Lancashire electro-pop merchant Little Boots features on the latest single from French producer Boston Bun, Whenever You’re Ready. The atmospheric dance number, which channels the spirit of Ibiza house favourites like Modjo and Sigma, is available to stream and download now. Little Boots (aka Victoria Hesketh) delivers a soulful, melancholic vocal accompaniment on the track, which she co-wrote.
The Blackpool product rose to prominence in 2009 with her Gold-certified debut album Hands, which produced three charting singles – New In Town, Earthquake, and the frantic synth-pop slammer Remedy, which ripped up countless end-of-noughties student discos. Hesketh has yet to replicate her early chart success in the UK, but has been prolific over the last decade; with two further albums and fourteen EP and mixtape releases since Hands. The second and third Little Boots albums, 2013’s Nocturnes and 2014’s Working Girl, both secured Top 20 berths in the US Billboard Dance Charts.
Amidst her frequent work on solo material, Hesketh has also collaborated with an eclectic selection of artists over recent years; from house producers like Sweden’s John Dahlbäck and Oregon’s RAC, to British pop royalty in The Pet Shop Boys and Spice Girls alumna Mel C. This year she also teamed up with American DJ LP Giobbi on Meet Again, which this week surpassed 2 million streams on Spotify.
Meet Again‘s lockdown-inspired lyrics were a Little Boots’ addition, and allude to the similarly-titled standard from the late Dame Vera Lynn (“We’ll go out like we used to do/ We’ll shine bright like the sun and moon/ I know we’ll meet again/ I don’t know where and I don’t know when”). Speaking to UFO Network, Hesketh said “It’s such a simple line, but I felt pulled to share it as a meaningful message across the world to everyone feeling lonely, disconnected or sad.”
Little Boots devotees are also eagerly awaiting the release of the artist’s as-yet-untitled fourth studio album. The songstress has been sharing previews and demos from the new record with fans via online subscription service Patreon – with her move to the platform causing some pushback on social media. Hesketh defended her decision to move to the site on Twitter, saying “I now charge a very small fee for my live streams after doing countless for free in lockdown because I had all of my actual real life shows and income cancelled and got to the point where it felt like I couldn’t keep doing them for nothing.”
On her Patreon account, the singer-songwriter has spoken of the new album as a collaboration with her loyal fanbase. She states: “I want to take you on the whole journey of making this record from start to finish. From the song writing, production and lyric choices, through to production and the recording process, selecting and mixing songs, tracklisting. I want your help with all of it! We’ll also need to come up with and design the visual concepts and artwork, vinyl and other physical merchandise and work out how to perform it all live. I want to share the whole process with you as a songwriter, producer, musician and record label.“
