N-Dubz's Tulisa talks to Female First

07 October 2008

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N-Dubz are the hottest things to hit the charts in ages and with a MOBO Best Newcomer award already under their belts we wanted to know more. Tulisa tells us about their new single Ouch and the band's journey so far.What have you been up to recently? At the moment we've been in the studio. We've actually moved onto the second album already so we've done that, just finished the first track of the second album. We've shot our new video Papa Can Your Hear Me which should be coming out after Ouch, which is been released on the 29th and during that time you're gonna have Papa coming out on TV and radio then that's gonna be released and then we've got the album dropping around Christmas time so we're pretty excited. Now we're with a new label it's all going on and we're coming out on a major level. We're pretty happy about that.

The new single's Ouch, what's it about?

Ouch is a part two to I swear, and it's basically the other way round to I Swear, it's me being a girl, coming home, finding my boyfriend cheating on me. And then Dappy and Fazer come from a boys point of view and they're sort of asking for me back, "it's not my fault", that kind of business. It's all about a whole debate between a woman and man after finding out the mans cheated. It's just a whole storyline, the whole aftermath of it. The video's got a whole storyline too that people can relate to.

What do you think makes you different from other artists in the charts at the moment?

Pretty much the fact that you can't put is in a category, I mean if someone was to say what kind of music do you think N'Dubz do, it's pretty hard to turn around and say "Hmm you're RnB", nah because we've got a little bit of a garage element, we do pop, our music just gets influenced from everywhere, there's classical in our music, there's hip hop, there's RnB there's pop, there's garage, there's everything in there. so I think we're a fresh new style for the UK that is giving something different, something more positive and very unique.

Who are your musical influences?

The boys will probably be pretty different to mine, they love Magic 105.4 and all that kind of business. I like everything from...it's hard to put it, I don't actually sing like what I listen to. On a daily basis I listen to old school garage, funky house, hip hop and RnB and when I was younger I grew up listening to 40s music., I don't really listen to it anymore but I'm sure that some of my vocal sound probably comes from training my voice from young to 40s music so it has that powerful vibe to it. Influences wise I just like to be unique and do what I do rather than be like someone else.

So you've been into music since you were young?

Yeah, really young, N-Dubz have been together since I was 11.

Is there anyone you'd like to work with?

Ms. Jade who's an American rapper from Philly and Timberland and one more person Kate Nash.

The album's out in November, can you tell us a bit about it?

The albums gonna have something for everyone, literally something for your mum, your dad, your gran, as Dappy likes to say! Even if you don't necessarily like N-Dubz music there will be a song on the album that you will like, cause there's something on there for everyone. There's such a different variety of tracks and sounds and maybe if you want to hear more of a bit of the boys, something more grimey, there's something for you on there. If you want a bit of me, a bit more melody vocal, there's something for you on there, there's just so many different varieties of songs for you to listen to. There's probably going to be one song on the album that even our biggest fan won't like cause there's so much different stuff on it. So I think it's the all round album for everyone.

You've been touring for the last year, how have you enjoyed that?

The tour was wicked, probably a lot more fun for the boys than it was for me! I enjoy the stage buzz, I love to get on stage and when we've got a really good crowd that's like full of proper number one N-Dubz fans, that's what I enjoy. But the boys get to enjoy that and the aftermath, partying afterwards and taking home the ladies where I'm more the one that sits there with my iPod the rest of the time when I'm not on stage!

More Tulisa on page 2