Pixie Lott is back, and this time, she’s in control: ‘Authenticity is where the magic happens’
Pixie Lott is back, with new album Encino. And this time, she’s in charge. (BMG, Tag8)
Pixie Lott’s new album, Encino, is here, ten years after her last. A lot’s changed in that time, nothing more so than Lott’s own agency when it comes to her music.
Lott was just 14 when she started writing, and 18 when she released her debut album, Turn It Up, in 2009. As the now 33-year-old notes while speaking exclusively to PinkNews about Encino, she’s been in the business, “Gosh, yeah, a long time.”
Encino is Pixie’s return to music after a ten-year break, which seems hard to believe for anyone that grew up listening to the singer’s catalogue of hits like “Boys and Girls”, “All About Tonight” and “Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)”.
Speaking to PinkNews, Pixie Lott spills on the stories behind those very songs, what support from the LGBTQ+ community means to her, and how to go viral in a changing music industry. Spoilers: the answer is feet videos.
The emphasis for Encino – the personal, partially self-funded record that transcends Lott’s pop roots to explore a more ‘band-led’ sound – is, as Lott puts it, the “lessons I’ve learned” along the way.
“It’s all about authenticity. It’s about doing what I want,” she says. “I have to back that up with every decision that’s made around it. Whether it’s the kind of show, the kind of music video, it’s up to me. And it feels really great to be doing that.”
There’s a sense of looking forward in Encino, which is named after the Californian neighbourhood in Los Angeles where it was made, but there’s also a sense of intimate reflection. “Somebody’s Daughter” is a warning to online trolls and a simple reminders “not to feed negativity”. “Happy” is an ode to son Albert, and “Vintage” is one to husband Oliver Cheshire – but it’s not all lovey-dovey.
“Say So” details Pixie’s first panic attack in 2016, which struck as she performed as Holly Golightly in the UK production of Breakfast at Tiffany‘s.
“I’ve never written about deep subject matters in this way before, but I knew I had to,” Pixie admits. “If I was making an album like this, I had to cover every thing that I’ve been through over the last five years. And I couldn’t leave anything out, otherwise it wouldn’t be an authentic representation those years.”
Was it hard to open up in that way? It would have been, Lott says, had she been making music in the way that a younger Pixie did.
“Working with [producers] Dave Gibson and Jeeve over five years, we built up such relationship that I felt like I could say these kind of things and let them into things that I’d never spoken about to anyone before,” she muses.
“My albums before, because I worked with a different producer and writer every single day, all over different places, I would never talk about that with them, because I just met them for a coffee. We’d write a song, and then I’m gone and I’m on to the next one. It’s like speed dating.”
Encino, and particularly Lott’s track “Coco” is also a commentary on the music industry as much as it is anything else. It’s reminiscent of other stars being more open about the negative of their experiences in the same vein, not least Jade’s recent “Angel of My Dreams“.
“There’s no way you could get into the entertainment industry without the highs and the lows,” Lott says of the turning tide.
“I wouldn’t change it for the world, because I can’t imagine being anything else. And music in my bones. But “Coco” says that I give my everything to this, and I have my whole life. I’ve bared my soul to it, and sometimes you just don’t get it back in return.”
After being in the music industry for so long, much has changed for Lott – like the strategy behind achieving a smash hit, for example. When she released Turn It Up ten years ago, Spotify was just eight years old, and Apple Music hadn’t even been introduced yet; it was “all about iTunes and CDs”.
Coupled with the fact that TikTok was still yet to be released, taking a song viral in 2024 is an entirely different beast.
“Everything’s more instant,” Lott says. “People are uploading songs that are here, there and everywhere in a second. And you can upload anything, and you don’t know if it’s going to go viral. You can spend ages making a music video that won’t get seen, and then you have a video of, like, a foot, and it gets millions of views.”
For all you out there on WikiFeet, just chill out – but Pixie does joke: “Maybe I should experiment.”
Though she’s moved on from the kind of music that heralded three UK Number Ones, four BRIT nominations and over four million singles sold, Lott will “always be a lover of pop.”
She’ll also, it seems, always be a lover of the LGBTQ+ community. That much is clear when she’s asked which one of her songs she’d like to see as a lip-sync on a future episode of Drag Race UK – which is the aforementioned “Coco”.
“I have grown up loving any sort of Pride parade. I feel like [I’ve had the support of the queer community] all my life, I’ve always felt so connected to any kind of Pride show, and where I choose to go out is Soho.
“It’s the kind of a world I’ve been in for a long time, and I just feel the best, see the best shows, with the best people, the best crowd.”
Before she signs off, Pixie has one last statement on Encino – and what she hopes people will think listening to it.
“Being authentic is where the magic happens. And my ultimate goal in life is making music that helps people get there in some way.”
Encino is available now.
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