Forget Alexandra Burke’s illegal brother, and whether Becks is really shagging Giorgio Armani’s niece. Right now Crazy Cousinz are the most incitive thing in the UK. Over the past year they fronted the funky house revolution: their deep, quirky house is an unmistakable trademark in an about turn from the witless funky house of yesterday.
In the process they caught the attention of Harry Hill, who when he saw Calista vocalling to ‘Bongo Jam’ on Big Brother’s Young Talent, failed to make a punchline about it; Kelly Rowland, who sang their praises on Choice FM; and most importantly of all that rowdy behemoth the national youth, who are all writing ‘Oi Do You Mind!?’ a lot on Kyla’s Facebook page.
Oh yeah and ‘Do You Mind’ recently got playlisted on Radio One, which probably means some major label will come along soon and try and make them do some soft rock collaboration with a guy who sings like Chris Martin.
Anyway there was a couple of things I really needed to know so I asked Kyla:
How did you get involved with Crazy Cousinz?
I did a video called ‘Be What I Wanna Be’ and Paleface saw it and got in touch saying "I really love your voice." So we did ‘Do You Mind’. It was originally an electro beat but he didn’t like that so he made it into a bassline track. And then Ministry signed it (for their compilation The Sound of Bassline) and they asked us who we would like to remix it, so we got Flukes to do the remix, and that’s how Crazy Cousinz started. Flukes and Paleface are actually cousins. There’s 4 producers, Paleface, Flukes, Kody, and Play.
Whose idea were the lyrics?
The lyrics was me and Paleface. When we got into the studio we were just vibesing, we’d already done 1 track called ‘Think About You’ and we were just joking about going ‘Do you mind?’ and it turned into a song.
And um… What does your mum think?!
My mum is so proud! When she heard the lyrics, even though it’s saying "Do You Mind" it’s open to people’s interpretation, I’ve met people who take it different ways! It could be a friend it could be anything. My mum’s proud of how well it’s done.
There’s loads of big female vocalists coming up in funky, what’s the vibe like between you all, is it bitchy?
I’m really friendly! I’ve met Baby Katy, she’s absolutely lovely. It depends on the person. The female vocalists I’ve heard are all brilliant. I also know a lot of female vocalists in other genres and I’ve never met anyone that’s been funny.
Oh I was thinking there could be beef like between grime MCs.
Yeah but funky’s got that really nice vibe to it. I’ve met some really good female vocalists who I’d like to work with actually. I’m not just a funky house singer.
Yeah I was listening to some of your tracks on your myspace.
Yeah on my myspace it’s all different. If I’m feeling a beat I’ll just write to it. Like dubstep or something.
Where did you get that jacket you wear in the video (for ‘Do You Mind’)?
I don’t know where the jacket was from! Loads of people have been asking me that! My stylist got it. We hired her for the day, she dresses me up for big events and we just saw some pictures of what the club was gonna look like inside. I got to keep it, that was an even bigger blessing.
Who was your stylist?
Her name was Becky, I think she did a programme on BBC One.
Did you know you have been compared to the Neptunes?
That’s brilliant! I really like the Neptunes.
If you were gonna be one of the women they’ve worked with who would it be?
Hmmm. I love that Alesha Dixon song. They’ve worked with so many people. All I can say is if the Neptunes wrote me a song I’d be so happy I’d be jumping around the room.
Have you seen that Harry Hill clip about Bongo Jam on youtube?
Yeah we all did. It’s really good! Because before ‘Do You Mind’ came out, just before Calista went into the Big Brother House, Calista wasn’t allowed to say she was going into the house. Flukes got filmed just before she went in but he wasn’t told it was for Big Brother, we only found out 2 days before she was going in the house. But when we saw what it was like, it didn’t matter whether it was negative because it still got people’s attention. Just to think that caught Harry Hill’s attention was really funny!
