All Saints! All That!

Girls' Life Magazine All Saints Interview - June/July 98

"I'm Shaznay, and I'm a member of All Saints. I'm 23. I'd say maybe I'm the most serious one of the group and a deep thinker."

"I'm Nicky, and I'm a quarter of All Saints. I'm Natalie's sister, and I'm 22 years old. And that's it--I don't know what else to say about me."

"I'm Natalie. I'm the oldest member of the group. Not that old, just a year older than my sister. But that's me, Natalie!"

"I'm Melanie. I'm 22 years old, and I'm half-French from my mother's side. I love to sing and make music."

Mel, did you ever consider doing anything else in life but singing?

Melanie: Never. I always wanted to be a singer. And my parents never told me, "Well, OK, but it's a hard profession to get into and maybe you should think of doing something else." So there was nothing telling me singing wasn't a good thing to choose.

What did you do before All Saints?

Melanie: I was in Les Miserables when I was 11, but I was an understudy. Before All Saints, I was in a band called Jive, and I did some work with Dread Zone.

You and Shaznay started All Saints. When did you get together?

Melanie: About four years ago, we were in the same studio on All Saints Road. We liked each other's vibe, so we thought, "OK, we'll try and get something together."

Shaznay: I'd always gone along thinking I'd do my own thing. But when me and Mel met, we thought we should do something together. It's the same for Nat and Nick when they came along.

Natalie, do you and Nicky have a musical background?

Natalie: We were born to be on the stage. There was always music in the house. We grew up on a lot of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. I always performed my own videos in the bedroom.

That's not a London accent you've got. Where's it from?

Natalie: It's kind of a mixture. I left Canada when I was 7 and went to live in England, as my parents are both English. By age 14, I went to New York for a couple years and got this upstate New York accent. So it's a combination of everything.

So how did you and Nicky come to join All Saints?

Natalie: Melanie and Shaz formed All Saints four years ago. Two years later, Mel bumped into Nicky after not seeing her for eight years 'cause we went to school with Melanie back in Õ87. Fate! It was so nice to see her again. She was telling us she was in this group All Saints. They needed more vocalists because there were a lot of harmonies, and Nick joined the group. As I was doing my own thing at the time, I didn't really want to step in their way. But I got so involved, I just felt I had to be a part of it.

Nicky, does it ever get difficult being in a group with your big sister?

Nicky: The only time it gets difficult is when she gets upset about anything in the business. It's a lot easier with Mel and Shaz because I can give my point of view, and they can deal with it. When it's family, it can get a little bit intense. The only time she does pull her big sister is not anything to do with business. If I like a guy and she doesn't like him, then she'll pull the big sister on me. Or if I spend money in a stupid way, she'll try to advise me.

Do you feel your music is closer to hip-hop or R&B?

Melanie: We are influenced a lot by R&B, but the core of it is hip-hop. That's got a lot to do with our rap influences. R&B only because we sing over hip-hop beats.

What artists do you admire?

Shaznay: I mainly listen to a lot of rap. Melanie likes Jamiroquai, Nicky likes Oasis, and Natalie likes rock and old-school rap. Way-back influences, such as Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, also come into it. I think there's a connection of all our influences in our music.

How did you discover you could write songs, Shaznay?

Shaznay: It's pretty much a natural thing. I've been writing since I was 13. I've never really taken it as a big thing. Only until maybe after I wrote "Never Ever" and we were signed on the basis of that one song did I suddenly realize the seriousness of it. It's something I love doing. A lot of rap music tells the truth. I think that's important with songs--to be truthful.

Your songs are varied. I'm thinking of the contrasts between tracks like "Never Ever" and "Beg" or "Under the Bridge" and "Gotta Get Busy."

Nicky: There's two sides to us. There's our serious side and our fun, outrageous side. So when we perform something like "Never Ever" we can perform it exactly the way it's supposed to be, and when we perform "Beg" we can bust out so completely crazy and show a different side because we're four very strong girls. And I guess we have a sensitive side as well.

Tell us about "I Remember."

Shaznay: I wrote "I Remember" when I was 16, when I had just left school, and it was about me having to leave friends behind and start anew, and imagining meeting up with my old friends years later at a reunion.

How important is how you look to your whole image?

Nicky: I'm not going to wear something because people told me to wear it. We've been given the right to dress how we want to dress. It's really cool. It should just be how you feel, not what you wear.

So does that relaxed attitude to how you look help you feel confident?

Nicky: Oh yeah, because the nerves are so overpowering, the last thing you want to worry about is going on stage in heels and falling. Sometimes I have all the confidence in the world, and I think, "I'm not even nervous. This is a piece of cake." But as soon as I'm standing on the sidelines to go on stage, I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to faint." I don't know what it is. But I then just do it and go out, and it doesn't matter. But if you're dressed comfortably, it takes a lot of that pressure away and you know you're being yourself. It's a lot more comfortable.

How do you feel about being compared to the Spice Girls?

Melanie: We don't feel we're anything like them. They're manufactured, and we're not--we wrote the heart out of ourselves. Even the phrase "girl band'--I'd rather be seen as singers/songwriters or artists or musicians or whatever rather than this "girl band" thing. We're the first band to get a big push since the Spice Girls, so therefore everybody is going to ask. Hopefully, a couple of hits down the road they'll stop comparing us to them.

Enough said.