By Geoffrey Rowlands


Ella Yelich-O’Connor doesn’t enjoy being interviewed. Better known as Lorde, the 16-year-old New Zealander says she would never give interviews in a perfect world and there would be just one publicity photo of her.
It will be interesting to see if her views change during the course of what seems likely to be a long and successful career if the response to her debut single, Royals, is any indication.
“I like to control each aspect of what I do,” Lorde stated. “I make my own decisions which don’t always comply with what the record company wants.”
These decisions have included turning down the opportunity to support Katy Perry on a world tour and offering a five-song EP, The Love Club, for free download.
“Katy is really talented but the concerts would have been all about her, not me. I know her fans would have heard my songs but I just didn’t think it would be right to do the tour.
“I usually have pretty good instincts. That’s what happened with the free download. I felt it was important for people to hear my songs even if they got them for free.”
Royals was among the free songs. But Lorde’s instincts did prove correct. It shot straight to number one in New Zealand when the track was eventually released on iTunes.
“I wrote the lyrics for Royals in about half an hour. My producer, Joel Little, said there was something magical about the song when we created it. I shared his opinion but never imagined it would become quite so successful.”
A world-wide smash, Royals has gone top three on Billboard’s Hot 100 and reached number one on both the Hot Rock Songs and Alternative Songs charts. Lorde became the first solo female artist to hit top spot on the latter chart since Tracy Bonham with Mother Mother in 1996, five months before Lorde was born. Yet her life could easily have been so different. She may still have been known only as Ella had a video not been made of 12-year- old Lorde’s performance during a talent show at Belmont
Intermediate School.
“The video was seen by record company A&R man Scott Maclachlan. He became my manager and signed me to a development deal with Universal Music.
“I began writing my own songs about three years ago. I initially worked with some established writers but things didn’t really gel.
My lyrics tend to be very personal so I regard it as vitally important to match my words with what I think is the right music.
“I eventually started working with Joel. He used to be in a pop-punk band called Goodnight Nurse. We clicked immediately and have a great creative relationship. We bounce musical ideas off each other and he understands how personal my songs are to me.”
Critics have recognised the quality of her lyrics, particularly for one so young.
“I’ve always been a big reader. Our house was filled with books so perhaps, this influence has helped me to create short stories in my songs. My mum is also a poet. She’s won prizes for her work so I think I’ve inherited my lyric writing ability from her.”
Lorde and Joel wrote every song on her debut album, Pure Heroine.
“It was all done at Joel’s studio in the Morningside area of Auckland. I’ll always remember taking the train home each night.
I’d relax for a few minutes before pulling out my laptop and listening to whatever we’d worked on that day.
“I’m so proud of the album and very pleased that a lyric booklet is part of the package. I want people to absorb my lyrics. I’d like to be regarded not just as a singer and performer but also as a writer.”

in
brief

Joan Jett and The Blackhearts

Rock legends Joan Jett and The Blackhearts have just released their tenth studio album, Unvarnished. It is their first album of new material since 2006’s Sinner.
Joan may have gained a new following of younger fans, who learned of her early years as a schoolgirl rocker in The Runaways after seeing the eponymous 2010 film about the band.
All of these, plus her long-time fans, should want to see the performance video of Joan’s latest single, Any Weather. Recorded for the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” concert series, the video can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbab568f_NE
Live versions of two more tracks from Unvarnished have also been posted on YouTube. Make It Back is at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgvwJ6bcrh0 while the URL for “Fragile” is www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvNGOed2spo
Joan’s 2010 career-spanning Greatest Hits album can be heard in full at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5NlUnPUNAU

Madonna

Madonna has been dropping hints and teasers about her ‘secret project’ for quite some time. But it has now been revealed as a 17-minute black and white film made in collaboration with director Steven Klein.
The film concept is based around the need for freedom, something which is denied to many people around the world. At the recent New York premiere of “secretprojectrevolution,” Madonna described the film as the most important work she has ever done.
“The idea of being free and able to express myself, not only as an artist but as a human being, is extremely important,” she said. “I do not take my freedom for granted. When I travel the world, I see people who either are not free and fighting for it or are free and taking it for granted. Both of these situations make me extremely agitated.”
The film, which launches Madonna’s Art For Freedom initiative, can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXfXrl4K2D4 An interview with Madonna about the film is posted at www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U93frWrToI.
Both the film and interview can be downloaded for free from BitTorrent Bundle at (no www.) bit.ly/1e3TrVH

Trivium

Next week sees the release of Vengeance Falls, the sixth studio album from Florida-based heavy metal quartet Trivium.
Although Strife is the lead single, Brave This Storm is being used to promote the new album. The track can be heard and downloaded for free at www.trivium.fm/.
The video for Strife is among those posted on the band’s official YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/trivium Many more official promos for past releases can be accessed by clicking on ‘Videos.’ Also available here are numerous live performance videos.

Mary Alouette

New York-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mary Alouette has been attracting the attention of notable music insiders. Her songs are described as gypsy jazz with hip hop beats.
But this is too simplistic a description of Mary’s work. Judge for yourself by checking out all the songs posted at (no www.) soundcloud.com/maryalouette Some are sung in French. This is a legacy of her spending a summer working on a vineyard in the south of France and studying opera at McGill University in Montreal.
Indeed, Mary’s French stage name was adopted during her time at university. Born Mary Kavalauskas, her choice may well have been influenced by the Montreal Alouettes Canadian Football League team.
Three of her French songs and two English tracks can be downloaded for free from Mary’s SoundCloud page.