Interview Time: Lady Sovereign

Lady Sovereign

Font size:

Share

2005 has been a very good but busy year for the White Midget a.k.a. Lady Sovereign, and she's about to add to her workload with her Save the Hoodie campaign as well as recording for the artist formerly known as Jay-Z. Musicrooms.net managed to steal a few moments with her to catch up.

What have you been up to recently?

Just preparing for my UK tour, that’s about it. Just a lot of promo around the new single and stuff.

How did the whole Def Jam thing come about?

What – the Jay-Z thing?

Yes, because I’ve heard that you were already signed to them and that it wasn’t a case of Jay-Z finding you…

Well, like, he personally flew me out there to meet me, because he like my music and stuff, and took me to other producers and stuff. He’s helping me out.

So what was he like when you met him?

He’s safe, man. He’s down to earth. He’s sweet, he’s cool, man. Not up himself or anything.

Have you toured America?

No, that will be, like, soon, like coming towards the end of the year. I’ll be out there again doing a proper little tour.

Do you know which areas you’ll be hitting?

Like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Montreal –loads of places man! I’m looking forward to that, but I’m more looking forward to my UK tour.

Have you kind of got an idea of how America is feeling your music?

Kind of, but I’ve only performed in New York and Chicago, so that’s just a small area of America. But it’s going well from what I can see already. I’m getting a lot of love on the internet from a lot of Americans, and I had a couple of sold out shows over there. They’re getting it, you know, they’re getting this whole UK thing. They’re ready for it, man. They’re properly hungry for it, they’re waiting for it, because the whole US hip-hop thing is getting a bit repetitive now anyway, so I think they’re more than happy for us to come over and invade.

Do you think they understand UK slang and things we say?

Kind of… People come up to me in America after shows and are like, “Ok, what did you say here? What does this mean?” And I tell them, but they get most of it anyway.

Did you give yourself the nickname ‘White Midget’ or did someone else come up with that?

No it’s my thing, but I call myself the Big Midget now! Because I’m not a real midget – I’m small, but I’m not a real midget.

What about the name Lady Sovereign?

Basically when I was a little hood rat I nicked a sovereign ring from someone’s house. Some boy was, like, seeing my friend and he was being a bit of a dick-head, and I saw the ring there, shining in the corner of the room, so I just took it. Then I started getting loads of sovereign rings, but I’ve only got one now. So yeah… that’s where it came from.

So the whole hoodie thing – is that like a new campaign you’re taking on?

Yeah, save the hoodie man, www.savethehoodie.com . It’s just stupid people trying to ban the hoodie from shopping centres and all that, when you get little grannies wearing bonnets. They cover up their heads, or wear hats, so why are they kicking up fuss about a jumper? I don’t get all of that, man. I’ve always worn a hoodie.

Have you ever been told to take yours off in a shop?

No. I wouldn’t take it off anyway. It’s wrong mate, I think it’s just wrong. I can’t really see the hoodie getting banned anyway, ‘cos they still sell it. So… end of.

Who would you say inspires you?

Who inspires me? No-one really, just music in general.

You haven’t got any idols?

Well, like, Ms Dynamite – it’s a bit clichéd – but when I heard ‘Booo’ it was sort of like, ok, there’s a next female doing UK Garage, and she just opened doors for me in a way that, you know, I didn’t hear any UK females doing their thing like that. She opened doors, but inspiration-wise, I don’t aspire to be like anybody. Just music in general, I love it.

You worked with Basement Jaxx, how was that?

That was cool, they’re cool guys. I did a few shows for them last year and I like what they do, they’re different. It’s a case of they wanted to work with me and I wanted to work with them, so it just happened, you know.

So what else would Lady Sovereign like to achieve?

Music is my life. It sounds cheesy, but it is. I just don’t wanna fail, I wanna do this, you know. Otherwise it’ll be embarrassing for me. Acting might be something, you know, I would do that. But not yet, man.

When does your UK tour start?

31st October – I’m all going on stage with my Halloween mask – I don’t care! Yeah, man, I’m looking forward to it.

Finally… name something ‘random’ you did recently.

Er… I answered the door to the pizza man with this monkey mask on. I don’t know why, but every time I go to America I buy these weird Halloween masks – I don’t know why! I’ve got a couple now, and it’s like, when I order pizzas I sort of like put them on and answer the door to them, and they’re like ‘What!’ But yeah, that’s kind of random.