- All my free time in the Sugababes was spent in the studio, I loved getting involved.
- I was a bit of a nightmare when I was younger. I was incredibly shy and introverted, a bit of a walkover.
- When Ghosts came out, it didn't go on a new release shelf in any shop because it got delivered and there'd been a mistake on the production line. I've never heard the music that was on the CDs, but it wasn't my album. When the stores were told about it, the album was lifted off the shelves and taken back. By the time it was ready, a lot of the stores didn't take it back because they were pissed off.
- We [Sugababes] didn't have a laugh. We didn't go out together as a band. I was trying to enjoy myself but everyone else made it so complicated.
- Being one of three sisters, I'm used to two ganging up on one. But at home I always knew the dynamic would change, it was never the same two. In Sugababes it was always those two and then... me. I was bewildered. Why couldn't we all just get on? Travelling the world... why couldn't it have been fun?
- [Her desperation and confusion were enhanced by Roaccutane, an effective acne drug but with dramatic side effects thought to include severe depression.] I didn't know what was wrong with me. I thought I was crazy. Going mad. [nervous laugh] I was convinced they'd throw me in a mental institution. [She claims that no one from the record company or management - whom she refers to as 'the adults' - made any attempt to look after her.] Even though I was obviously feeling low, I was left to fend for myself. No one gave two fucks about me.
- We did have a falling out in Japan, me and Keisha. But. I dunno. It was just never good. Right from the start. We just didn't get on. We ignored each other and went about our business. It was very much a working relationship and we couldn't even work at that. You know all those photos of us refusing to smile? I was just really unhappy and I couldn't be arsed.
- I was 12 when I met the manager, 14 when I met the girls, 16 on the first release, 17 when I left. At which point I was happy never to work again. I had got to the point where I'd look in the mirror and not know who I was. I felt like I didn't have a personality. I'd lost my identity... [nervous, self-conscious laugh] I felt like a zombie. A dead person.
- [2003] I look forward to going to work now - it's scary. I really didn't before. There were days when I'd cry and think, "Can I give you all my money not to have to turn up?" I think maybe if I was older I would have dealt with it better... but I'm having a great time in the studio now. We have a laugh, get pissed together.
- [When she arrived in England after quitting the band, she returned to her family's home in Eastcote, Middlesex. She never wanted to make music again.] My life came to a complete stop. I came home and my family were in Ireland for the first anniversary of my nan's death. I missed that, which was crap. So I came home to an empty house and just sat there. I can't imagine being any lower. I wouldn't know how else to describe it other than as a breakdown.
- If I'd still been in that band, I wouldn't have given a fuck that I was number one.
- This record [Revolution in Me] is the first thing in my life that I feel really proud of. It's a piece of me. I hope people appreciate my honesty; there aren't too many honest records out there. You know, I really believe in fate and karma. Bad things will happen to you sooner or later. It will come round and bite them in the arse.
- Although, I miss the end seat of each carriage that had high chair backs so you could sneak a ciggie with your mates on the way to school!
- I make left field pop music, and it's a difficult genre to be in because it's not straight pop, it's not alternative, and it's quite hard to market. You have to push it and work it.
- We didn't meet at a party, which is what they always say. I don't think that this is going to blow the myth for everybody. I like this story, it is much more interesting. I met my manager Ron Tom when I was twelve. He was my best friend's brother-in-law. He met Mutya's father in a supermarket. Mutya's father told him how much his daughter could sing and Ron drove round to the house. Mutya sang and, of course, she's got an amazing voice. So he signed us two as solo artists. We met each other when we were doing this acapella gig, somewhere on All Saints Road, I think. A showcase for his friend. I am sure that there were some industry people there. This was when I was thirteen, or something. Me and Mutya really liked each other. We heard each other sing and said "OK, let's do a duet." A duet with Don E. We did that and wanted to carry on working with each other, so we started a new song. And then, I think Keisha had asked Mutya if she could visit the studio with her. So she did, and suddenly we were a band. It wasn't any of our decision. Ron Tom just said "Right, you're gonna to be in a band". We were like "Really?" He was like "Yeah. It's like United Colors of Benetton. It's genius. You're gonna be called Sugababes".
- Well, if you give too much away, you lose yourself. You've got to keep a bit back.
- I don't often dress up. But I thought I should make an effort for you [journalist Andreas Soteriou of PonyStep] today.
- Oh, we were teenagers. We were just a bit grumpy.
- It's difficult to leave a band and then make sort of a solo career. I left for a very good reason and I've never for a second wanted to go back there.
- [2009] Well, someone that I am really fond of is Mutya. I saw her not long ago at a party. There's just something between me and her that is like... We take the piss out of each other in quite a camp way. I'll be telling her to go and have another fag and she'll [be] saying to go and have another glass of wine to me. We just laugh at each other. [Do your paths often cross unexpectedly, then?] Yes. It's nice because we don't force some huge, long-lasting friendship on each other because I do think we are worlds apart. But that's kind of what we quite like about each other. And we have shared a history together. It's funny, me and Mutya did the best bit of our bonding in the last three weeks before I left the band.
- [2009] [What is interesting about your departure is that, looking back, it was the catalyst for what they (Sugababes) are today. An ever-evolving pop project. They have changed their line-up, image and sound to the extent where they are essentially a completely different band to the one you started out in. In theory, they could keep to that formula and stick around for years.] I think they will. I think when I left and especially when Mutya left, the last bit of steadfastness went. The band is so malleable. They are just three people that will be maneuvered by the people around them. That's why I can never look to their success and admire it or want that. Whatever producer they work with, they sound like. Whatever photographer they work with, they look like their work. I think that works for pop, but you can lose your soul in that. "Who are you?" "What do you write about?" How have they been on the scene for so long and people not know anything about them? That works as a product but that's never what I wanted.
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