LA ROUX.

After a tumultuous six year hiatus that included (but was not limited to) getting dropped from her label, ending a decade-long relationship with her girlfriend, and ultimately scrapping an entire album that had been three years in the making, Elly Jackson has finally returned to the spotlight with a brilliant new record, Supervision, and the confidence to talk openly about her sexuality - an aspect of her private life she’s previously hesitated on. It turns out having your life flipped upside down and going it solo can actually be a good thing, in the long run.

“It’s not for everyone, which was explained to me in great detail before I made this decision, but I'm a control freak,” she says of her decision to forgo major labels and remain independent this time around. “You're not constantly having to run things by people you don't even know that well. That’s something I found really difficult about being part of a major label, you'd build a relationship and then they'd move to another record company, so you're like, 'Great, thanks arsehole', and you just get lumped with whoever. This way, the relationships are tighter, the communication is better, and all of that stuff helps keep me really calm. But if you need to be wined and dined and schmoozed and all of that shit, don't [go independent], because it’s not there.”

In a world of media-trained artists and - as Elly herself puts it - “everybody wanting to be everybody’s favourite person and be loved and liked by everyone”, the frontwoman of former duo La Roux remains blunt and unflinching as ever when it comes to her opinions, though she admits she’d now rather be at home making music in her kitchen than critiquing fellow musicians. “I'm not the hateful, judgemental bitch I was when I was 21 anymore,” she laughs. “I'm really not. I think I just