All Angels Charlotte Rates Daniel Radcliffe

14-05-2007 09:52

United by their love of music, Melanie, Laura, Daisy and Charlotte combine to form a unique vocal quartet for the 21st century.All aged 16 and 17; All Angels bring a fresh new sound - and a bright new look - to classical crossover music, with a repertoire spanning classical, choral, opera and pop.Their debut album was one of the biggest selling Classical albums of 2006, and their latest special self-titled re-release has 3 new tracks - Nimrod, Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace and Pie Jesu.

Their repertoire includes favourites such as Schubert’s Ave Maria, Barber’s Agnus Dei (popularised in the film Platoon), and the Sancta Maria intermezzo from Cavalliera Rusticana.

From the world of pop comes Robbie Williams’s ode to his Mother, Angels, Fleetwood Mac’s Songbird, and Carole King’s You’ve Got A Friend. The four girls were selected following an extensive nationwide search of schools, choirs and music schools. Each girl was picked for bringing a different quality to the group.FemaleFirst were able to have a chat with one of the "Angelic" crew - Charlotte - about being backstage at the Classical Brits, blokes and nose bleeds. Find out more of what she had to say below..

Record sales of your debut album were massive - have you been concerned about having to match that success with your subsequent material at all

Well we’ve got the special release and we’re hoping to record a new album in the summer. It’s a pretty good concern to have I suppose - it’s better than saying "Oh we’re doing really badly, lets see if we can do better." But I think it is a hard thing to do definitely, especially as second albums are often much harder to achieve because people are expecting so much more. But I really do feel that we have developed.

If we as a group agree that we feel that a song has been overdone before then we’ll say and the record company will change it and we’ll suggest another song. But part of it, is if you’re going to do it do it well and justify yourself doing it. So you’ve got to have a reason for covering a song again. For example, with a song like Songbird which Eva Cassidy had done so beautifully. When it was suggested, we all loved the song and it meant so much to us and the people around us. When Laura and Melanie sang the verses when we sang it through, they just brought something a little bit different than Eva to it and I think that’s part of the reason of covering songs. As long as you put your mark on it it’s fine.

You have sung hymns in your career, for instance "Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace". Would you describe yourself as a religious person

Erm - I would say that I’m more of a spiritual person without trying to sound pretentious. I believe in God but not necessarily in a specific religion.

Some people in this country often see classical music as dreary and snobby. Why do you think that is

Yes. A lot of it comes from abroad. I think a lot of the best classical music has come from different countries - particularly Italy. It’s all part of the culture, but it’s less so here. Part of the problem is that in the past much older people have always listened to it for some reason - just because it’s been more accessible for those that have been learning music for years and years. It’s seen as this thing that only true experts and musicians can listen to when in fact it shouldn’t be like that at all. Everyone should listen to it but I think it is becoming more accessible nowadays though.

You once played a Hogwarts pupil in one of the Harry Potter films. What was that like

Yeah - I was more of an extra in the background with that though. (Laughs) It was fantastic because I meet Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Ron (Rupert Grint). I’m also a huge fan of the books - they’re the only ones I’ve ever stuck to actually. There wasn’t any serious acting going on in terms of what I was doing. I was only looking left and right (she laughs) but talking to them I was really pleasantly surprised at how nice and down to earth they were. You expect someone at that age to get harder....I certainly didn’t expect them to be so friendly.

For me I’ve always loved acting and stuff alongside singing. At school I’ve always done it and studied Drama. It’s been such a big passion for me. As I get older it gets better because I feel more suited to certain parts. I’d love to carry on singing and never give that up either but I’m definitely hoping in the future that I’ll do more acting.