N Dubz star Tulisa sat down with Linda McGee for a interview this week, Tulisa talked about how hard it was to break into the music industry, how annoying it is for X-Factor stars to get sucess over night when most people have to work years of hard work to make it and how shallow the industry is.
I love N Dubz even more after this interview, Tulisa keeps it real and I bet it will give other singers the push to keep fighting like they did to make it.
Did you find breaking into the music industry difficult because N-Dubz didn’t fit into the stereotypical, teeny-bopper pop act category?
Tulisa: It depends on the act because some acts can’t break through to the scene and then some go on ‘X Factor’ or something like that and break through in like two seconds. Some acts get really lucky, where they’ll be together for a year and all of a sudden a record company will say “We want to give you half a million pounds and bring you out as this big thing”. Some acts struggle for 20 years and then they finally, they don’t even get recognition, they just keep making music for so long that labels can’t ignore them anymore. Everyone likes them, they’ve got fans, so they think ‘We’ve got to pick up this band now'. acts like N-Duz, like The Script… people like that, that push their way into the scene and they’re like the biggest acts anyway. It’s just a case that the labels won’t take notice. They won’t take risks. They want their teen-pop because they know it sells. So for us, it took a very long time, ten years of being together. It was only after I’d say our seventh year that we got any recognition.
So there were probably moments during that time that you felt like throwing the towel in, were there?
Yeah of course, ten years I’ve been doing it. I’m already at retirement stage in my mind! I just need a break basically. It’s a long, gruelling process. But when you get there in the end it is a lot more worthwhile, and you feel more credible, and that you deserve it. You feel like ‘No matter what anyone says we deserve to be here’.
On ‘The Xtra Factor’ recently you guys were talking about how the charts were being taken over by reality television contestants. Do you find it really difficult to watch those acts getting overnight success after having worked so hard for it yourselves?
Yeah, it’s annoying. It’s annoying watching them just come up there and become worldwide acts selling millions of records after just standing in a queue for an hour. It happens overnight to them. It’s very frustrating for all the other acts and artists but, at the end of the day, it is what it is. You can’t complain. I mean that’s just about numbers and sales. At the end of the day, I know that if I was on ‘The X Factor’ I would be getting the same amount anyway so you’ve just got to try to not let it bug you… It’s annoying but because I’m selling records, without the power of ‘The X Factor’, that’s all that matters. And half of those acts, if they came out, off their own bat and not on ‘X Factor’, wouldn’t sell ten records so then you’ve just got to remind yourself of that.
In terms of all your hard work paying off, being honoured at the MOBOs must have been exciting, was it?
Yeah, that was exciting. But we’re still always aiming higher for prizes, because we’ve been doing this for ten years. It’s like ‘When are we gonna be big-time?’… I want a Brit, that’s what I want. The MOBOs is amazing but I want more than that. I want to break America. I want to go over there. I want to win Grammys… it’s just so frustrating when I know that other countries would get it but there are other complications. Other labels have to sign you out there to be released there… a lot of politics.
Do you still enjoy meeting other artists that you’re a fan of award ceremonies and festivals? Do you like the scene or could you do without the whole showbiz element of it?
I’m not one of them kind of people. I don’t get starstruck ever. It’s really weird. I find the whole industry quite shallow, poncy, needy. They are the words I’d use for it. It aggravates me. I don’t like it. I spend as much time away from it as I can.
So it’s always just an element of work? You never do the whole red carpet and glitzy parties thing for fun?
No way. I hate it. I’d prefer be in my tracksuit reading a book. I think it’s just such a shallow industry to be in. Sometimes I feel like I’m sinning. I ask God for forgiveness. I’m like ‘God forgive for being in such a silly, shallow industry’ because it’s based on giving other people power and putting other people up and letting other people look up to them. It makes them feel like they’re below them. So it’s an industry revolving around people being more important than others and they haven’t really done anything to get there in the first place. Just because I’m talented and I can write good music, it doesn’t mean that I should be looked at as ‘wow’ anymore than you should, because it doesn’t make a difference… Who cares? There’s so much more going on in the world. There’s kids starving in Africa and we’re sitting there glitzing up on the red carpet.
source:: RTE, Tulisa World.
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