Florrie Arnold is a 21-year-old drummer, singer and songwriter. She's the drummer in one of the Xenomania house bands, JFK, which also features Jason Resch (guitar) and Kieran Jones (bass), and also plays guitar, writes and sings her own material.
She recently set up her own website, which includes several pictures with fellow Xenomanians and a few videos with drumming lessons and a new song titled "Call 911" (listen to the Fred Falke remix and watch Florrie and sound engineer Toby Scott working on a remix). There's also an older song called "Name In Lights" on her MySpace.
Florrie played the drums on two of Xenomania's biggest hits in recent years: Girls Aloud's "The Promise" and Alesha Dixon's "The Boy Does Nothing". She also co-wrote Sarah Harding's "Too Bad", which appears on the St. Trinian's II soundtrack. With JFK, she has played live backing for some of Xenomania's new acts (Mini Viva, Jessie Malakouti, Alex Gardner, Eliza Noble, Maxine, etc.).
List of drumming credits: -- Girls Aloud: "The Promise", "We Wanna Party" -- Alesha Dixon: "The Boy Does Nothing", "Don't Ever Let Me Go" -- Banned of St. Trinian's: "Theme To St. Trinian's", "Up & Away", "We Got The Beat", "I Can Get What I Want" -- Sarah Harding: "Boys Keep Swinging"
Alex Gardner and his guitarist Tommy are on the road on a radio tour. They are going to be on the road until next Monday and going through Manchester, Stockport, Birmingham and Liverpool (stations include The Pulse, Rock FM, Wish FM, Key 103, Real Radio North West, Juice 107.6, Imagine FM, Radio City in Liverpool, Signal One and BRMB in Birmingham).
A girl auditioned on American Idol with "Something Kinda Ooooh" by Girls Aloud. After she finished singing, Simon Cowell said, sarcastically, «One of the most meaningful lyrics ever written», to which fellow judge Victoria "Posh" Beckham replied: «Better than zigazig-ah?». Watch the audition video here. At one point you can even see Cowell singing along to the lyrics ("ooh").
The lovely Florrie Arnold (drummer in Xenomania's house band JFK + singer + songwriter, etc.) has set up a website. Soon you'll be able to watch videos with drumming lessons from Florrie. For now there's a few pictures and funny out-takes and bloopers filmed by Xenomania's sound engineer Toby Scott. You can also find Florrie on Facebook and YouTube.
Fred Falke said in an interview that he really enjoys collaborating with Xenomania: «I really enjoy my time spent with at Xenomania, a writer and production team based in Kent, England. I get to work in a team of brilliant people, with them for Mini Viva recently was a wonderful experience.»
Former Xenomania singer/songwriter Carla Marie Williams has set up a joint venture production/management company called BigMouthEntertainment. They are about to launch their first act, a new female collective called RD (aka Ruff Diamondz). With Xenomania, Carla-Marie co-wrote several Girls Aloud songs (including "The Promise" and "Sexy! No No No..."), Alesha Dixon's "The Boy Does Nothing", Mini Viva's "Left My Heart In Tokyo", Sarah Harding's "Too Bad" and many others. She also sang with Neil Tennant on Pet Shop Boys' "The way it used to be".
Mini Viva will be DJing at two upcoming nights in the UK: The Nightingale in Birmingham on 13th March and a TBC venue in Leicester on 22nd February. Keep checking their MySpace for the confirmed Leicester venue.
Gabriella Cilmi's "Hearts Don't Lie", the only Xenomania-produced track on her new album, has leaked in full. The Beat Review has reviewed the song: «It kind of redeemed her identity back after that gruesome 'On A Mission' (...). 'Hearts Don't Lie' doesn't escape the 1980's sound Gabby's trying to achieve. Although it doesn't sound anything like 'On A Mission', 'HDL' is more of a soul-dance-jazz fusion.»
Girls Aloud's "The Promise" is nominated for "Best BRITs performance from the last 30 years". You can vote here.
"Jump Off" by the Banned of St. Trinian's has been remixed by Almighty. Click here to listen to the previews and buy the remixes. "Jump Off" is one of the eight Xenomania tracks on the St. Trinian's II soundtrack.
NiteVisions are beingtipped as "ones to watch" for 2010. Here's what CityLife says about them:
«Calling NiteVisions ‘the Duran Duran Juniors’ isn’t merely an aesthetic and musical comparison – for members Andy and James Taylor are the sons of (respectively) New Romantics Andy and Roger Taylor. In their former guise as The Electric City, they even had Simon Le Bon’s nephew on drums. With sharp suits, a great look and killer hooks, stardom seems to have been hardwired into the pair’s DNA: you can’t help but think they came out of the womb holding hairspray and pouting (possibly thinking: ‘This is like the Girls On Film video’).
«Britain’s premier hit-factory Xenomania (Girls Aloud, Mini Viva) are currently helping the duo straddle the shiny high-wire of genius pop: the retro-nouveau disco-pop of Fire, for instance, blitzes forth like a more high-energy Cut Copy, and is so ridiculously danceable, it makes you wonder if at Xenomania’s Kent HQ, they’re putting amyl nitrate into their Glade Plug-Ins. Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos has declared himself a fan. You will be too.»
"I Wish" is the new Mini Viva single, set to be released in November. The single is the follow-up to "Left My Heart In Tokyo", which is still hanging in the Top 10 UK Singles for the third week.
"I Wish" has been described as «an instant modern pop classic» and as «the most brilliant, mournfully upbeat Xenomania production since 'Call The Shots'».
Listen to a live performance of the song:
Footage of the mini Mini Viva & JFK tour around Europe and LA:
Mini Viva were in Radio 1's Live Lounge this morning. Britt and Frankee performed their debut single "Left My Heart In Tokyo" and did a cover of Nneka's "Heartbeat" (via the Chase & Status remix). They were joined by Xenomania's house band JFK (Jason Resch - guitarist, Florrie Arnold - drummer, Kieran Jones - bassist).
Here's Mini Viva's brilliant version of Nneka's "Heartbeat":
"Left My Heart In Tokyo" was released this week. The midweek charts show that the single is sitting comfortably inside the top 10. Here are the newest reviews:
Xenomania return to form by producing the new duo's debut. So instantly catchy, it's a marvel that Sugababes didn't do it four albums ago. 8/10 Planet Sound
It’s a supercharged and sparkly affair with a simple chorus that enters your head (through your ears), sets up home and stubbornly refuses to leave, after the very first listen. Daily Star
They are the most exciting artists Xenomania have worked with in a while. They’re totally different to everybody out there at the moment. (...) The whole package is so cool and clever. The girls are young and are part of the real young generation, not the middle youth most pop stars are trying to convince themselves they’re not a part of. (...) The song itself is amazing and has so many little bits we love we’ve made a long list of them that’s pages long. The oriental touches and the bit three quarters of a way through when you think it’s finished and suddenly kicks in again is just pure Xenomanian genius. The Chemistry Is Dead
Considering that it was written by Xenomania it's no great surprise that 'Left My Heart In Tokyo' is, well, great. In fact, Mini Viva's debut single is nothing short of pure pop gold. (...) It's the arms-in-the-air, handbags-in-the-middle backing that really swings it - weaving dashes of funky house with unabashed, out-and-out disco beats and even the odd Japanese sample, the hooks come thick and fast and the pace never droops for a second. As a taste of things to come from Mini Viva, it's delicious. Orange Music Store
Written by: Johnny Davis Published: Q (October 2009)
In a Kent country house, Britain's pop factory cranks out hits for Girls Aloud, Kylie, and many, many more. Clock on at Xenomania - the "21st-century Motown"...
A Xenomania meeting in progress
Radio 1's Head of Music, George Ergatoudis, calls it "one of the most exciting pop records I've heard all year." Former Spice Girls manager and American idol impresario Simon Fuller was so taken with it he now manages the group. Even the Daily Star has declared it "nuts", in a good way. The general consensus is that Left My Heart In Tokyo is heading to Number 1 when it's released this month. For Mini Viva, the duo responsible for the striking disco-funk debut of pummelling strings, cheesy oriental synth motif, ridiculous rapping and indescribably great chorus, the journey from the North-west of England to the Radio 1 A-list has been a curious one.
Mini Viva rehearsing at Xenomania
"It was a bit weird," confirms 20-year-old Frankee Connolly, one half of Mini Viva. "They told us we were being taken to a studio, but when we got there it was just a big house". "We could", suggests her partner Britt Love, also 20, darkly, "have been going to anyone's house, really."
The pair met in 2007 at an audition held by a record label calling itself Select Music UK. Connolly had been targeted via her MySpace; Love showed up "after I'd seen a flyer". Soon they were driven to a house in Kent. "We came in and we were, like, Oh My God," recalls Connolly. "Seeing all the gold records on the wall!"
They spent the next two years training to be pop stars. This May they found themselves in the seventh-floor boardroom of Universal Music Group International's base in London. Their audience: Lucian Grainge, Universal's chairman and CEO, and arguably the most powerful executive in the British music industry. It was 11am and Grainge was eating muesli. But they stormed through Left My Heart In Tokyo and Mini Viva had a deal confirmed before Grainge had time to down his spoon.
Six weeks later Mini Viva are sitting in the garden of that same Kent house. It belongs to Brian Higgins, co-director of Xenomania, the most successful songwriting and production house Britain has produced in 20 years. From here Xenomania have written, recorded and produced 20 of Girls Aloud's record-breaking run of 21 singles. They have proved hitmakers for the Sugababes, Kylie, Pet Shop Boys and more, shifting some 25 million records in their 12-year history. Their songs are defined by a compulsion to corral pop music down ever more thrilling and creative avenues. Sugababes' Round Round or Girls Aloud's The Promise crossed dancefloor electronics with rock club guitars, classic '60s songwriting and sparkling '00s production.
Lyrically, too, Xenomania patented their own lines in winningly impenetrable silliness ("Something kinda ooh/Jumping on my tutu"), so much so that one journalist was compelled to ask Cheryl Cole whether 2004 hit The Show was about anal sex (it wasn't). Aided by five winning personalities, it was songcraft that escorted Girls Aloud from the nadir of credibility (winners of 2002 proto-X-Factor, Popstars: The Rivals) to somewhere near its zenith (two 2009 Brit Award nominations, Wembley Stadium gigs with Jay-Z and Coldplay).
Xenomania: Nick Coler, Miranda Cooper and Brian Higgins
Higgins acts as musical director, steering a seven-strong team that includes Xenomania co-director Miranda Cooper, best regarded for her lyric writing and now the most successful female songwriter ever (Madonna, Carole King and the Brill Building's Cynthia Well have trumped her elsewhere); Nick Coler, who programmed all The KLF's indelible hits; Tim Powell who started out in 1989 "doing hardcore rave stuff"; and Matt Gray, whose early platinum sellers include Pogo Stick Olympics and Space Station Oblivion - he wrote music for Commodore 64 video games.
Xenomania wall
Reliably dazzling yet never the same, Xenomania's services are understandably in demand. Their autumn schedule includes Cheryl Cole's solo album (co-produced with Will.i.am), Kylie's latest and the first material from Magistrates, the fashionably tipped Essex four-piece signed to The White Stripes' label XL. "At the moment there are 17 named artists we are being asked to consider," says the 42-year-old Higgins. "For us to accept any of them, it's really got to excite us a hell of a lot. We must not be caught putting out bad records."
The way Xenomania work is unusual. Based 45 minutes outside London "to avoid all the distractions", the team would never do anything as straightforward as sit down to write "a song". Instead they each work on backing tracks, chords or beats, Higgins choosing the best bits and building up songs like jigsaws. Xenomania believes that for a song to be "sincere", the artist must always be involved, so melodies and lyrics are always collaborative. Higgins: "The melodic side, which is about life, is the essence of songwriting. There's not many 17-year-olds who have Number 1 hits. If you're giving a melody to them to tell their life story through that melody, you've effectively given them the experience of the older person."
Higgins and Xenomania have already achieved success that would seem more than enough for most people. But it would be a terrible mistake to consider Higgins and Xenomania most people. "Presidents of labels go, Why haven't you retired yet?", he barks. "You think, is that what you're in it for? That's surely indicative of what they themselves are chasing. It's not someone who loves music. It's someone who wants overnight success. Well, I don't want to work with people like that. If you're searching fr overnight success, then get the fuck out of the business."
Xenomania are playing a long game, the next stage of which is to "bypass the nonsense" of the industry by launching their own record label. Aiming to become, as the team's head of A&R Sheila Burgel puts it, "a Motown of the 21st-century", Higgins's team have spent the last two years scouring the world for acts to develop. Turning the traditional pop producer's role on its head, Xenomania won't wait for record companies to bring them artists to work with. Instead, they'll sell record companies the artists they've discovered and developed.
That means presenting them "99 per cent complete", with a finished album with its first three singles earmarked, pre-style, rigorously drilled in performing live (50 shows for all new acts is now a ballpark figure) and, in Mini Viva's case, with their own brand of so-bad-it's-brilliant synchronised dancing. "I don't think record labels have the skill set to develop acts any more", says Higgins. "You need to be outside of it."
And if Xenomania's USP has thus far largely been girl pop, the next six months will see them comprehensively edging out of whatever remaining comfort zone they have left. Following Mini Viva, there'll be Vagabond (lusty soul-rock band), Pageboy (Pink-esque pop), Alex Gardner (groove-based blue-eyed rock), Nite Visions (the sons of Duran Duran's Andy and Roger Taylor, and sounding like it) and Gerard O'Connell (who'll release his music, a sort of four-to-the-floor Coldplay, under the name of Goldmark). This comes at a time when pop is once again in the ascendant; the days of Dizzee Rascal's Holiday and Lady GaGa's Paparazzi.
"Pop was a dirty word", says Radio 1's George Ergatoudis, whose swap of indie Jo Whiley for poppy Fearne Cotton perhaps signals a subtle station repositioning." But quality, exciting pop music sounds fresh now. Xenomania are doing it."
The Xenomania house
Arriving at Xenomania HQ, you could be forgiven for thinking you had entered a cult. Or at least a commune. The sprawling 16th-century mansion edges onto a village green, complete with Tudor tea rooms and statue of Sir Winston Churchill. "Girls Aloud used to stay at the local pub," says Miranda Cooper, 34. "Brian got the guy from the gym, Nigel, to take them out on the green running at 7.30am. They weren't happy."
Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, used to live here. A team of gardeners are attending to the not-insubstantial garden. There's a stream, and ducks everywhere. "There only used to be two", notes Florrie Arnold, one of two impossibly beautiful girls who float to greet Q, "Now they're breeding like rabbits."
At 20, Arnold turns out to be one of the grizzled old hands - a member of Xenomania's house band. Elsewhere teenagers sit around a wooden hall table, playing back music on MacBooks, writing lyrics in notebooks, and generally being so good-looking you feel like running screaming out the back door.
The house is a hive of activity. An east wing is off-bounds - Higgins's living quarters, with long-term partner Sarah ("I've no idea why it says 'danger' on the door," notes Arnold.) "We're churning out ideas all the time," says Nick Coler, who is currently "trying to get some beats together" for an undetermined artist for the St Trinian's II: The Legend of Fritton's Gold soundtrack. "You're trying to sell someone a feeling, and that's the feeling you're trying to get," he says. "It's easy to make something catchy. To be able to listen to it a thousand times, and still have that feeling - that's hard."
Boys in the attic: Jason Resch & Kieran Jones
Elsewhere, house band members Jason Resch, 20, and Kieran Jones, 19, also known as JFK, are working on potential backing tracks for the same song, Tim Powell is tweaking mixes of Alex Gardner's music and Fred Falke, the noted Parisian remixer, is tackling a song by 2008 X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke. (Q stumbles across Burke at one point, before being shooed away by Higgins.) Falke divides his time between his own Toulouse studio and here. "The couch is very comfortable", he says admiringly. "Ikea."
Given all this, it's perhaps no coincidence one of Girls Aloud's albums was called What Will The Neighbours Say?." The villagers have generally got used to it," says Kieran Jones. "Though some do stand on the green and just stare at the house. That's a bit disconcerting."
Soon, housekeeper Pilar has lunch ready. Catering for 36, it's a feast comprising roast pork, cod mignon, hazelnut and vegetable salad, cabbage, beetroot and roast potatoes. There's a minor surge kitchen-wards. "Can you wait till Brian comes in first?" advises his PA Claire, in a tone that suggests it would be a good idea.
Lean and gym-fit, in his leather jacket Brian Higgins might bear physical resemblance to a Formula 1-era Damon Hill, but in temperament he's more Sir Alan Sugar: famously hard to please. A "work obsessive-compulsive" he's made no bones about packing pop stars he can't get along with on the train back to London, expects 12-hour days from his team and cheerfully admits to "binning 90 per cent" of Xenomania's work in his quest for the perfect pop song.
Franz Ferdinand excitedly proclaimed working with Xenomania on their recent Tonight: Franz Ferdinand album would be "a music marriage made in heaven" only to abandon the sessions three months later. "It didn't really work," said singer Alex Kapranos.
"I think Brian liked Franz Ferdinand... on a personal level," says Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant, whose 2009 collaborative Xenomania album Yes proved more successful. "But he works you very hard. He's very headmaster-ly. The first time I worked with, Miranda [Cooper] said, Right, now we'll try that with a different melody. And write some new words. I was like, What?"
"And you get marked," notes Tennant's partner, Chris Lowe. "He puts stars by your work, and comments. It's ruthless. It's fantastic!"
His self-belief is certainly impressive. In February, he had the first six acts signed to Xenomania perform for an audience of music business heavyweights that included six label presidents, two chairmen, 10 Radio 1 producers and key journalists. "One of the presidents said to me afterwards, If you'd fucked that up, you would have been fucked, Brian," he says. "But to me it was logical: the quality was there. And," he grins, "everyone left wanting to buy something."
Higgins was born in Whitehaven, Cumbria, the second eldest of five siblings. His father was a GP, his mother an actress. Aged 20, he co-wrote the song that would become Cher's Believe. At that stage he was a sales director at magazine publishers Reed. At night, he'd start his second job, writing and remixing pop songs into the small hours.
Along with Tim Powell and Matt Gray, he wrote All I Wanna Do, a Number 4 hit in 1997 for Dannii Minogue. "That was my entry fee," Higgins says. Executives at Warners asked if he had anything good for Cher, then hankering after a pop-dance direction. He'd spent eight years sitting on just the thing. Believe went to Number 1 in 23 countries, sold 10 million copies and ensured Higgins would never have to do a day's work again - an unlikely scenario.
Miranda Cooper & Brian Higgins
He set up Xenomania - the opposite of xenophobia, apparently - recruiting Cooper with what would become a trademark, a "talent in spotting winners" in the strangest places. Cooper, daughter of a former director of royal jewellers Asprey, was employed as a backing dancer for Eurovision hopeful Gina G. Later, Higgins would recruit A&R Burgel from US publication Bust ("the magazine for women with something to get off their chests") after bonding with her over the finer points of Simone Jackson and Anita Harris on the Here Come The Girls: British Girl Singers Of The '60s compilation. "We agreed that we're on a mission to destroy mediocrity," Burgel says. "Those 'alright' records. Throw them in the bad category. It has to be brilliant, or nothing."
Xenomania set about mastering pop. "As far as songwriting's concerned, we're fucking scientists", says Higgins. "I went through the whole of The Beatles songbook once, playing the chords on my left hand and working out all the melodies on my right. I just don't think there's that level of analysis of melody and chordal structure anywhere else."
«Wake Me Up was a fucking brilliant pop record» - Popjustice £20 music prize on Xenomania's wall
They struck gold with Girls Aloud. "I can still remember the girls' faces when we gave them [drum'n'bass/ surf guitar debut single]Sound Of The Underground," says Colin Barlow, now president of Geffen Records, then overseeing their label Polydor. "But coming from that TV show format, we wouldn't have got anywhere unless we'd taken a risk."
Over the last two years Higgins has "sunk hundreds of thousands of pounds" of his own money into the next stage - establishing Xenomania as a label.
After lunch, there are rehearsals, in 72 hours, Xenomania will host a room at the iTunes Live London Festival '09 in Camden. Alex Gardner's album isn't out until at least January 2010, but it's all part of a long-lead build up to launching Xenomania's acts; and generating as much industry and media anticipation as possible while simultaneously honing their live performance. Backed by the Xenomania house band, Pageboy's singer Brooke X romps through Heartbreak and Red Wine - a sultry pop-rock tune that lodges itself in your head.
The next day Q return to find Danish pop types Alphabeat in the hallway. Later Gerard O'Connell, Mini Viva and Jason Resch perform. Cooper and Higgins look on, the former bouncing on her hands, while Higgins stares ahead inscrutably.
"With this job, it's your life more than your job," says 19-year-old Alex Gardner, who'd come to London from Edinburgh to model before being earmarked by Burgel. "Everyone wants to make it work as best as possible for each other. It's like a big family." He's recently signed to Duffy's label A&M, with whom he's already drawing similarly "potentially massive" comparisons.
Pageboy rehearsal
Brooke X, on the other hand, caught Burgel's eye performing in a New York all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band - Lez Zeppelin. "Sheila emailed and asked if I wanted to come over to England," she explains. "I was, like, What's this? Who are Girls Aloud? Cher? OK, cool. But it's made me see how creative pop can be."
Can Xenomania become a Motown for the 21st century? In attempting to do so, they're diverging from their success with girl pop - which has upset some of their faithful fanbase.
"The hardcore Xenomania fans have been, What the hell is going on?", says Vagabond's singer Alex Vargas. "What is this Vagabond?"
In fact Higgins has already spent three years steering Vargas from dreams of becoming Robert Plant, into a more soulful direction. "That was a blow, but good in the long run. I was 18; slightly arrogant. Brian showed me that melody is the key to everything. I'm glad he pointed that out".
"What Brian is attempting is a big task," says Colin Barlow. "But I can't think of anyone else who could create something like that. With that work ethic, talent and passion, he has every chance."
Two days later, Alex Gardner is onstage at the iTunes night. It's a compelling four-song performance. Cooper, Burgel and Higgins stand directly in front of the stage, two of them dancing, Higgins standing stock still and mouthing every lyric. Afterwards Fred Falke is effusive. "How can you not enjoy it?", he beams. "You have to be deaf, dead or drunk."
Higgins is more cautious. "I'm standing here thinking of all the things that can be done better," he says. "But it's only his 25th performance."
Twenty-five more to go? "Something like that," he says. "We'll get there." Don't doubt it.
21-year-old American singer/songwriter, professional dancer and actress. "Standing Up For The Lonely" is Jessie's official first single, to be released on Ministry of Sound on 21st September. Popjustice describes the song as «a defiant modern disco record with a slightly mournful, triumph-over-adversity element» and says that she «is destined for quite big things». Jessie is working on her debut album, to be released later this year.
British pop/rock band fronted by Brooke Gengras, a fantastic singer and performer from Brooklyn, NYC. Brooke has been a member of bands such as the soul-influenced Rider and Lez Zeppelin (an all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band), before being spotted by Xenomania's A&R. Pageboy are signed to Geffen and have been gigging for the last six months. Earlier this year, Pageboy were selected by The Times as one of the hot music acts of 2009.
Links:MySpace, Twitter Upcoming shows:
10 Aug 2009 Monto Water Rats, Londont
17 Aug 2009 LIVE at 229, Great Portland Street, London
ELIZA NOBLE
21-year-old singer/songwriter from London. Eliza Noble started singing and playing guitar when she was 11 and she also plays the piano. She has been gigging for the last few years and is currently working on new music with Xenomania.
Listen:The One Way (demo) Links:MySpace, Twitter Upcoming shows:
5 Aug 2009 The Fly, London
10 Aug 2009 Monto Water Rats, Londont
MAXINE
16-year-old girl from the Bronx, NYC. Maxine Ashley is a sassy/soulful singer who's one part Neneh Cherry, one part Beyoncé. She has just started out with Xenomania.
Influences: Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Lil Wayne, India Arie, Paramore, Panic At The Disco.
17-year-old from Scotland, recently signed to Universal Records after a bidding war between three record labels. It's the biggest deal Universal has signed since Mika. He's been doing a weekly residence at Water Rats and recently performed at T in the Park - The Herald says he was «soulful and youthfully confident». Alex is currently working on his debut album, due this Autumn.
Links:MySpace Upcoming shows:
Aug 5 2009 - The Fly, London
Aug 17 2009 - Showcase:LIVE, London
NITEVISIONS
Once part of the Electric City, the singer Andy Taylor and guitarrist/writer James Taylor have started up a new band called NiteVisions, with a leaner, more electro sound. Read a review of one their gigs: «(...) it has always been evident that these boys can write a Pop song, and if these early glimpses of Night Visions are anything to go by, the Taylors just keep getting better. This short set was brimming with 80’s synth sounds, jagged guitar work, phat with a capital ‘P-H-’ slap and slide bass lines and Indie-Disco drum beats».
Soulful soloist with a big voice. Once signed to Island as part of The Rushes, Gez O'Connell joined the Xenomania family this year and is one of their newest stand out talents. Recently performed at the iTunes festival.
JFK
Xenomania's in-house band, now turned into a "proper" band. They usually provide live backing for some of Xenomania's new roster of acts (those that don't actually have/are a "band" - Mini Viva, Jessie Malakouti, Alex Gardner, Eliza Noble).
Members: Jason Resch, Florrie Arnold, Kieran Jones
MINI VIVA
Mini Viva are Britt Love (20, Mini) and Frankee Connolly (19, Viva), a pop duo looked after by Xenomania and managed by Spice Girls’ former manager Simon Fuller. Debut single "Left My Heart in Tokyo" is already C-listed on Radio 1 and is Scott Mills' Record of the Week, 6 weeks before its release on September 7th. NME named Mini Viva «the next biggest girl band in the universe» and The Guardian says that Mini Viva are «the act most likely to encourage a productive dialogue between indie and pop, between the art world and the chart world». Mini Viva's debut album is out in November.
International five-piece pop/rock band with a bluesy and soulful sound. They have been crafting their sound under the guidance of Brian Higgins/Xenomania and are signed to the newly reformed Geffen Records UK. Vagabond release their first physical single "Don't Wanna Run No More" on 3rd August 2009. Their debut album You Don't Know The Half Of It is available August 17th. Vagabond are heading out on tour this month, having previously toured with artists such as James Morrison, McFly and The Script. The Guardian says they could be «the world's biggest new band».
Upcoming shows:
6 Aug Bush Hall London
7 Aug Bristol Cooler Bristol
8 Aug Southampton Joiners Southampton
10 Aug Nottingham Bodega Nottingham
11 Aug Manchester Moho Manchester
12 Aug King Tuts Glasgow
14 Aug Cockpit Leeds
15 Aug Norwich Arts Centre
17 Aug Masque Liverpool
22 Aug V-Festival Stafford, Northwest
23 Aug V-Festival Chelmsford, East
Xenomania Records are hosting a free live music event in Westerham on 29th July 2009.
Xenomania are based in Westerham and want to give something back to kids who are interested in music, therefore this event is for under 18s and totally FREE.
The event will be held at Westerham Village Hall, Quebec Avenue, Westerham TN16 1BJ, between 18:00 and 22:30.
The line up is as follows:
Alex Gardner
17-year-old from Scotland, recently signed to Universal Records after a bidding war between three record labels. It's the biggest deal Universal has signed since Mika. He's been doing a weekly residence at Water Rats and recently performed at T in the Park - you can watch a live video from the festival here.
MySpace: http://myspace.com/alexgardnermusic
Pageboy
Lead singer Brooke is from Brooklyn, NYC, and started out in a Led Zeppelin cover band before being spotted by Xenomania's A&R. Pageboy are signed to Geffen and have been gigging for the last six months and getting rave reviews from The Times & GQ.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/pageboy
Eliza Noble
20-year-old singer/songwriter from London. She has been gigging for the last few years and just starting to get things going and booking more gigs.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/elizanoblemusic
Maxine
A 16-year-old girl from the Bronx, NYC. She is a sassy/soulful singer who's one part Neneh Cherry, one part Beyoncé. Maxine has just started out with Xenomania.
MySpace: http://myspace.com/maxineakamimi
NiteVisions
Once part of the Electric City, the singer Andy Taylor and guitarrist/writer James Taylor have started up a new band called NiteVisions, with a leaner, more electro sound.
MySpace: http://myspace.com/nitevisionsmusic
Gez O'Connell
Soulful soloist with a big voice. Once signed to Island as part of The Rushes, Gez joined the Xenomania family this year and is one of their newest stand out talents.
JFK
Three piece pop rock outfit making waves wherever they play with their rhythmic harmonies. They have backed artists such as Gabriella Cilmi and Xenomania stable mates Mini Viva.
Jason Resch, Florrie Arnold and Kieran Jones are three of the musicians working as Xenomania's in-house band. They usually provide live backing for some of Xenomania's new roster of acts (those that don't actually have/are a "band" - Mini Viva, Jessie Malakouti, Alex Gardner, Eliza Noble).
Popjustice's Xenofest review tells us that for the time being they're called "JFK" (Jason-Florrie-Kieran). Besides playing live, they've already co-wrote and played as session musicians on several Xenomania records. They could be to Xenomania what the Funk Brothers were to Motown, by contributing with a recognizable sound and providing sonic consistency to Xenomania's output.
Here's a little bit about them. Ladies first:
FLORRIE ARNOLD (drums)
Florrie Arnold is a 20-year-old professional drummer living in London. She used to play with the She Creatures, has worked with Guy Chambers, and is now part of Xenomania's in-house band.
She played the drums on two of Xenomania's biggest hits in recent years: Girls Aloud's "The Promise" (plus a few more songs on Out of Control) and Alesha's "The Boy Does Nothing" (as well as "Don't Ever Let Me Go", also on The Alesha Show).
The Xenofest review from GQ magazine reads: «A bunch of impossibly young looking musicians took to the stage. It turned out they were Xenomania's house band - the grizzled old hands compared to the actual acts. The drummer, female and devastatingly blonde and pretty was 19 years old. Many of the assembled thirty-something music hacks shuffled uncomfortably, and talked about it being time to change career.»
You can watch several videos of Florrie's drumming on YouTube.
JASON RESCH (guitar) and KIERAN JONES (bass)
Jason Resch (20, guitar) and Kieran Jones (19, bass) are two Australian musicians who used to play together in a heavy rock band. They caught the eye of Brian Higgins while playing a gig in Melbourne and then moved to England to work with Xenomania.
Jason and Kieran co-wrote Girls Aloud's #1 hit "The Promise", which won the award for Best British Single at this year's BRIT Awards.
They've also played on most of Xenomania's recent output, including Gabriella Cilmi, Alesha Dixon, Girls Aloud and Pet Shop Boys.
Pet Shop Boys often talk about them in recent interviews - they're usually referred to as the "young Australian guys" who play bass & guitar in Xenomania's attic.
"Beautiful People", a song from Pet Shop Boys' latest album Yes, started out as a folky ballad and was later completely transformed by Kieran and Jason. Neil Tennant said in an interview: «The guys from Xenomania put a 60s beat on it and that made it much more powerful than it was - very catchy.»
Xenomania is a songwriting and production house based in Kent, England. It was founded by songwriter and producer Brian Higgins.
Since 1996, Xenomania have written, produced and remixed tracks for a string of successful artists including Girls Aloud, Pet Shop Boys, Sugababes, Dannii and Kylie Minogue, Saint Etienne, Cher, Gabriella Cilmi and many others.
