Beatles, Johnny Cash, White Stripes, David Bowie,Eminem, Prodigy,Chingy, Queens of the Stoneage, Foo Fighters ,Souixsie and the Banchees, Blondie Gwen Steffiani,Madonna, Missy Elliot , The Cure, Bonnie Tlyer, Flock of Seagulls. Adam Ant, Gary Numan, Talking Heads, Annie Lennox.
CLICK HERE TO BUY THE VIDEO TO ROCK THE FLEX ON ITUNES UK
CLICK HERE TO BUY ROCK THE FLEX ON ITUNES USA
CLICK HERE TO BUY THE VIDEO TO ROCK THE FLEX ON ITUNES USA
Andrea Faithful is many things all at once. She is a sometime stylist who has travelled the world for the likes of Vogue magazine, a former dancer who has pepped up the raunchy routines of, amongst others, Britney Spears and Pink, a former wildchild and, right now, the most exciting new Artist of the year. You need only hear her debut single Rock The Flex once to have it burned indelibly into your brain. The former Ziggy Stardust is about to become her next biggest fan, a title he will share with at least one member of Red Hot Chili Peppers, and several heads of several major record labels. She is a future style icon, and knows precisely how good she looks in vintage, in kitsch, in all things outlandish.
"I've got an awful lot of energy," she says, "and if you're asking me my ambition, well, becoming the biggest pop star in the world’ll do for starters."
Here's something else that will do for starters: Tomfoolery is the name of 2009's most feral slice of avant-garde electro-pop, a future club classic album that should have little problem in crossing over, dominating the charts and putting her name where it so clearly belongs: up in lights.
"What? You want to know my history?" she says in what will soon be recognized as her trademark verbal rush, words tumbling over one another in excitable enthusiasm. "Christ, where do I start?"
Here. Andrea Faithful was born in Hull. Her father was in a band that played the same 1960s circuit as the Beatles, while her mother was an accomplished pianist. Though she was good at school, stage school and fashion college, all her formative experiences came via music. And though she missed it by a good decade, she grew up obsessed with the 1980s, an era of musical flamboyance in which image was key.
"I can't think of anything more boring," she says, "than going out on stage dressed in just jeans and T-shirt. I mean, what's the point? May as well stay at home. You want your audience to really notice you. You want them to look at you and to remember you forever."
Her idols were people like Boy George and Adam Ant, for their music, their fashion sense, their androgyny and the excitement they generated. These were people born to be pop stars, and she loved them dearly for it. She was also drawn to the idea of how they walked on the wild side. Before long, she did too.
"Looking back, I think it's fair to say I saw a lot of things 14-year-olds don't necessarily need to see," she muses, "but there really was no stopping me. I wanted adventure and experience. I got it."
She became a regular, if underage, face on the local club scene, but a personality as voluble as hers was never going to be hemmed in by Hull for too long. By 18, she was down in London, and fronting the first of several rock bands. She made for a formidable rock chick, leery and provocative- a leonine in leather. She played practically every up-and-coming venue in the capital and the surrounding areas, but this was a mostly nocturnal existence, and Andrea, who considered sleep as superfluous to her needs, required other creative outlets to occupy her daylight hours. She became one of the UK's most in-demand fashion stylists. She became a professional dancer. And she wrote songs, so many songs that her various rock bands couldn't keep up. And neither did she want them to. Andrea had ideas, countless ideas, few of which would ever be truly content within the constrictions of rock, a genre she was quickly to outgrow. By 2007, she was a solo act.
"By this time, I'd hooked up with Magna Kartah," she says of the internationally recognized writer/producer who has sold over two million records worldwide, and who has recently collaborated with legendary hip-hop artist Africa Bambaataa. Together, they proved a creative whirlwind, writing songs that mixed cutting-edge electro-pop with pure, and sometimes aggressive, dance and Hip hop beats, their energy levels off the scale. They played all over London and further afield, one time wowing an industry audience at SXSW. In the crowd at her SXSW performance was a certain Anthony Keidis, singer with Red Hot Chili Peppers, who was so impressed he proclaimed her a future superstar.
Within a year, Andrea had generated interest from right across the recording industry, but she and Kartah decided to go it alone ("creative control, yeah?" she grins), and formed the Chubby Kid label. They wrote an album, called Tomfoolery, which exceeded even their own lofty expectations. And now they are ready to unleash it on the world.
Imagine a Lady GaGa without the airbrushed mannerisms, or Madonna if Madonna had met Mirwais 20 years before she finally did. Tomfoolery is that kind of album, smart, sassy and remarkably upfront, cool and cultured. The tunes are mesmerising, instantly memorable. Some of them, particularly Rock The Flex, Booby Trap and Don't You Wanna Dance, are so sonically arresting they practically maul you. But, like all things illicit, you'll find yourself coming back for more of these low-slung, libidinous and wonderfully provocative pop songs.
The video for Rock The Flex, Andrea will tell you, was inspired by one of her heroes: David Bowie, and his promo for Life On Mars. 150,000 downloads on her MySpace page later, it came to the attentions of Bowie's manager, who promptly passed it on to the man himself.
This shouldn't be surprising: Andrea Faithful is someone who gets things done, who gets herself noticed, who seizes the moment.
"I've got this really terrible cross tattooed on to my back," she says, "a memento of a very drunk weekend in Amsterdam. It’s not a great tattoo but it did seem like a good idea at the time.” She laughs out loud. “ I'm impulsive like that."
And it’s her impulsiveness that will help get her noticed far and wide. Just you watch.
Download the latest Coast 2 Coast Mixtape for FREE by clicking the cover below!!
Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes are always officially hosted by a Major Artist and bring you new and exclusive music from the biggest names in Urban music! Download all the mixtapes for free at www.coast2coastmixtapes.com
Artists submit your music at www.coast2coastsubmissions.com to be considered for the next Coast 2 Coast Mixtape hosted by a Major Artist!
APL001 PRESS 16_12_2009 @ VIA CORSICO_ 3_ C/o TEAMPORARY ART SHOP_ BRAND STORMING_ MILANO with Kisk & Luca Beolchi_ h 18:00.. www.apparelmusic.com info@apparelmusic.com
KERATIN FUSION EXTENSIONS! I TRAVEL FROM MONTAUK TO MANHATTAN. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/STORMSEXTENSIONS $100 PER BUNDLE FOR THE HAIR AND APPLICATION. B4 AND AFTER PICS ON PAGE! TEXT OR CALL STORM @ 631 682 8489 FOR ANY QUESTIONS OR APPOINTMENTS! (I AM LICENSED AND CERTIFIED)
If you’re interested in keeping all the profits from your music sales rather than lining the pockets of iTunes or other distribution services, check out http://indiesite.org
