Cher Lloyd Reveals New Album Executive Produced By Shellback, Will Be Less Glittery: Idolator Interview

emilytan | June 21, 2013 8:39 am

When British breakout Cher Lloyd brought her music to our American soil, we quickly fell for the X Factor UK alum. Songs like “Swagger Jagger” and “With Ur Love” hit airwaves in 2012, helping her debut album, Sticks and Stones, peak at number nine on the Billboard Hot 200. Although the album has only been out in the US since October, the material has been floating around her motherland since 2011, which is why she’s eager to get some new material out. Lloyd told us she’s still unsure about when that’ll happen, but is hoping people will hear new music by the fall.

“I am trying to make these lovely people wearing suits bring it out quicker just because I owe it to the fans,” she said. “They have been waiting very patiently, and I feel I’ve worked really, really hard on this one — not that I didn’t work hard on the last one, but I’ve been a lot more involved. Hopefully I’m looking at September. So that’s pretty soon.”

While the details around the release date are still in the works, Lloyd was adamant about the fact that we’ll be seeing a different side of her, thanks to the well-known Swedish producers she has enlisted and the British sounds she’s tapping into.

“I’m very excited about the [new] album,” she said. “I’ve slightly veered off a little bit from this sort of bubblegum pop stuff I used to do. I feel like I’ve grown a lot over the past couple of years. So I think it’s time for me to venture out and not play it safe anymore. You might hear some crazy stuff very soon – maybe a bit of garage, a bit of drum and bass. I’m bringing my English back!”

And with these new directions Lloyd promises to take on the new record, she explained how the approach is different from her first album. “On the first record, you kind of do the nodding, ‘OK, OK,’ because you don’t necessarily have the right to be like, ‘I want this, and I want that,’” she said. “On the second record, I’m like ‘OK, I’m going away for a while to do my stuff and then present it to you,’ and that’s what I did.”

Lloyd was mum about who she may have been sharing the mic with on the sophomore album, but she did reveal that she got a lot of help from the Swedes – her latest musical obsession. “I feel like it’s working with certain producers,” she said. “I’m absolutely obsessed with the Swedish crowd. I think my whole album is basically Swedish people.”

There’s one Swede in particular she’s really excited to have worked with – Shellback. “I’m extremely lucky to have Shellback to executive produce my whole album,” she revealed gleefully. “Extremely lucky. When I think about it, I’m like, ‘Wow, what’s going on? What happened?’ I must have smiled a lot at him or something.”

She continued, “People are going to be very shocked. I’m not the young pop girl I used to be. I’m growing, and I’m changing. The fans are doing that with me, too, and I can’t be dressed up in bright pink forever. I can’t have glitter on my eyes forever. I need to grow up and need to do the stuff that makes me hungry and makes me want this really bad – that’s to move on and outside the box.”

As we wait for the new album or single to come out, Lloyd has been busy this past spring. She got into the studio with R.E.D. artist Ne-Yo to record an original song for frozen fruit treat company, Fruttare. Their song, “It’s All Good,” was released this week and, as we know with his work with Jessica Sanchez, Ne-Yo has a knack for grooming up-and-coming artists.

“We’re both chilled out people, just very chill,” she revealed. “If you tend to cause drama, UGH. I don’t want none of that. Life could get hard enough with having to be in a hundred places at the same time without causing more hassle for yourself.” The only thing that the two had get used to was the fact that the song’s inspiration doesn’t come from them but from fans who sent their suggestions via social media. As daunting as that could get for the artists, Lloyd assured us that they knew which ideas to use and which ones would just take the song over the edge.

“I feel like we as artists known when something’s crossed the line,” she said. “I really dislike overdone pop. I mean I know my stuff’s a little bit cheese, but it’s not so far to the point where you’re like, ‘Wow, that’s like UGH.’ So of course, if we wanted to we could have made it so super cheesy. But I don’t feel like that’s our style. It would be very typical to go that route.”

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