INTERVIEW: Diana Vickers

Diana Vickers is instantly identifiable by her unique singing voice and style, from her early days back on X-Factor when she sang the hell out of that last "Yoooouuu" on the Mariah Carey cover to her amazingly catchy first single "Once." She's been hailed as a fashionista with her own clothing line and the Theatregoer's Newcomer of the year... and then she vanished.

by Nick Baker | 23rd July 2013

Now she's back, having spent most of her hiatus writing and recording songs for her new forthcoming album her current single Cinderella was out Yesterday and has been stuck in my head for weeks! I managed to grab a few minutes of her time on the phone, despite some technical errors at the start, to get to low down on her new music.

TGUK: So your new single is called Cinderella, tell me about it.

Diana Vickers: Cinderella, I think it was, well it was the first song I wrote for the album I've had for nearly three years now. I wrote it with Miranda Cooper who's part of this big writing group called Xenomania. She's written all the Girls Aloud songs and I worked with her to write the album and this producer called Donkey Boy wrote the song and I guess it's just a really feel good pop song. And I guess it's just a modern take on Cinderella and this time would lose her shoes for Prince Charming.

TGUK: I have been listening to the song on repeat since I first heard it.

DV: Amazing oh it love that

TGUK :So I'm really excited about the album, did you write a lot of the songs on the album?

DV: Yeah I wrote everything I've been so hands on this album, it's like my baby. I've been so involved. Y'know me and Miranda together have totally directed the whole sound of it. This has been my whole project and I'm so so proud of how it's gone. I'm so pleased with it and really confident with it yeah.

TGUK: How long have you been working on the album?

DV: It must have taken me really about two and half years, I think maybe a just over a year to write all the songs and then of course you need to find all the right producers and we kinda carried on writing until we had nothing else to write about me and Miranda. So it's taken a while yeah.

TGUK: How would you describe the sound of the album?

DV: I think it's a lot more compared to my first album, I really look back and I feel my first album should really have been more of a development album. I was still finding out who I was as an artist and really experimenting with my sound and I really feel like I've got there. I think that it's a lot more sophisticated, and a lot more mature and a bit more sexier and cooler than the first album. Y'know a lot of inspirations I was listening to a lot of 80's music y'know like Cyndi Lauper and Madonna and Blondie and I guess like a lot of Kylie inspired me and this other artist called Annie. And yeah the music really reflects all those inspirations.

TGUK: Where are you going to be going to promote the release and what gigs will you be playing?

VD: I did a radio tour last week and going round the radio stations and obviously doing all the TVs and what-not. Y'know I'm performing at G-A-Y over the end of the year which is gonna be amazing so I can't wait to do that. I'm supporting Olly Murs at the moment so I'm supporting him at some summer shows. I'm playing Tea in the Park Festival and V festival and the I've just shot my second music video yesterday so that will be out very soon and hopefully doing a tour later on when the album comes out yeah.

TGUK: So you've just filmed your second video, just to quickly talk about the first video. Where was that filmed?

DV: It was filmed somewhere just outside of London. It was in this big beautiful manor house and it was just amazing. It was breathtaking. When I got there I was 'like wow all this amazing house just for me' and my video. It was really cool, it was a really good video to shoot. The guy in it was my friend and it we were having a laugh with it, running around this big manor house and I got to jump in a pool with a fancy dress on yeah it was loads of fun.

TGUK: So I was gonna ask is the boy in it someone that you knew or someone that you hired?

DV: It was someone that I knew, it was my good friend Jacub and he stepped to the plate so that was really sweet of him.

TGUK: So you didn't have to pay a stranger to snog you.

DV: Ha, no no.

TGUK: So I'm going talk briefly about X-Factor as it's just started again, does that seem like a lifetime ago?

DV: It about was five years ago; it does feel so long ago. Cuz this single's out I have to get back into the swing of it and people are asking me about it and it just feels so long ago and people are always like how did you feel this. And I was so young and as time goes by I'm really starting find it really hard to speak about my emotions because I honestly can't remember how I was feeling back then.

TGUK: Now my first thought of Diana Vickers is your first single 'Once' which was written by Cathy Dennis and Eg White, have you had a chance to work with them since?

DV: So well I actually had a couple of written session with Eg White and y'know, he's so great but it just didn't gel. I've worked with a few people on this album and I worked with a lot of lot of people at first and was writing with many different people but what I was just coming back to Miranda Cooper. And what we had was a really great writing connection and I was just like this is what works for me and just went with that.

TGUK: Now there was a fabulous ruffle dress in your video and some amazing shoes that you claimed you would get rid of for this guy (it's in the lyrics, it was a joke...) are things like your clothing line for Very.co.uk something that will have to take a backseat while you're doing the new album?

DV: Maybe, I'd love to go back and do something like that again. To be honest when I kinda took myself away and took some time I wanted to get out of the limelight a little and I took myself away I didn't wanna be doing anything I just wanted to concentrate on my music and just kind of being young and having a bit of fun and getting out that but. But if that offer kind of came up again then I would definitely consider it.

TGUK: So the single is out now and you'll be releasing the album....?

DV: The album's gonna be in September, I think may the 15th but I'm not sure but definitely in September.

TGUK: Will you have another single before then?

DV: Yeah I'm gonna have single I've just shot my music video yesterday (at the time of the interview) for that so that's gonna be coming out very soon.

Diana Vickers' Single Cinderella out now through So Recordings.

Buy the single now from iTunes or Amazon