La Roux

La Roux was formed in 2008 when singer and synth player Elly Jackson met co-writer and co-producer Ben Langmaid after playing guitar at a New Year's Party. Someone in the crowd had called Ben and had held up the phone while Elly played. The pair became best friends and have been writing and performing together ever since.

The group are classed as electro-pop, but believe that they are more than that. In a recent interview with The Lipster, Jackson said "[a man in the gym] asked me what kind of music it was, and I thought, ‘I’m not sure I really want to say anymore’ because if you say electro-pop it’s almost like you’re understating it, as if you’re saying it’s average. It doesn’t sound right, and it makes it sound smaller than it is."

When asked what their main goals when it came to their music was during the same interview, Jackson replied "I think the key to all great pop songs (and again, I’m not saying that that’s what we’ve written) are tunes that make you feel really good but they’re actually really deep... And I just think that’s really important - I think it’s missing from a lot of pop music - you know, where’s the emotion? Where’s the stuff to relate to? So that’s really important to us, that’s our main goal." The band draws inspiration from 1980's synth pop and acts such as David Bowie, Yazoo, Human League, Heaven 17 and Blancmange.

They released their self-titled debut album in June 2009 under the record label Polydor, which reached number 2 in the UK album charts. They have released four singles, "Quicksand", "In For The Kill", "Bulletproof" and "I'm Not Your Toy". "Bulletproof" reached number 1 in the UK charts. They supported Lily Allen on her UK tour in March 2009.

Find out more about La Roux on their Myspace or on their official website.