La Roux (pronounced /ləˈruː/) are a British electropop synth duo band made up of singer and synth player Elly Jackson, and co-writer and co-producer Ben Langmaid, with Jackson describing their respective roles as "very much a half and half sharing situation... not like a singer producer outfit", but also recognising that it often can "look like a solo act".. Their music is influenced by 1980s synthpop including Yazoo, The Human League, Heaven 17 and Blancmange.

Band members

Elly Jackson

Elly Jackson is the daughter of actress Trudie Goodwin aka The Bill's June Ackland. Her birthday is 12 March 1988. Jackson grew up in the Herne Hill area of London. Jackson was nearly taken out of her primary school at age 8 because she was bullied often because "I was big, fat, ginger, had size nine feet and looked like a boy". She became confused and "grew to hate everything about the way I looked.”

Her first interest in music revolved around folk music. She was particularly interested in Carole King and Nick Drake whom she discovered in her parents' record collection. Her early musical material consisted of folk ditties informed by Joni Mitchell. Jackson's taste in music changed during her mid teens when she became involved in the rave scene.

Jackson has been linked to a pop music trend that features androgynous twenty-something women with a strong individualistic attitude. She has cited musicians David Bowie, Madonna, Annie Lennox, Prince and actress Molly Ringwald as her influences. She co-designs her own clothing with a friend. Jackson is unhappy with what she perceives as a "normality" fashion trend among a majority of today's musical acts. Her hair style has been compared to the 1980s group Flock of Seagulls and imitated by young women in London.

Ben Langmaid

Langmaid, a London based producer and composer has been involved with various other music projects in the past. He has a close association with Rollo Armstrong of Faithless; the two musicians went to the same school and later collaborated as Huff & Puff in the mid 90s, releasing the house single 'Help Me Make It' in 1996. Langmaid also recorded as Atomic and was one half of Huff & Herb before contributing as a songwriter to indie band Kubb's debut album 'Mother', released in 2005. This project was again linked to Rollo Armstrong; Kubb's frontman Harry Collier was introduced to Langmaid after Collier sang Happy Birthday to Armstrong whilst working as a waiter in a North London organic cafe. Langmaid turned down the offer of a permanent position in Kubb.

Career

In 2006 Jackson and Langmaid were introduced by a mutual friend. Their first project was named "Automan" and they wrote largely acoustic music.

La Roux's first single, "Quicksand", was released by independent record label Kitsuné Music in December 2008. They then signed to Polydor Records in order to release their debut album.

La Roux (2009)

La Roux's second single "In for the Kill" was released on 16 March, 2009, and prominent dubstep producer Skream has created a remix of the track as well as one being made by Lifelike. "In for the Kill" debuted at number 11 in the UK Singles Chart on 22 March 2009, peaking at number 2 to date. Bulletproof was released on the 22 June 2009 and debuted at number 1 in the UK Singles Chart.. On the day before the the songs 11 August United States release Bulletproof" was at the 19 position on the US Dance/Club play songs chart. Polydor released La Roux's debut album in the week following La Roux's success in the British music charts.[citation needed]

In order to promote La Roux, the band were the supporting act on Lily Allen's UK tour of March 2009. La Roux headlined the Samsung NME Radar Tour 2009 and played alongside Magistrates, Heartbreak and The Chapman Family. They are also scheduled to perform at the Glastonbury, Reading, Oxegen and Leeds festivals as well as the Scala, Southend Chinnerys and Coventry Kasbah venues. On 22 July La Roux began a North American tour that will last through the 7 August. The 8 city tour will includes performances at the QC Osheaga Festival, All Points West Festival, and the Lollapalooza event. On 23 July the group performed on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show. November will see the duo embark on an 11 date United Kingdom and Ireland tour. La Roux gained fifth position on the BBC's Sound of 2009 poll. The Guardian website featured La Roux on their new band of the day column. The Guardian also featured La Roux as one of the "Best New Acts of 2009" in the January of that year. The album has been nominated for a Mercury Prize.