Young musicians often have a tendency to credit their parents' suspiciously hip record collections for setting them on the road to stardom.
With male rockers, great play is made of those old Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan albums found in the loft. For their female counterparts, Joni Mitchell or Carole King usually do the trick.
For Aimee Duffy, things were different. Growing up in a Welsh seaside village, where her mum and dad ran the local pub, she can't recall hearing music at all in her formative years.
Even when she hit her teens, listening to records was never a priority. Trying to explain just how she came to possess such a remarkably powerful voice, the fragile-looking 23-year-old, who likes to be known only by her surname, is almost lost for words.
"I always had a hunger to sing, but I don't know where I got my voice from," she says, sipping tea and speaking with a strong Welsh lilt.
"I'm still trying to figure out what my voice is capable of, just as I'm still learning how to write songs. There was never one defining moment when I realised I could sing.
"When I was a teenager, I liked Blur and Oasis, but I never bought any CDs. We didn't really have the money. Some people think it's odd that I didn't listen to records, but that's just the way it was. I was never one for fitting into a gang, and I didn't think I was missing anything."
Duffy might be a novice in her appreciation of pop history. But, with her current single, Mercy, at the top of the charts and her debut album, Rockferry, out next month, the petite singer is already adding her own impressive footnotes to the story.
One of the new breed of female artists who have emerged in the past year, Duffy's emotionally bruised vocals, black eye-liner and old fashioned glamour have seen her likened to Sixties pop queen Dusty Springfield.
But her album and a recent live residency at the Pigalle Club in London align her more closely to the retro-soul stylings of Joss Stone or Corinne Bailey Rae.
Duffy, who reveals occasional traces of vulnerability behind her bubbly facade, isn't too keen on the Sixties associations, and it's easy to see why: the big, melodramatic arrangements on Rockferry come not from her, but from her producer, former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler.
"I still don't really know what a Sixties record sounds like," admits Duffy. "I only got given my first soul boxed-set about a year ago. To me, Bernard was pure rock 'n' roll. He didn't play me soul songs. He played me David Bowie and The Rolling Stones. It wasn't a nostalgia thing.
"But I can't be light-hearted about being compared with a singer like Dusty Springfield. It's easy for people to drop names like that, because they have a lot of resonance. But it's also unexpected. It's like saying a car is the same as a train just because the two of them move.
"The way I look isn't a Sixties thing. I just like pinning my hair up and wearing big jumpers. I think that the way I dress is really mumsy.
"I wear eye-liner, just like all my friends. All my friends dress in a pretty similar way to me. My look isn't that far removed from what's going on now."
Although her parents, John and Joyce, are separated, Duffy looks back fondly on her childhood in North Wales.
Until she was 11, she lived in the coastal town of Nefyn, on the Llyn Peninsula. Not long after her parents split up, she moved with her mother and two sisters (one of whom is her twin) to Pembrokeshire.
"Because they ran a pub, my mum and dad would do alternate shifts. We rarely saw them together, but we had a great relationship with them both. The pub was really a smoky, working men's club with leather seats and a snooker table, but I felt proud that my parents ran it.
"They tried to separate when I was six, but I cried so much that they stayed together. That was very cruel of me really, but my mum is a lovely woman and she didn't want to hurt us.
"They finally separated when I was nine. As kids, we weren't really aware of the emotional side of it, but I guess there was quite an upheaval. I don't like to dwell on the negative side. I'm not someone who takes the scars with me. It happened and I've learned how to live with it."
Duffy's first break as a singer came in 2003 when she finished as runner-up on Waw Ffactor, a Welsh language version of Pop Idol that featured former Catatonia guitarist Owen Powell as a judge.
"Waw Ffactor happened a long time before X Factor," Duffy says. "It wasn't a phenomenon in the way The X Factor is now. People didn't watch it for the drama. All the other contestants had family members there with banners, but I turned up on my own.
"At first, I wanted to back out, but I thought that would make me look stupid. So I carried on, and I kept winning through the rounds. I had no one there to celebrate with, so every time I won, there was hardly any clapping. I still don't know why I did it, really."
Unsure of where she wanted to head musically, Duffy went through a crisis of confidence before being introduced to her future manager, Jeanette Lee, by Powell and another Welsh indie-rocker, Richard Parfitt of the 60 Foot Dolls.
A director of respected independent label Rough Trade, Lee became Duffy's mentor, and encouraged her to really stretch her voice.
She hasn't looked back, spending four years co-writing the songs for Rockferry, many of them with Bernard Butler, and gaining the confidence to parade her talents in public.
"Before meeting the people at Rough Trade, I took a long, hard look at myself. I asked myself what I was really looking for. I had been working with various bands and writers, but I didn't really respect myself enough. Rough Trade helped me to believe in myself."
Her first meeting with Butler, now making great strides as a producer, proved a turning point in helping Duffy focus on what she really wanted from her career.
"He was the first person who seemed to understand me. I was introduced to this long-haired guy in skinny jeans. I didn't even know who he was, but we went out for a chat and within ten minutes I had the ideas for some songs.
"At first, I found it hard to articulate myself, because I didn't have the right musical reference points. I came out with some ridiculous things. I said I wanted something big. Rough Trade thought I meant that I wanted to be a big star. What I wanted was to do something big sonically."
With Mercy just a taster, the tiny Duffy is about to be big on just about every count.
MORE Beautiful Women
MEGAN FOX --- ILIZA SHLESINGER --- COURTNEY HENGGELER --- ASHLEY DUPRE TIFFANY SHEPHERD --- AIMEE ANNE DUFFY --- MISCHA BARTON --- LYNNE KOPLITZ --- LILY ALLEN --- TOPLESS MEGAN FOX --- MARISA MILLER --- RACHAEL TAYLOR --- MICHELLE BRAUN --- TIFFANY MAY --- AMY FISHER --- AIMEE MULLINS --- RYAN SHAWHUGHES
Saturday, May 17, 2008
New British Invasion - This time it is Women
The singer known simply as Duffy sits next to a clear blue swimming pool on a hotel rooftop patio, the sun setting behind her blond bouffant. She takes a sip of her drink, widens her blue eyes and grins.
"Just like the movies!" she exclaims about the setting - repeating a waiter's observation.
It all does seem just like the movies and a long journey for an ambitious gal raised in a tiny town in North Wales who now lives in London.
Just hours earlier, she performed her '60s-inspired hit "Mercy" for the first time on U.S. television, singing her heart out for a taping of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." A day earlier, she played to a sweaty crowd at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the California desert. Her album "Rockferry" - already a chart-topping smash in England - made its U.S. debut Tuesday.
The 23-year-old - born Aimee Anne Duffy, - is one of several young female singers from the United Kingdom descending on the United States.
Amy Winehouse, whose double-platinum U.S. debut "Back to Black" album won five Grammys earlier this year, and fellow London crooner Lily Allen's critically acclaimed debut, "Alright, Still," may have jump-started this so-called British Invasion. But Duffy and others such as chart-topper Leona Lewis, Adele, Kate Nash, Laura Marling, Estelle and Amy MacDonald are mapping out their own paths from Europe to the United States, and the women are all unique.
Still, some have dubbed them the "new Amys."
Duffy sighs at the comparisons.
"I kind of want to be left alone a little bit, with that. I want to hide. I prefer to be not known than to be known as something completely wrong."
Producer Mark Ronson, who won a Grammy this year for his work with Winehouse and has produced for Allen, said people are intrigued about British female artists now because before those singers made a flourish in 2007, British women hadn't had much of an impact on the charts in recent years.
"For a long time, the female solo artist, all of the U.S. pop ones . . . had a real stranglehold on the pop music charts," Ronson said.
"They really broke open the door I think for a lot of other artists, even though I don't think any of them sound the same," added Ronson, who is also a producer for Adele and Estelle (the singer-rapper described as a British Lauryn Hill).
Lewis has had the most success in the post-Winehouse era. Her debut album, "Spirit," debuted at the top of the charts in March and is nearing platinum status and her song "Bleeding Love" became the first by a British female to top Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 21 years.
Nash also performed at Coachella. Singer-songwriter Adele (full name Adele Adkins) has gained fans for her bluesy voice and unabashed curves: Her debut CD "19," platinum-selling album in Britain, is due out here in June.
Krissi Murison, deputy editor of British music magazine New Music Express, said attention paid to these women, and female-fronted British bands such as the Duke Spirit and the Ting Tings, is growing.
"I think it's really exciting. The pop charts were very very bland here. And the same in the U.S., I think," she continued. "These women don't seem to have gone through that manufacturing. They're funny, dark in places. They have an edgy humour and personality, (they are) a breath of fresh air."
For Nash, comparisons to artists such as Lily Allen, because of their similarly twangy accent and wry songs, has caused some frustration. She cited her own diverse background, from playing classical music as a kid to loving punk rock bands such as the Buzzcocks later on.
"I feel like sometimes I'm being boxed, because sometimes it's almost patronizing. I think a lot of it comes from the media," Nash said. "It's something you have to forget about. . . . I find it sexist."
The poised Duffy, five-two, with dimpled cheeks, a chatty demeanour, no visible tattoos and no winged eyeliner, comes across as the opposite of Winehouse. She may be petite, but her vibrato-filled voice lifts tunes such as the heartbroken "Warwick Avenue" and hopeful "Distant Dreamer" with an old soul's wisdom.
Her parents divorced when she was 10, there was no record shop in her hometown, her first language was Welsh and she was a runner-up in what she calls a "low budget" "American Idol"-type show in Wales when she was a teenager.
Further demonstrating that she may be the polar opposite to the troubled, sometimes drug-addled Winehouse, Duffy says she thinks "it's important to have good morals."
"I refuse to believe that music is that hard that you have to take drugs to get through it. Come on. Would you rather be working at Safeway or In-N-Out Burger? Then I could understand you would do it to escape, no disrespect," Duffy says.
Described by some as the second-coming of Dusty Springfield, Duffy name-dropped '60s and '70s singer Scott Walker as an inspiration, but said pinpointing a litany of influences would "destroy the mystery."
"I read this quote once, by Phil Spector, who said that pop music was made by lonely people for lonely people. I was wondering if there was a point in my life where I slightly felt that. We've all been there," Duffy says. "But that's when I feel lonely, when I'm not making music. It's the only thing I have that's mine, that I'm sharing. It's a contradiction from what he says. He says he's lonely so he makes music. If I don't make music, then I'm lonely."
At the end of the day, whether these women have any staying power comes down to the quality of the songs, said Nic Harcourt, the host of Los Angeles radio station KCRW's trendsetting music show "Morning Becomes Eclectic."
"I've lived here for 20 years. It's always exciting when there's a new cycle," said Harcourt. "It says a lot about the state of American music right now that these female artists are coming up with something that is more of a throwback. . . . Maybe they'll encourage more American women to get out there."
"Just like the movies!" she exclaims about the setting - repeating a waiter's observation.
It all does seem just like the movies and a long journey for an ambitious gal raised in a tiny town in North Wales who now lives in London.
Just hours earlier, she performed her '60s-inspired hit "Mercy" for the first time on U.S. television, singing her heart out for a taping of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." A day earlier, she played to a sweaty crowd at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the California desert. Her album "Rockferry" - already a chart-topping smash in England - made its U.S. debut Tuesday.
The 23-year-old - born Aimee Anne Duffy, - is one of several young female singers from the United Kingdom descending on the United States.
Amy Winehouse, whose double-platinum U.S. debut "Back to Black" album won five Grammys earlier this year, and fellow London crooner Lily Allen's critically acclaimed debut, "Alright, Still," may have jump-started this so-called British Invasion. But Duffy and others such as chart-topper Leona Lewis, Adele, Kate Nash, Laura Marling, Estelle and Amy MacDonald are mapping out their own paths from Europe to the United States, and the women are all unique.
Still, some have dubbed them the "new Amys."
Duffy sighs at the comparisons.
"I kind of want to be left alone a little bit, with that. I want to hide. I prefer to be not known than to be known as something completely wrong."
Producer Mark Ronson, who won a Grammy this year for his work with Winehouse and has produced for Allen, said people are intrigued about British female artists now because before those singers made a flourish in 2007, British women hadn't had much of an impact on the charts in recent years.
"For a long time, the female solo artist, all of the U.S. pop ones . . . had a real stranglehold on the pop music charts," Ronson said.
"They really broke open the door I think for a lot of other artists, even though I don't think any of them sound the same," added Ronson, who is also a producer for Adele and Estelle (the singer-rapper described as a British Lauryn Hill).
Lewis has had the most success in the post-Winehouse era. Her debut album, "Spirit," debuted at the top of the charts in March and is nearing platinum status and her song "Bleeding Love" became the first by a British female to top Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 21 years.
Nash also performed at Coachella. Singer-songwriter Adele (full name Adele Adkins) has gained fans for her bluesy voice and unabashed curves: Her debut CD "19," platinum-selling album in Britain, is due out here in June.
Krissi Murison, deputy editor of British music magazine New Music Express, said attention paid to these women, and female-fronted British bands such as the Duke Spirit and the Ting Tings, is growing.
"I think it's really exciting. The pop charts were very very bland here. And the same in the U.S., I think," she continued. "These women don't seem to have gone through that manufacturing. They're funny, dark in places. They have an edgy humour and personality, (they are) a breath of fresh air."
For Nash, comparisons to artists such as Lily Allen, because of their similarly twangy accent and wry songs, has caused some frustration. She cited her own diverse background, from playing classical music as a kid to loving punk rock bands such as the Buzzcocks later on.
"I feel like sometimes I'm being boxed, because sometimes it's almost patronizing. I think a lot of it comes from the media," Nash said. "It's something you have to forget about. . . . I find it sexist."
The poised Duffy, five-two, with dimpled cheeks, a chatty demeanour, no visible tattoos and no winged eyeliner, comes across as the opposite of Winehouse. She may be petite, but her vibrato-filled voice lifts tunes such as the heartbroken "Warwick Avenue" and hopeful "Distant Dreamer" with an old soul's wisdom.
Her parents divorced when she was 10, there was no record shop in her hometown, her first language was Welsh and she was a runner-up in what she calls a "low budget" "American Idol"-type show in Wales when she was a teenager.
Further demonstrating that she may be the polar opposite to the troubled, sometimes drug-addled Winehouse, Duffy says she thinks "it's important to have good morals."
"I refuse to believe that music is that hard that you have to take drugs to get through it. Come on. Would you rather be working at Safeway or In-N-Out Burger? Then I could understand you would do it to escape, no disrespect," Duffy says.
Described by some as the second-coming of Dusty Springfield, Duffy name-dropped '60s and '70s singer Scott Walker as an inspiration, but said pinpointing a litany of influences would "destroy the mystery."
"I read this quote once, by Phil Spector, who said that pop music was made by lonely people for lonely people. I was wondering if there was a point in my life where I slightly felt that. We've all been there," Duffy says. "But that's when I feel lonely, when I'm not making music. It's the only thing I have that's mine, that I'm sharing. It's a contradiction from what he says. He says he's lonely so he makes music. If I don't make music, then I'm lonely."
At the end of the day, whether these women have any staying power comes down to the quality of the songs, said Nic Harcourt, the host of Los Angeles radio station KCRW's trendsetting music show "Morning Becomes Eclectic."
"I've lived here for 20 years. It's always exciting when there's a new cycle," said Harcourt. "It says a lot about the state of American music right now that these female artists are coming up with something that is more of a throwback. . . . Maybe they'll encourage more American women to get out there."
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