THE INSIDER: LA ROUX

This weekend, Roxy hosted their seventh annual Chicken Jam, a snowboarding contest and three-day party that sticks professional athletes, fashion editors, and rock royalty at the top of Mammoth California's mountain lodge, then waits to see what happens.

This year, the special musical guest was La Roux, and although Ellie Jackson didn't hit the snowboarding slopes with Olympic gold medalist Torah Bright (preferring to ski with her band, instead), she turned out a roaring full set on Saturday night - all while a blizzard dumped almost ten feet of snow outside.

We grabbed our duck boots and found La Roux just before her concert...

Hi, I'm from NYLON.  Oh, please interview me!  I did a really, really bad interview for NYLON TV last year.  I did it on a bean bag in Marvin's office, and I had my makeup done by this poor guy who didn't know what was going on with me and my style.  He did this fluorescent pink makeup on me, and I was new to the game so I didn't know to say, "Dude, not like that."  I look good, but not like myself, and it just threw me off. I've always wanted NYLON to interview me again so I could say, "Dear readers, definitely forget that interview.  Please!"

You got it.  What are you wearing now? It's definitely not pink eye shadow.  This is a vintage YSL jacket from the late '80s. 

How'd you get to the Roxy Chicken Jam in the middle of a blizzard?  One of the Roxy boarders drove us in from Reno.  The roads were closed, and I woke up at 5 AM, dying to ski, watching the sun rise over the mountains.  I was like, "I can't handle this!"  So we got into the Roxy team car and powered over here.

I'm sad you didn't snowboard with us!  No, you don't want to see me snowboard.  I'm crap.  I love to ski, but the conditions were really harsh today; it was all ice.

How's the new album going?  Yeah, good question.  It's going slowly because we don't believe in rushing.  And nowadays - well probably always, but it's particularly bad now - record labels don't make as much money as they used to anymore, so there's this huge rush factor.  The A&R man want their bonuses and everyone wants to get paid, and you know, that's fair enough, everyone's got lives and mortgages and stuff, but it's not helpful for the greater process.  We didn't rush the first record and we don't intend to rush this one.  You know, we've laid down a few tracks and we've got a lot of ideas but we don't have a set date for it to finish.

I heard a rumor the new album is about old-fashioned sex and romance.  It kind of is about sex!  And yes, old fashioned sex!  It's kind of about romance, too, but it's kind of about exploring the thought process of when you begin to have dark thoughts - well, that sounds a bit too intense and pretentious.  It's not like that!  "It's about the dark side of sex!"  No.  It's more about when you see a lot of character traits in people that you wouldn't notice when you're younger.  I find them really interesting.  It's something when you were a kid, you would think it was awful or never consider, and then you realize the human mind justifies things that aren't right.  Like, "What's it like to have an affair?"  "What would it feel like if I went to see a prostitute?" 

We tried to Twitter you, but it didn't work.  We need to change my Twitter account.  It says it's not me tweeting, but it so is!  Everybody tweet to me!

When we announced on @nylonmag that we were interviewing you, we got so many tweets asking about your hair.  That's so weird!  Okay, it's not so weird, I had a really big quiff and La Roux means "Red Haired One" so there's definitely a hair factor but it's kind of changed.  The quiff's not really there any more, I cut it all off.  The quiff is no more, so we've said goodbye to that chapter of my hair.  I made my hair quite a big thing; it was good to have the hair because people recognized me, but maybe I want to move away from that now.  I want to be less silly and more slick.  My style changed, everything's changed and I don't want to be like that anymore.  I'm done with that now.

What's a fun American thing that you're obsessed with?

Walmart.  We're like, "Oh my god, there's nothing in here except for juice from concentrate."  We love Walmart.  But I want to go to Target next; that's where our records get sold! 

Where's the weirdest place you've ever heard one of your songs?  In a Walmart?  No.  Not that I know of, anyway... where was it?  It was in a restroom in Bulgaria.  How's that for random?

Where do you keep your Grammy?  I don't actually have a Grammy yet.  They took it away from me right after the ceremony; they said it was just a prop and they wouldn't even let my sister take a picture of me and the Grammy with her phone.  I was very confused.  I'd like to back, please.