Louise Bagan and Aisha Stuart aka Addicitve burst onto the scene last year with their bassline banger “Gonna be mine”. Their latest mixtape “They Wonna Wife Me” out now, I went and caught up with the girls in Funky Bhudda for a chat about, well you know, music and girly stuff…
Loukia: So how are you ladies?
Addicitve: All good thanks. Excited about the new mixtape and just everything really…
Tell us how did ‘Addictive’ came about?
Addicitve: Addictive started about 5 years ago we were at a bar in Shoreditch called Troy bar – it’s a live band kind of place. Louise was on stage singing Silent Night because it was Christmas week and I invited Aisha on the stage and we kind of just sang and blew the house down. From then we just started writing together and performing. It was really organic is wasn’t like ok then lets be a group and call it Addictive, it was a process.
Louise: We both grew up in Plaistow, we had mutual friends and Aisha used to go school with my cousin. We both sang so you know in that world everyone knows everyone.
Aisha: In east London you always know the singers, you kind of bump into each other along the way.
Gonna Be Mine was a big bassline track. Have you always like the music scene outside of London?
Addictive: At that time when we did the track we were raving up there (North/Midlands) and we were part of that scene, so it was only natural that we got some tracks sent to us. We wrote to them and it was a hit so happy days!
Do you like having each other around as opposed to pursuing solo careers?
Addictive: Yeh it’s nice to have each other, especially when we’re abroad and on trips. You get home sick anyway so imagine being on your own. We love being a pair.
Who were your musical influences?
Louise: I grew up on country music and stuff because my parents are Scottish, that’s what I listened to – Patsy Cline, Connie Francis. But once I really knew what I wanted to sing, my influences were Michael Jackson, Destiny’s Child, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey – I know they’re all clichéd but it’s true.
Aisha: Mine too really. I loved Grace Jones and I grew up around a lot of Caribbean soca and reggae so they really influenced me too.
And what’s it like being 2 women in this male dominated industry?
Aisha: Its so dominated by the males but at the moment I think it’s a good time for us to come through as ladies, definitely.
Louise: If you look in the charts now, there are lots of UK acts that are all from the same place as us and we’ve got to represent for the ladies you know what I mean. I’m all for the other female acts that are out there to come through and do it, because the guys did it so now we got to do it.
Do you feel this makes your image important?
Addicitve: Most definitely. It’s a pressure as a female, but even more pressure as a female artist to look a certain way in this industry and that’s it. I think that because we have so much input in what we wear we feel comfortable. We have a really good relationship with our stylist so we work together on everything – photos, videos, hair, makeup, clothes, everything. Because we’ve done so many shoots we know what we like and so do the people we work with – we work with our personalities.
Is it an honour being part of the UK scene considering it’s recent success?
Aisha: It’s brilliant and not just talent wise either. We want to be business women, we want to stand as real business women not just talented girls that can dance and sing. There’s more to us. And the way the UK scene is now allows us to do just that.
Who do you rate out of your contemporaries?
Louise: for me I would say Jesse James she’s a great singer, but if were talking like people who are already out there I would say Tinie Tempah only because I think he just came in at a different angle.
Aisha: His whole persona, the way he is, his image, everything, – its like he’s just come with something else. His whole attitude is just so good.
Who have you enjoyed working with most?
Addictive: We worked with a guy called Corporal in Atlanta last year and he’s really cool. He’s got credits with EMI. He’s worked with Rihanna for example –he’s really good at what he does and we had so much fun working with him. We got some really good music out of him.
And is there anyone you’d like to work with in the future?
Addictive: We’d love to work with Will.I.Am, and Labrinth. He’s is amazing. We love him.
What’s been the highlight for you so far?
Louise: The highlight for me was actually a few weeks ago when we shot a video in Ayia Napa. We were out there to perform and promote the mixtape so it wasn’t planned but we ended up shooting the video out there – jet skis, the sea, it was amazing.
So your new mixtape is called They Wonna Wife Me. What are your favourite tracks off it?
Aisha: My favourite track is the title track, They Wonna Wife me. It’s a bassline track. It was produced by Burgaboy and its proper grimy.
Louise: For me it’s got to be Bad Girls. I love whole feeling of it and the story behind it. I think it represents us.
So are you bad girls then?
Addictive: [lolz] In some ways we are and in some way we’re not. Louise is the bad one.
Louise: I’m the bad one and even when I try not to be it people still see through me when they meet me. The other day in Ayia Napa we were with a friend out there and he said it. He was like “have you had a lot of fights Louise?” I was like “why would you say that? We’re just sitting here eating dinner!”
Aisha: But it’s definitely part of her personality – she’s rowdy.
And what’s the long term plan?
Addictive: We’re currently sketching our own clothing line – dresses, skirts everything. Stuff that you’d see us in. Obviously we’ll be releasing new music and hopefully further down the line we’ll have our own business too. Just look out for us!
They Wonna Wife Me is out now!
Music & news to your desktop
