Little Boots

Little Boots

Little Boots is the stage name of Victoria Christina Hesketh, a singer-songwriter from Blackpool, United Kingdom, born in 1984. She works in dance-pop, disco, electropop, house, pop and synth-pop, and plays piano, keyboards, synthesizer, stylophone and the Tenori-on, a Japanese electronic instrument.

Early career

Hesketh takes her stage name from a nickname based on her unusually small feet. After returning to college to focus on her studies, she forms the electronic and indie pop group Dead Disco in 2005 with two fellow students. The band issues four singles in limited releases, but she leaves because of different ideas about the group’s musical direction.

Solo work

As a solo artist, she writes her own songs and posts covers on social networking sites including YouTube and MySpace. She appears on television shows such as Later... with Jools Holland and Last Call with Carson Daly, and then begins work on her debut album. She gains wider attention before the album is released, tops the BBC Sound of 2009 poll and receives a BRIT Critics Choice nomination.

Her debut album, Hands, is released on 679 Recordings and Atlantic Records and reaches number five on the UK Albums Chart and number twenty on the Irish Albums Chart. The album includes “Symmetry”, a collaboration with Phil Oakey of The Human League. Its first single, “New in Town”, becomes a top twenty hit, and “Remedy”, produced by RedOne, reaches the top ten. She also releases the EP Illuminations in the United States.

Her second album, Nocturnes, is released on her own label, On Repeat.

Influences and context

Hesketh cites The Human League, Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears and Jean-Michel Jarre as influences. She is associated with a wave of breakthrough female artists making 1980s-influenced music, alongside Lady Gaga, Ladyhawke, Florence and the Machine and Elly Jackson of La Roux.