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.
Written by: Johnny Davis Published: Q (October 2009)
VAGABOND: Throaty soul-rock outfit fronted by Michael Hutchence-like Alex Vargas. Proof Xenomania do more than just girl pop. Brian Higgins: «Alex is a true star. Their best is yet to come.» Key track: "Don't Wanna Run No More"
MINI VIVA: "In yer face" female double act, the likes of which haven't been seen since Salt-N-Pepa or (ye Gods) Daphne and Celeste. Very pop. Brian Higgins: «The're a rare act where it all seemed to come together, to make sense.» Key track: "Left My Heart In Tokyo"
PAGEBOY: Catchy pop-rock with a soulful side: singer Brooke X was discovered fronting female US Led Zeppelin tribute band Lez Zeppelin. Brian Higgins: «She has charisma and stage presence not seen in a long time.» Key track: "My Love"
ALEX GARDNER: Nineteen-year-old, sometime Edinburgh model; already being talked up as "the next Duffy". Only male. Brian Higgins: «He has a timeless way about him, far beyond his years. Looks like a matinée idol.» Key track: "Yesterday's News"
GOLDMARK: Think a dancier Coldplay. Gerard O'Connell fronted failed major-label indie types The Rushes, before signing with Higgins. Brian Higgins: «He's in possession of a remarkably powerful voice. He shakes the rafters.» Key track: "Call Within A Minute"
NITEVISIONS: AKA Andy and James Taylor - sons of Andy and Roger of Duran Duran. Used to feature Simon LeBon's nephew on drums. True. Brian Higgins: «The best bits about synths and guitar-led pop rolled into one.» Key track: "Fire"
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.
Xenomania Records are showcasing their newest acts at iTunes Live Festival in London this Thursday (July 16). They are offering a pair of tickets to 20 Popjustice readers.
The artists performing are Alex Gardner, Pageboy and Gez O'Connell. The tickets will also allow you to go into the main iTunes gig to see Simple Minds supported by Vagabond.
To enter, send your name and email address to mightnotstayforsimpleminds@popjustice.com (hah) by 3pm tomorrow (Wednesday July 15). Successful entrants will be notified by email and will need to get to the venue (the Roundhouse in Camden) by 6.30pm to claim their tickets.
Alex Gardner recently performed at T in the Park - The Herald says he was «soulful and youthfully confident». Gez O'Connell is «new and unsigned», and this will be one of his first gigs under the Xenomania umbrella.
Earlier this year, Pageboy were selected by The Times as one of the hot music acts of 2009. This is what they wrote:
«Fronted by Brooke Gengras, first impressions of Pageboy suggest an old-fashioned female-fronted rock group with faint overtones of the Pretenders. Gengras's band is capable enough, but all eyes are on a singer who seems to have spent a lot of late-night vinyl hours in the company of soul greats such as Dinah Washington and Irma Thomas. No singles have been released as yet, but Monica and Brothers and Sisters deserve to be huge hits ahead of this summer's debut album».
Click here to watch an acoustic performance of "Brothers and Sisters". Also, as you might have noticed, we love animals, so this gives us the perfect excuse to post a picture of Brooke's puppy (recently twittered by Vagabond). Look at this cutie:
The inaugural Xenofest - a mini festival/garden party to showcase six of the acts signed to Xenomania Records - was held last Friday. The Xenomania mansion was open to receive journalists, PRs and record company people.
GQ describes the Xenofest as a "hit", adding that "pop music 2009/2010 is safe" in Brian Higgins' hands. Journalist Johnny Davis writes: «Xenomania's A&R girl had spent the last 18 months globe-trotting for talent - and their roster now included a throaty funk band, two Eighties-indebted indie-pop boys and a LA singer who'll give Pink a run for her money in the hair 'em, scare 'em stakes. Higgins himself stalked the garden in a zipped-up leather jacket, looking like a cross between Mark Fowler down the EastEnders market and an over-enthusiastic teenager.» Read the complete article ("Inside the hit factory") here.
Performing at the Xenofest were Mini Viva, Nightvisions, Pageboy, Vagabond, Alex Gardner and Jessie Malakouti. Read a few reviews:
-- MINI VIVA GQ: «two girls who share a Manchester flat together, whose future disco single "Left My Heart In Tokyo" sounded irresistible» This Must Be Pop: «I'd only heard the remixes that are on their MySpace before this, so I was hugely impressed with the proper songs. (...) Everyone was singing along when they played the studio version just after the performance, and most of us had only heard it once before.»
-- NITEVISIONS (aka The Electric City part 2) GQ: «euphoric electro-pop was so perfectly reminiscent of the Eighties someone joked they could have been Duran Duran's children - which, indeed, it turned out they were (the sons of Taylors John and Andy; Simon Le Bon's nephew was briefly on drums but was dismissed after being found to be "crap")» This Must Be Pop: «A male electro-pop band who were compared by audience members to Veto Silver and Phixx, but everyone agreed that Night Vision weren't as good as either of those bands. They easily got the least positive reaction of the night.»
-- VAGABOND GQ: «throaty funk band» This Must Be Pop: «I was surprised that they didn't do their current single, which is doing quite well and has grown on me quite a lot. They made up for it with good hair, and I can see them being one of the more successful of the Xenomania acts, but I could also see them being a big flop. Only time will tell!»
-- PAGEBOY GQ: «singer Brooke Gengras was discovered fronting all-female Led Zeppelin tribute act Lez Zeppelin in a New York bar and was just as brilliant a performer as that description would lead you to believe.» This Must Be Pop: «She's different to the other artists Xenomania has worked with, more of a singer-songwriter who might appeal to fans of Feist or Regina Spektor, but of course she's adding a Xenomania twist which will give her an edge over other similar acts.»
-- ALEX GARDNER This Must Be Pop: «A very young Scottish singer who seems like he could make a good popstar and is apparently high priority at the record label, but I didn't think any of his songs were especially good. I hope they'll find him something better to release, or he'll just be another in the track record of Scottish male popstars with disasterous careers. »
-- JESSIE MALAKOUTI GQ: «a LA singer who'll give Pink a run for her money in the hair 'em, scare 'em stakes». This Must Be Pop: «(...) the new stuff is excellent and apparently she's releasing a song through the Ministry of Sound label, which may be a good approach to take. She's gone from a Britney sound to a one-girl Girls Aloud, and I'm fine with that.» Popjustice: «Jessie is destined for quite big things - her tunes are pretty incredible and she's currently on tour with The Saturdays.» Jessie Malakouti is supporting The Saturdays on tour. Tonight is her first night.
GQ magazine writes that Brian Higgins is «notoriously exacting»: «you either work his way, or you're packed off on the train back to Victoria. Franz Ferdinand failed to see things his way for their recent album and went home with their tails between their legs (and a resulting album that dropped off the edge of the Top 40 pronto), and he'll neither confirm nor deny the rumours he once reduced Victoria Beckham to tears.»
«He expects his charges to put in long hours; something that doesn't always work with pop stars' schedules/egos and is the antithesis of producers like Pharrell Williams, who pride themselves in being able to knock out a Beenie Man b-side in an afternoon. "I can give Kylie a Top Five record in an afternoon," he once told me. "But what's the point in that?"»
«(...) Higgins' home is practically a stately home. It's certainly a house, a very big house, in the country. There's a swimming pool, ducks wandering past in the garden, rolling acres of greenery. Alice Liddell, on whom Lewis Carroll based Alice from Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, used to live there. (Higgins recently sold the Bentley, but that just left more room for the fleet of private reg cars on the gravel drive.)»
--- Attitude Magazine's blog has written a review of Xenomania's showcase from earlier this month:
«Pop children alert! This week the good folk at Xenomania Records, producers of all sorts of pop brilliance from Girls Aloud to the new (and amazing) Pet Shop Boys long player, held a showcase of their new talent at Notting Hill Arts Club.
This secret society of top-notch songwriters/producers, who are usually holed up in a country house in Kent, were in London to show off the new talent they rounded up in 2008 and hope to launch in 2009. And we were there. GET US.
Attitude was particularly a digging Mini Viva, two 18-year-old ladies in leggings, hi-tops and a way round synth pop stormer. Basically, the look is two teens on a dance stepper and the vibe is catchy-as-hell pop.
Plus, boy wonder Alex Gardner was simply lush, as they say in the Valleys (possibly).
Basically, Xenomania + the kids from Fame should = the best thing to hit the charts since the last best thing. Check out Xenomania Records for all Xenomania’s children.»
--- Watch recent videos of Xenomania's children playing live: This is Alex Gardner performing "Yesterday's News":
Pageboy 24 Feb 2009, 10:00 PM - Zigfrid Von Underbelly, London, - £5 18 Mar 2009, 08:00 PM - Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London, - £6 Mini Viva 25 Feb 2009 19:00 - Water Rats, London 4 Mar 2009 20:15 - Water Rats, London
Jessie Malakouti 24 Feb 2009, 07:00 PM - Zigfrid Von Underbelly, London 04 Mar 2009, 08:00 PM - Monto Water Rats, London 10 Mar 2009, 08:00 PM - The Dublin Castle , London 16 Mar 2009, 08:00 PM - Notting Hill Arts Club , London (invite only) 23 Mar 2009, 08:00 PM - Monto Water Rats w/Jefree Star , London 07 Apr 2009, 07:00 PM - Monto Water Rats , London
The Electric City 27 Feb 2009, 08:00 PM - West Rocks @ Shepards Bar *DJ set*, London 18 Mar 2009, 08:00 PM - The British Music Embassy @ Latitude 30, Austin, Texas 19 Mar 2009, 08:00 PM - offical SXSW showcase at WAVE, Austin, Texas 20 Mar 2009, 08:00 PM - SXSW, Austin, Texas 21 Mar 2009, 08:00 PM - SXSW, Austin, Texas 22 Mar 2009, 08:00 PM - SXSW, Austin, Texas
Vagabond (view all live dates) Vagabond are giving away tickets for their next London show (March 3rd @ The Troubadour). Guest list is limited, so first come first served. Email your name to: eliza@locomotionent.com.
It seems like tonight there will be a big Xenomania private party/gig at the Notting Hill Arts Club in London. If you haven't been invited, have a look at these recent live videos of some of the new bands that have been working with Xenomania. First up is Vagabond, who we already told you about, performing their debut single "Sweat (Until The Morning)":
This is the second and final part of a quick recap of Xenomania's upcoming releases, projects and collaborations. On part 2: four female singer/songwriters (Gabriella Cilmi, Brooke Rose, Annie and Alesha) and two new as yet unnamed bands (a girl band and a band with boys). Part 1 is here.
-- GABRIELLA CILMI --
Gabriella Cilmi, whose first single "Sweet About Me" is still in the top 10 UK singles chart, will release her second single "Save The Lies (Good To Me)" on 18th August (available for pre-order here). Brian Higgins recently said that she's signed a five-album deal with Island Records and that he expects every one to be a "smash hit".
-- BROOKE X --
Brooke X (a.k.a. Brooke Gengras) is an American singer. She's been a member of bands such as the soul-influenced Rider and Lez Zeppelin (yes, an all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band -- she has even been named "Roberta Plant"). Brooke has recently been in England working with Xenomania on her debut solo album. Here's a few things that have been written about her:
x «(...) one thing that makes Rider different (...) is Gengras’ voice, which shows a mixture of influences from 70’s soul to modern alt-rock groups such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.»
x «She was a channeler of Robert Plant. She had the moves, the bravado, and the low-riding pants. All of us, the sloppy drunk forty-somethings with their lighters, the queer boys with their lipstick, and me would have gone home with her in a second.»
x «(...) hands-down choice as the answer to "What if Janis Joplin and Robert Plant had a baby?".»
Annie's next single will be the Xenomania-produced "My Love Is Better", which will be released on September 22nd. The album Don't Stop should be out on October 6th.
-- ALESHA --
Alesha Dixon has been in the studio with Brian Higgins/Xenomania working on her new album. It should be released this November, along with the lead single "The Boy Does Nothing". Alesha says that it will be a "very colourful, mainstream pop record".
-- UNNAMED BAND #1 --
Jess, Janee Bennett and Jessica Martin are part of a new British unnamed girlband (previously called The Differents). Back in March Jessica revealed that they were recording an album with Xenomania: "it's going really well, (...) currently we are recording an album and working with a fantastic team". Their first single should be out soon.
Here's a picture of the band in Kent, sitting on Winston Churchill's statue:
Meanwhile, Janee has contributed with vocals for Roll Deep's new single "Do Me Wrong".
Jason Resch and Kieran Jones are two Australian musicians who have been at Xenomania writing for different artists and working on their own material.
They used to play in a band together when they caught the eye of Brian Higgins. Kieran, 18, and Jason, 19, have since traveled to England to work with Xenomania. They have been writing for some of Xenomania's upcoming releases/projects (Brooke Rose, Alex Vargas, Girls Aloud, among others). Jason and Kieran have also played guitar and bass (respectively) on Gabriella Cilmi's "Einstein" and the single "Sweet About Me".
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.
A Xenomania meeting in progress
Xenomania: Nick Coler, Miranda Cooper and Brian Higgins 
The Xenomania house
