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As the voice of Angel City, Lara McAllen has been in the US to promote her
Hot 100 hit "Love Me Right." This UK Top 10 piece of delicious eurodance pop
samples Ready for the World's "Oh Sheila" and is making its way onto radio
stations all over the United States.
DJ Ron Slomowicz: Is this your first time in the United States?
Lara McAllen: Yes, it's the first time that I've been here at all and I'm quite
excited. I got here and it was really sunny but now it's snowing.
RS: What have you been doing over there since you got into town?
Lara: We've been doing radio shows and rehearsing with a couple of dancers for
tonight. We're performing tonight and for the rest of the week I am here.
RS: That's awesome. How did you get started as a singer?
Lara: I've been a singer/dancer since I was tiny, and then, when I got to about
eighteen I thought 'OK, I'm going to start recording.' I started dong some
sessions and things like that. Then I toured with Shakira for a bit in the UK as
a backing singer/dancer, and then the whole Angel City thing came up and I went
'OK, I'll do that,' so that's how it all started really.
RS: When you were touring with Shakira, what did you learn from her?
Lara: Basically just to work really hard, because she works so hard! I was
really shocked because she's just 'work, work, work, and be focused and try your
best, really.'
RS: Awesome. I've seen you've sung on other DJ tracks, like on a track with DJ
Tonka called "Get Back."
Lara: Oh right, yes, that was a while ago actually. I recorded that at least a
year ago and it's just now surfaced and they're releasing it now in Europe. Now
I'm sticking with the Angel City thing because that's a lot of hard work at the
moment.
RS: And how did you meet up with the Angel City guys?
Lara: Well, Angel City is not really a set of people, it's more the project
name. So really, Angel City's only really me and then different producers work
on all the different tracks, if you see what I mean. I met the whole thing
through Ministry of Sound and they came to our producers and said look, we've
got this track, can you do that, so that's how it came about.
RS: What's coming next from Angel City?
Lara: In the UK we're just about to release our second single and we're working
really hard on the album. So I'm hoping that the album might come over here
because there's some great songs on it, so hopefully you guys will like it.
RS: What's the second single called?
Lara: It's called Touch Me.
RS: Sounds nice.
Lara: Yes- anywhere. So yes, so I'm hoping that will come this year, depending
on how the first one goes down.
RS: Well it's going down really well! You're on the radio and got a Hot 100 pop
hit!
Lara: Wow, its so exciting and I was quite shocked actually. My management told
me I was going to America and I was like 'really?' So yes, it really good.
RS: Because dance records rarely make the hot one hundred over here… and this
week you moved ninety-seven to ninety-five on the chart…
Lara: Oh really...
RS: Which is incredible.
Lara: OK, because I don't really know how it works. I've been trying to learn
from everybody little bits and pieces because it's so different from the UK. But
OK, if you say that's good then I will take your word for it.
RS: To give you some idea about other dance records, DJ Sammy made top 10, Lasgo
made the top 40 and only Ian Van Dahl and Roc Project have made the hot 100 in
the past couple of years.
Lara: Oh, wow that's exciting.
RS: You're moving up the Hot 100, because it's based on air play and radio
stations playing your record more and more..
Lara: OK, so you can move up it.
RS: Oh, definitely. I wanted to ask you about the video for "Love Me Right"
because I wanted to know what the story was with all those stuffed little dolls?
Lara: Oh my God, I don't even get that either. Basically it was somebody's idea
in England from a poster or a photographer who did this photography with loads
of stuffed animals. I don't know what that has to do with our track but they
were like 'OK, well we're just going to lie you in a bed of stuffed animals.' It
was actually quite stressful because they were so itchy and the lighting was
right next to my head and boiling hot. I was just getting hot and itchy and then
my eyes were streaming because they were trying to cool me down with a fan. I
didn't like those teddy bears, but maybe they're bright I guess, they're
colorful but it has no actual proper purpose I don't think.
RS: Did you get to keep one as a souvenir?
Lara: No, I didn't. But they were the most horrible little teddy bears I've ever
seen before and some of them didn't have eyes. So, no, I didn't keep any of
those.
RS: With your touring, what's the biggest crowd you've played to in the UK
and Europe?
Lara: Probably about twenty thousand people in the big open-air sort of things.
We did a lot of TV and stuff and it was strange because the track in the UK
seemed to grow after it had been released, so it started getting loads more
airtime and we started doing more performances and things. Hopefully with Touch
Me as well there will be loads more to do, because it's been lots of fun.
RS: I follow the UK and sometimes a club record will come out, it will do OK,
and then like six months later it will come out again and it'll be huge.
Lara: Oh right, it's a bit of a funny one in the UK. I mean it works so
differently here, but yes, that seems to be how it goes sometimes.
RS: What's your favorite remix of the song?
Lara: You know, my favorite version of it is really the original mix because I'm
not really as much into the remixes as I was the original song.
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That sounds really bad doesn't it, but I prefer just the extended mix of the
original.
RS: When you perform the song live, do you ever sing the original "Oh Sheila"
vocals?
Lara: No I don't, because it's so different, isn't it? When I first recorded it
I hadn't heard the original before we turned it into what it is now. When I
heard it I was like oh my God, it's just nothing like it, and you wouldn't
really connect the two. But no, I never sing the original vocals.
RS: OK. I'm going to ask you a really personal question. In researching you and
your music, I found some stuff where you had a hip operation when you were
really young.
Lara: Yes, that got a little bit overblown in the UK press. What had actually
happened was when I was born I didn't have a left hip - the socket and the
joint, they hadn't formed properly. They'd got dislocated really early and then
no one discovered it until I was like two years old. So instead of it being easy
to correct and having an operation, they put me in plaster casts from just under
my arms right to the tips of my toes, and I was sort of just laid out on these
splints in plaster cast for a year and a half. Luckily enough, my hip then
forged in, but they said I'd never dance or anything like that. But I do dance,
so I proved them wrong.
RS: Well that goes back to you being a hard worker again.
Lara: Yes, I guess so. When I was five, I said oh mum, I want to do ballet, and
my mum was like oh, I don't think you really can. But the surgeon said it was
cool to do that and we just worked it out. I haven't had any problems with that,
touch wood, but it's not like I was born with like no legs or anything, it was
just a bit exaggerated.
RS: Those British press people.
Lara: I know, they always seem to come out with anything don't they.
RS: Is there anything you want to say to all the people out there?
Lara: Basically that I'm really, really grateful that people are getting into
the track and that the stations are playing it. It's been really surprising and
we're very, very grateful indeed. Keep your ears open and you will hear more
from me and Angel City.
Lara McAllen (born 1983) is the singer for the dance/electronic music project
Angel City. She began dancing at age 5, and followed up by becoming a backing
dancer for the pop singer Shakira at 18. She then pursued her career as a dance
music singer with Angel City. Lara was originally featured as a guest vocalist
and later joined the group as the lead singer on all the tracks on the debut
album "Love Me Right". She is currently working on a solo album. Lara was asked
by Ministry of Sound to co-write and perform a new Angel City single, to be
released in May 2007.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
Year Album Artist Details UK UK Sales
2005 Love Me Right Angel City #44 50.000
[edit] Singles
Year Single Artist Details UK UK Dance US US Dance
2003 Free (Let It Be) Stuart Featuring Lara McAllen #41 #7 -- --
2003 Get Back Tonka Featuring Lara McAllen -- #14 -- #32
2003 Love Me Right (Oh Sheila) Angel City #11 #1 #93 #1
2004 Touch Me Angel City #18 #2 -- --
2005 Do You Know (I Go Crazy) Angel City #8 #1 -- #47
2005 Sunrise Angel City #9 #1 -- --
2007 Bodyrock Beam Featuring Lara McAllen -- #40 -- --
2007 24/7 Angel City TBA TBA TBA TBA
[edit] External links
Lara McAllen is managed by Active Music Management activemm@btopenworld.com
Insanity Artists Agency Ltd.
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