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Billie is back. Less than two years
after she first stormed the charts, the Swindon girl
with the wide screen smile is ready to reclaim her
pop crown. With a diversity of sounds from stripped
back acoustic numbers, to smooth r'n'b, to powerful
contemporary pop gems her new album is set to
continue where Billie's record breaking debut, 'Honey
To The B', left off.
As a 15 year old school girl, Billie became the
youngest female solo artist ever to debut at number
one in the UK charts when the feisty 'Because We
Want To' went straight to No.1 in the summer of '98.
Three months later, she repeated the feat with the
follow-up 'Girlfriend', a slower R&B-tingle tune
which proved that this was one pop tot who could
actually sing. In October '98, the platinum -
selling album 'Honey To The B' took Billie career a
step on and silenced the cynics who had said her
success was sure to be short lived.
"It took a while for me to win people over," says
Billie. "No one had much faith in me because I was
so young. They imagined a little brat with a
flash-in-the-pan single. It was inevitable. I would
have thought that too. Thankfully, I proved people
wrong."
Still only 17, London based Billie has spent a lot
of the last year working on her second album which
stretches her sound into new territories. "I wanted
to try out a few different styles of music this
time," says Billie. "I'm still a huge Madonna fan,
but at home, I listen to everything from Artful
Dodger to George Michael and I thought the new songs
should reflect that. Also, I'm two years older. My
voice has changed and so have I and I'm more
confident. I was ready to experiment and be a bit
more adventurous. I wanted the songs to be less
clean cut. I wanted them to have an edge."
Billie began work on her new album last April
following her first tour of the States. In October
'99 she hooked up with the highly regarded pop
producer Elliot Kennedy - who had previously worked
with the likes of the Spice Girls, Five and Celine
Dion - and set about writing some song of her own.
"I was really keen to try out my writing skills,"
says Billie, who had already written one track, 'Love
Groove', on Honey To The B. "Before, I wasn't sure
what I could do, Elliot was brilliant. He taught me
a lot about what makes a great pop tune. It also
helped that I had travelled and met loads of amazing
people since my first album. I felt like I had
something to say. When I was 15, I hadn't really
done much with my life. I cam from a small town and
I hadn't been to many places. All I had to write
about was the youth center and ice-skating at the
weekends".
"On the first album, I was basically saying that I
was young and happy and that everything was great,"
she says. "This time, I wanted sing about real
things, whether they were good or bad. The songs are
much more personal. They have a real meaning and
truth."
'Because Of You' is one of my favourite tracks. I
wrote it with Elliot. It's about becoming a woman,
but it's not all soppy and romantic. It's about
dealing with the fact that you're not a kid anymore
and how scary that can seem. Teenage girls today are
under so much pressure to get into relationships and
have sex. I'm not making a big statement. I just
wanted to say to young girls that they should take
things slowly and enjoy their youth. Once it's gone,
you can't get it back. 'Misfocusing' is probably the
saddest track on the album. It's very chilled and
laid-back. It's about the negative site of success,
which is something I had never even thought about
until I experienced it. I had friends selling
stories to the papers and I had to hear people
slagging me off. The worst part is that most of the
people who judge me don't know me at all."
Besides Elliot Kennedy, Billie collaborated with a
number of writers and producers, including Rick
Mitra & Pam Sheyne (Christine Aguilera) - Stargate
and Later Inc, an up-and-coming Swedish team. "Later
Inc gave me an amazing track", says Billie. "It's
called 'Ring My Bell'. It's midtempo and quite sexy,
but also very sweet. And it has some crazy sounds in
it. It's a very clever pop song. I went to meet the
guys in Sweden because I was going to write with
them, then they played me 'Ring My Bell' and as soon
as I heard it I had to have it."
"The first single will be 'Day & Night', a powerful,
up-tempo pop song which should give the competition
a run for their money. 'Day & Night' is the perfect
comeback track," says Billie. "It has great hooks
and a strong melody. There's also a really cool
sentiment to it. It's about pining for someone day
and night. Ultimately, it's about love, but it's not
slushy at all. The beats give it attitude."
With an older image - No more combats and crop tops
- and a new set of songs, Billie is ready to take on
the pop acts who have arrived in her absence. "The
competition is really tough at the moment, "she says.
"That's why I'm glad I took time out to work
carefully on this album. I could have rushed into it
and crashed and burned. Instead, I've made sure I'll
stand out from the crowd." Billie has always been
hard to ignor and with this new album there will be
no escaping her. |
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