She's days away from putting the finishing touches on her debut album, but already British dance-pop artist Little Boots is making a splash stateside.
AccessHollywood.com's newest Rising Star, Little Boots, AKA Victoria Hesketh, has in her short career inspired comparisons to pop star Kylie Minogue thanks to her pint-sized stature and dance-tinged, sparkling pop songs, but this 25-year-old is charting her own path.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Rising Star: Little Boots
"I really like her, but I don't think that I wanna do something like that," Hesketh told Access of the Aussie. "She's really consistent and a really good pop star but I'm more of a songwriter and a musician and that's essential to me. It needs to be about that first and foremost… [It's] not about like, being in bikinis looking hot, even though that's cool as well."
Born in the North of England, Hesketh made one of her first professional forays into music at 16 when she auditioned for "Pop Idol," the UK version of "American Idol."
"I got through a few rounds but you don't meet the judges until you're like on the show," she explained of the experience. "I was really young… and [it was] like I'll just try it, why not? I just wanted to do music and I was like, maybe this is some kind of magic shot."
U.S. & World
Not making it through to the show may have hurt her pride, but Hesketh said it set her on the right path.
"I had a little cry and then I went home and then I was like, it was the best thing that never happened," she told Access. "It would have been the worst thing for me to get through something like that. They just have like, so much control over everything. I think the thing is really fun to watch… but for me, the vocals are such a tiny part of what I do that it would be like the worst thing ever for me."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Brit Pack
Instead of singing someone else's tunes, Little Boots is singing her own, like the catchy club track, "Stuck On Repeat," which was released on her debut U.S. EP, "Arecibo," last fall. The EP was helmed by Joe Goddard of London dance act Hot Chip and Greg Kurstin from the Bird and the Bee, who recently produced Lily Allen's "It's Not Me, It's You," and who joined Hesketh for her full-length album.
Due out later this year (after another EP due this summer on Elektra), the as-yet-untitled effort was laid down in Kurstin's home studio in Los Feliz, a suburb of Los Angeles, and elsewhere in the city.
"It's a really nice studio in his home, it was really chilled out," Hesketh said. "I [also] did a little bit where the Jim Henson Studios are, on La Brea. That was quite cool… You could see the Muppets getting made through the windows."
And in between studio sessions, Hesketh revealed she caught up on Hollywood news thanks to Access Hollywood.
"I always watch it," she laughed. "We used to watch it in the hotel when I stayed in LA."
With just the track listing to sort out for the album, Hesketh is already buzzing about getting it to the fans and making a few new ones.
"It's really pop! I think like some of the people who've been behind me for a really long time and are into the more clubby stuff might think I've sold out or gone all commercial or something but I'm like, so what?" she noted. "I've always said from the start I wanted to make a pop record. I don't care about being cool or edgy. I wanna reach people and I wanna make music that people have fun to and have a good time to, so that's what I'm about."
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