Bee: It’s music, so there’s room for everyone.
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