Hackney People
Anita Blay - CocknBullKid
There's a rumour about Anita Blay: while working on a shoot, a photographer - not completely happy with the results - asked 'can you sit more. urban?'
"It's true," says the Homerton resident, combining laughter with a hint of lament. Adding: "I was doing a shoot for. a publication that should've known better. When he realised what he'd said he went, 'um, just look more relaxed'. To this day I'm not sure what he meant."
But Anita, also known as CocknBullKid, was never one to let others dictate who she is. Like so many musicians of the last decade she was tipped for stardom after releasing a string of infectious songs on social media websites from her bedroom. Audiences loved her lo-fi synth-pop and expected big things on a wave of 80s Casio keyboards, shoulder pads and back-combing. Then she disappeared. For two years.
"I needed to craft what I was doing and I didn't want to be lumped in with that electronic sound," she says.
Adding: "It's overwhelming to see things about yourself and not even be sure what you're trying to do. So I didn't read music magazines or listen to new music for 18 months. I decided to go away to find out what I wanted."
A Hackney and Walthamstow local all her life, Anita has always been fascinated with tales - hence the moniker - remembering writing stories for her classmates at St Scholastica Primary School in E5.
This developed into song writing and while she didn't play any instruments, she could sing. "I had a digital keyboard; I'd just end up writing pop songs to a bossa nova preset," she says.
Entering singing competitions was the focus of her early years, as well as dancing to her then favourite group Eternal, but the turning point was joining North London youth studio Tribal Tree - which Plan B and a third of N-Dubz had attended.
She says: "After I left I bought a laptop, started making music and just uploaded everything on to MySpace. I wasn't a producer, but I hoped people would recognise what I was trying to do and help me achieve it. I'm still working with some of them, and it's how I got a press team, manager; it was quite a crucial tool."
The first release 'On My Own' was as fashionable as they come, uber-cool and glitchy, it earnt her a spot on 'Later With Jools Holland' when she was still unsigned. But for the singer it was all work in progress. Although proud of her Hackney roots - she describes The Lauriston pub, Last Tuesday Society and Mare Street's Turkish restaurants as some of her favourite haunts - she says she wanted to make music that reached people who weren't just in E9.
Now back with the album 'Adulthood' - think Abba meets Morrissey - it's enthusiastic, emotional, full of instruments; at heart a real pop record.
"There was a lot of self discovery. A lot of people say I sound different, I think I do too. Some say the album is pop with dark lyrics as if they're at odds, but I don't see it as a contradiction," she says.
How is she dealing with the media attention this time? "I'm coping fine.
I've been waiting five years now, I'm ready. Even with Tribal Tree we were thrown into the deep end with 10 A&Rs in a room and you just had to sing your soul out."
With help from producers Chilly Gonzales, Leon Howes, and writers who had worked with Florence and the Machine and Marina and the Diamonds, she believes she's matured to create an 'honest' album. "I think I've found my voice," she declares.
Curriculum vitae
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1985 Born in Clapton
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1998 Joins Tribal Tree, Camden
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2006 Releases first single 'On My Own'2008 Appears on 'Later With Jools Holland'
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2009 Signs to Island Records
- 2011 Releases first album 'Adulthood'
More information
Single 'Hold On To Your Misery' is out now. Visit: www.cocknbullkid.com
Page updated: 14 Apr 2011
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