MOG

Sugar and spice and all things nice, that’s what Adele is made of. And let’s be honest, in a world where the music industry’s leading magazine, Rollingstone, puts MTV The Hills’ fake-baked girls on their cover (while Queen’s Reunion and The Stone Temple Pilots rest in small print on the side), the 20-year-old Brit soul singer Adele Laurie Blue Adkins is refreshing. I was excited to interview her via phone this Tuesday, right before she launched her North American Tour in LA. Let me preface that I never believed in the slipshod tags that she’s the “new Amy Winehouse” or some Kate Nash replica. True- she was trained at the same school as Nash- and her voice has similar timbre but her music is a bit more R & B jazz- with a bit more curtain-rising drama than the saccharine Nash- and she's more sitting-on-top-of-piano sultry than the spunky Winehouse. (I assume the same lazy-bone reporters STILL hail Santogold as the new M.I.A. Listen to women’s voices and visions, folks. Or turn the goddamn volume up.) Such easy pigeon-holing diminishes the grandeur of Adele’s manifold accomplishments.

Let’s start with the facts. Adeles’s high-jumped all the industry hoops to stardom in less than a year. Since putting out her first record on October 2007 (that’s 8 months ago folks), she’s won a BRIT Critic’s Choice Award. She performed on Jools Holland and signed to 2 record deals (XL Recordings in UK, Columbia in the US.) All this and she still lives proudly with mum. All this and I never had to broach topics like “rehab”, “early pregnancies” or “genital flashing” with her. Hey the chick is no demi-god. She smokes like a chimney and has been rumored to handle her alcohol quite 'impressively.' But it's refreshing in this fake-tan world that there's a girl who is not afraid to be a girly girl, whose body is much more woman than under-developed 12 year old boy (Winehouse I am talking to you), who writes love songs she believes in, and who has a sack full of home-cooked modesty to boot. Trust me, read her story, and you too may be convinced that sugar and spice and all things nice (that all girls USED to be made of) still radiate from this young muse.

FAY: Adele- you say that you make soul music. You’ve got almost that...lounge, intimate feel. Is there a type of setting that you imagine yourself in while performing? You know, like a smoking lounge with a cigarette in hand?

ADELE: Yeah, well, I’d rather be in a smoking lounge just cause I smoke 20 cigarettes a day, (laugh)…But you know, I like playing in intimate shows - doing them acoustic - a bit more chilled out and laid back, so yeah- if it was a venue, I guess it would be a smoky lounge...

FAY: It’s interesting that you were a fan of Dusty Springfield and Etta James growing up when most kids were listening to rock and head-bangers....how did you first [find that kind of music]?

ADELE: Actually I really love Etta but I’m not really a Dusty Springfield fan – it’s not that I don’t not like her- I’ve never really listened to her.* Anyway, I went to H.M.V., this big music store in the UK, with all my friends. And you know in your grandparents house there’s like a room that you are not allowed called “The Adult Room” ‘n it has to be tidy ‘n you can’t go in there ‘cause you’ll mess it up? Well, there’s a section in HMV like that, the jazz section, behind a glass wall, and it’s always got these really old, white-hair “muso”- men in there. And I was in there trying to be all cool- and there was this bargain bin ‘n it was like 2 for 5 pounds like 10 dollars…And there was an Ella Fitzgerald record and I’ve always loved Ella…And I saw a Etta James record, and she had the same kinda of hair - Ella Fitzgerald had the primped, kinda 40s, kinda wave. At the time, my cousin was training to be a hairdresser and I was her model because I’ve got really thick, thick hair…and so I bought them both for like 5 pounds. Never got the hairstyle but got into Etta James about a year later and then everything changed. ** FYI: Wikipedia listed Dusty Springfield AND Etta James as Adele's two prime influences. Glad she clarified that one for us. Joke's on us.

FAY: On the US Tour, you'll be playing songs from your album 19. But have you been practicing anything else with your band that the US crowd can look forward to?

ADELE: I’m doing an Etta James cover and a Cole cover. I like doing covers.

In terms of new songs, I haven’t written any songs in about a year. It seems I always need to have to write a song when I am in love - even if it’s really bad love or really amazing love. But at the moment I’m not in love, so I haven’t been writing anything. (slight sigh).

Is that something you worry about? Is there any way to combat writer's block?

You know I am not worried about it. That’s the lovely thing about being signed to XL recordings in the UK, you know. I am not going to produce a record that I don’t like. So if it takes 10 years, it takes 10 years.

FAY: Compared to the other bands on XL Recordings [Vampire Weekend, Radiohead, Ratatat, MIA], you have a very different sound. How did they find you or how did you find them?

ADELE: They found me on Myspace. When they signed me, I think they thought I was going to be an acoustic artist. At the time, I had no choice but to be an acoustic artist [because] I didn’t have enough money to have a band… But I’d always wanted to be a pop star…..

I agree with you though- usually the bands that they sign are innovators, quirky and kind of really genre-defining, like white stripes and MIA...

Yeah, I think they thought I was going to be a lot more low key that it’s actually become. (giggle)

FAY: I am really impressed by the fact that you’ve written all of your own songs. When was the first time you realized you could write?

ADELE: When I was 16, which was the first time I wrote “Motown Glory”. Before then, I was singing 50’s soul covers, or Mary J. Blige or Lauren Hill or something. After an argument with my mum about going away to London, I wrote [my first song] in like half an hour. And it was the first time I wrote about something I was really passionate and it gave me shivers when I was singing it…

FAY: What was the last song that gave you shivers?

The new Santogold record actually, L.E.S. Artistes.

FAY: Really!?

I think it’s phenomenal. I’ve met her quite a few times…I kind of met her a year and a half ago…When I am in London, I do shows with Mark Ronson.. and she does as well if she’s in London. And Mark Ronson used to go on and on about her….and I was like, “yeah, I swear I’ve emailed her on myspace”…And then she came out with [ “L.E.S. Artistes] and I was blown away. Like I think she’s amazing. I think she’s going to be an icon.

FAY: What do you think about the music scene these days, especially as an artist who was found on Myspace?

The state of the industry is great. It’s really accessible. When I was younger, I never ever thought I would get a record deal. I owe my career entirely to Myspace. I think people have an intimate way of communicating with your fans before your even have a machine behind you. You can have people come to your first gig sing your songs actually with you. It’s exciting.

FAY: You are so young, touring so fast… How do you feel like you’ve grown in the last year? Do you feel like you are on an accelerator?

ADELE: Yeah I guess so. I don’t think I’ve had time to grow yet. But I think if you’re going to do it, you do it young. You know, my main aim in life is to be a mum and be a wife. That’s what I want to do. But obviously I don’t want that now at 20. So I think the best bet is I do it all now and have fun with it.

I’ve always made it very clear that this is my love. I can’t express enough how amazing it is do what you thought would be a hobby for an actual career. But I’ve also always made it very clear that I want to be a woman.

FAY: How would u describe musical heaven?

ADELE: I think you would get greeted at the gates by John Lennon [at the gates] and then you're fed chocolate and strawberries by Jimi Hendrix.