ShareLara Loux, singer, songwriter who will be appearing in the regional live shows of the Open Mic UK 2014 competition, talks to Kevin Cooper about her love of music, her musical family, the release of her self-penned single, and getting through to the Regional Live Shows of the competition.
Dunstable-born musician Lara Loux, 30, is buzzing with excitement after getting through to the regional live shows in the Open Mic UK 2014 competition, which is the UK’s biggest search for unsigned talent. The singer-songwriter, who’s also an accomplished sax and piano player, impressed the judges with her powerful voice and bluesy-soul sound.
It’s the first time she has ever entered and now she can’t wait for the area finals at the NEC Birmingham on Saturday 22nd November. Success in Birmingham will see her perform at the finals at The O2 Arena, London in January.
Hoping that her debut single, My Heavy Heart, will be released in time for Christmas, this artist has high hopes for the future.
A huge advocate for Help For Heroes, she did a concert a few years ago which helped raise over £4,000. She has also composed a song for military families which will be produced early next year, and will no doubt raise further funds.
Taking time out to speak to Kevin Cooper, this is what she had to say.
Hi Lara how are you?
Hi Kevin I’m very well thank you, how are you?
I’m good thank you. So how is life treating you?
I’m very busy; it’s very hectic which is good. Obviously a lot of preparations are in the making at the moment for the Open Mic UK which is where my major focus is. On top of that I am also planning for the release of my first single. So I have got the two running side-by-side at the moment (laughter). So it’s very exciting times for me, I would say; I’m very, very busy but I am definitely living the dream (laughter).
You mentioned the Open Mic UK area final this coming Saturday. How do you feel, are you getting nervous yet?
No Kevin not at all. I don’t get nervous but I do get excited by the event. I really just want the day to come because I want to get up onto the stage and show everyone just what I can do. I have put so much effort and hard work into this because I really want people to see me not just as a singer, but also as a performer. I have hired a couple of dancers; one is a very well-known dancer within the industry. His name is Ryan Jenkins and he has appeared in the final of ‘So You Think That You Can Dance’ together with doing a lot of stuff on The X Factor. So I am confident that he knows exactly what he is doing when it comes to choreography. I am doing everything that I possibly can to make it into the Grand Final and that is my focus.
And can I ask you what song you will sing?
I will be singing one of my own songs. It is the second song that I have written which is currently being produced. It will be getting released at some point next year and it is called These Lonely Days. These are very exciting times for me and it is very different from my first song, My Heavy Heart. You can imagine that song being sung in a smoky blues club, whereas These Lonely Days is a much more powerful song with a lot of passion in it. It is also very much like a James Bond theme song.
What is the competition like that you competing against?
There are five area finals and within the one that I am performing in there are approximately twenty acts. I don’t know exactly who the other people are, other than the acts that got through from the regional final last Saturday. I do know that there will be a band there and a singer who is using a piano. There will also be a singer who will be playing the guitar and another singer who will be just standing behind the microphone in order to show off her voice. I wanted my act to be different because I want to show the judges that I can entertain as well. So I believe that what I am up against are people who are showing off their musical ability.
I was actually quite surprised last Saturday as nobody used the stage in the way that I did because of my choreographed piece. I think that stage presence and performance is very important because people come to a concert not only to hear you but to also watch you perform. So I am very aware of that.
Jacqui Dankworth, who is a jazz singer and an old friend of mine, is an example of how I want to perform on stage. However, I am going to be very different because I do have the use of the dancers, but it is also about the emotion in the face and the voice. From what I have seen so far I think that I am the only one who is having dancers and showing a real performance there.
Why this route and not The X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent?
Actually Kevin to be honest, I have got auditions for both The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent scheduled for the week after. So they are both in the pipeline as well. The reason why I have not gone down that route first is because I am such an individual, I guess, and I didn’t want people to see me as another cover or as somebody else. But at the end of the day it is all great publicity and so I am going to go for it. It really depends upon what they are looking for. I think that it is all good experience and yes, I will go down that route. I may even go ahead and audition for BBC’s The Voice as well next year. But this all depends upon where I finish in the Open Mic competition. One thing for sure is that I will never stop performing and I will never stop trying, and the more opportunities that come my way to get my name out there, and show people who I am, then I will always continue to do that because it is a life-long dream of mine.
I have to tell you that I have been playing My Heavy Heart and I love it.
Ah, thanks Kevin, I’m glad that you like it, that’s an amazing thing to say.
But I have to tell you that you are spoiling my questions as I have got written down ‘It has got a Ronnie Scott’s feel to it’ (laughter).
That’s bizarre Kevin (laughter). The people who have heard the song have said to me that they can imagine it being sung in a place like Ronnie Scott’s. One of my dreams is that someday I will actually perform there. It has a very bluesy, smoky sort of feel to it. A lot of people don’t realise this, but I am actually playing the piano on that track. I wrote the track on the piano and then it has just been built up around that.
What inspired that particular song?
Well Kevin I write emotionally from my heart so everything that I write is about stuff which goes on in my life. What I was writing about in that song was a relationship. It is almost as though song writing is my therapy; it is how I express all of those emotions that are running through me at the time whether it be sadness, happiness or whatever, but I express it through my music.
You are obviously pleased with the song?
Yes I am very, very pleased with it Kevin. I think that my Producer has done an amazing job on that track. It’s great because we both have the same vision which is very important as an artist. He can actually see just what I am trying to achieve. There were a lot of hours which went into that particular song and I am extremely pleased with the outcome.
I like the song because you could perform it stripped back with just you and the keyboard and I think that it would work really well.
Yes you are right Kevin, and that is exactly how I originally wrote the song. I have got a baby Grand Piano and I write all of my music on that. I literally sat down one day and I wrote the song in thirty minutes. I can write music very quickly when I want to (Laughter). If I have got an emotion that needs to come out, I will literally write and write. I sat at the piano and I just started playing some chords, and I thought ‘that could work’ and then this song just began to develop. As I was playing I just started to sing exactly what I was feeling inside and it just worked. So yes, I could definitely play that number with just the piano, which I think would give it a more emotional feel.
You mention writing, is there an album waiting to be released?
There will hopefully be an album coming out next year. I would like to be in the position where I could say that I have got an EP coming out in the first quarter of next year, which should definitely happen. I have got a huge gig happening on the 6th February at Kensington Roof Gardens in Central London, and I would like to use that particular event as a pre-launch for my EP. And my single will be coming out on the 14th February next year, which I chose deliberately for Valentine’s Day (laughter).
And because I am old fashioned, will the single be available physically as well as via download?
That is something which I need to look into regarding the cost of it all Kevin. I would say at this stage that yes, I would like to have the single released as a hard copy. It is simply a matter of costings for it. However, if I do get to the Grand Final and I am singing in front of Universal, Warner and Sony and someone likes me enough to want to work with me, then obviously that would pay for the cost of the single. But in terms of me funding it myself, I will have to look into the pros and cons of that. But yes, I would love to have a hard copy.
If you successfully manage to get through to the Grand Final, what then?
The Grand Final has not as yet been confirmed, but there is a strong feeling that it will be held at The O2 Arena in London which would be incredible. To be in a position to perform at The O2, I think in January, is just a dream.
So lots of time if you reach the Grand Final to start biting your nails?
Absolutely Kevin (laughter). I have been filing them this morning in an attempt to get rid of the evidence that they have already been bitten (laughter). I am such a focused individual and very determined that when I want something, I know that I can do it. I know that you don’t get anything for nothing and that you only get out what you put in, so I have really tried to go above and beyond what their expectations may be. I want to show them that I am worth investing in and that for my gigs I would be able to sell tickets
It always comes down to the old ‘bums on seats’ syndrome does it?
It does Kevin, absolutely. That is why it is so important to be able to sell tickets. It has been difficult to get people to the NEC from where I live, so I have tried to think outside of the box and I have hired a mini-bus to take people up there. I am really trying to encourage people to come and support me. If I do get to the Grand Final, then that will be better as a lot of my friends who are based in London will be able attend, which will be great.
Did you always want to have a career in the music business?
Oh yes, ever since I was a little girl. Music was always a passion of mine since the age of four when I started having piano lessons. I can actually play a lot of instruments; violin, clarinet, drums, saxophone. I have grown up in such a musical family. My grandfather was a trained opera singer, and he performed in the West End. My grandmother was a piano teacher and it was whilst she was teaching my mum to play the piano that my mum met my dad. Now my dad isn’t musical at all but his parents are. My mum is very musical and she is a percussionist, and my brother is a very good drummer. So I think that it is safe to say Kevin that music is in my genes (laughter). I simply grew up in an environment that allowed me to fulfil my musical ambitions.
However I never realised that I could write music until the age of fifteen. I used to write poetry from a very young age, and a lot of people recognised that. And that love of writing poetry turned naturally into me being able to write music. I was fifteen when I wrote my very first song and it really developed from there. My brother went to LIPA (Local Institute for Performing Arts) and I had my first song produced by him and a few others as they used it as their study project. When I heard it back after it had been produced I thought ‘this is a really good song’ and I realised at that point that I could write music (laughter) so I have just continued to do it.
I then went to University where I gained a Bachelors in psychology and counselling. After that I went into business for several years in London where I was successful as a senior sales executive. I then decided to take a year out of work and I did a Master’s Degree in mental health counselling. I had decided that I was going to train to become a neuro psychologist and I had actually been offered a job at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. That was the route that I was going to take. However, I kept doing gigs and went along to a few auditions here and there and then I auditioned for Downtown Artists in London who loved my voice so much that they gave me a recording contract with them. And it has just gone from there really; it has kicked off massively. The support that I have been receiving has truly been overwhelming; I really do feel honoured
You have mentioned the encouragement that you have received from your family but who within the music industry has inspired you?
(Laughter) Interesting question Kevin as I have had a few inspirations. When I was young, it was seeing Whitney Houston singing and seeing the way that she projected her voice. I thought ‘I want to do that’ so Whitney was one of my idols when I was younger. Since then I have discovered that there is a bluesy jazz type of feel to my voice and so I got into Ella Fitzgerald, and in later years Norah Jones. I like the soft elements of her voice and I try to incorporate that in my voice in some way. It’s strange really because my Producer has said that despite all of my influences I don’t really write music in a way that they have written their music; it’s very different. But Kevin I would have to say that a combination of all of those artists are who have been my inspiration really.
I’m one of those people who likes a lot of different music. I grew up listening to AC/DC as well (laughter) and I really do like rock music. I am a massive fan of James Bond and I used to write a lot of film music as well, because I like the drama. I really do like Adele as I think that she can be quite dramatic and that is where I have gone with the second song, These Lonely Days. It is so different from My Heavy Heart. I hope that the passion behind the song comes across.
I’m going to embarrass you now and ask you what was the first record that you bought?
(Laughter) It was a Kylie Minogue song, oh gosh what was it called? That’s right it was I Should Be So Lucky (laughter). I remember it now because I was given some money and I could either buy a cassette tape with three songs on it or a compact disc, which was amazing in those days, with one song of Kylies on it. That’s the one that I went for (laughter).
Who did you first see playing live in concert?
Oh my gosh Kevin, that’s put me on the spot (laughter). It was Elton John as I used to work for the brother of the Duke of Bedford and he got me and quite a few others tickets for the gig, so it would have been Elton John (laughter). I’ve been to so many live concerts that it’s difficult to remember but I’m pretty certain that it was Elton John.
What would you say has been the highlight of your career so far?
I think that the highlight so far is getting as far as I have in the Open Mic competition. And also being recognised for my music and having all of the positive response from the amazing fans that I have got. However, if I win on Saturday I will be a very, very happy lady as I just want to get to the Grand Final so much. That would then be the highlight of my career so far. If that happens then I think that I will be on cloud nine for weeks (laughter).
On that note let me thank you for taking the time to speak to me.
Thanks Kevin I really appreciate it.
All the very best for the weekend. I hope it that all goes well for you.
Thank you so much Kevin, it’s been amazing. You take care.