1984–2005: Early life and career beginnings Hesketh was born in
Blackpool, Lancashire. Her father has a car sales business and her mother is a writer. The oldest sibling with three brothers, she was raised in
Thornton, Lancashire. eventually winning a music scholarship. During this time she was taught how to play the
flute, was a member of the school choir and travelled regularly to
Manchester to take lessons on her harp. Trained initially in classical singing by Janet Wunderley, by the age of thirteen Hesketh was writing her own songs. and then the state
Blackpool Sixth Form College; it was around this time that she entered the
ITV talent competition search
Pop Idol aged sixteen. Reaching the third round, she was eliminated by the producers of the show and did not reach the panel of judges. She stated, "It gave me a thicker skin and it made me realise that it wasn't a short cut to getting where I wanted to be." After singing with the Lancashire Youth Jazz Orchestra and performing with a jazz trio for some time Hesketh decided to prioritise her education and studied
cultural studies at the
University of Leeds, attaining a first-class honours degree. She subsidised her course by playing "awful, schmoozy lounge versions of
Norah Jones songs" in hotels around the north-west. "It paid me loads of money, but it's not what I wanted to be doing" she said. It was during her time at Leeds University that Hesketh, along with two of her fellow students, formed the
all-female band Dead Disco, Hesketh herself eventually becoming the lead singer. Sharing an interest and love of
The Killers,
Ladytron,
The Rapture and
Siouxsie & the Banshees, they formed the
electropunk band
Dead Disco in August 2005, The band got their name through randomly picking words from a hat. With Dead Disco, Hesketh sang lead vocals and played synth, while Catherwood and Franceon played guitar and bass, respectively. With only a few songs written, Dead Disco began playing gigs around the north of England; their live gig in the headline slot at the "In the City" event in
Manchester gained them enough recognition to get a recording stint with
James Ford. Working with Ford in his London attic studio, the band issued a limited release of their debut single "The Treatment" in April 2006 on the record label High Voltage.
2008–2010: Mainstream success, Hands and Illuminations With her departure from Dead Disco in August 2007, Hesketh decided to begin a new solo career in pop. She returned to her parents' house to begin writing her own songs and posting covers on social networking sites such as YouTube and Myspace. Within a year she had narrowed down a list of her songs to create an album and by getting in touch with Greg Kurstin, with whom she had previously worked with Dead Disco, Hesketh started production on her debut album
Hands. In early 2008 she began using the stage name
Little Boots, which came from a nickname given to her by a friend, a reference to her unusually small feet. She shares her nickname with the ancient Roman emperor
Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, who was better known by his nickname
Caligula (Latin for "Little Boot"). After appearing on several shows including
Later... with Jools Holland and
Last Call with Carson Daly, Hesketh entered production on her debut album
Hands. The album was recorded in Los Angeles with Greg Kurstin and
Joe Goddard, and by January 2009 she had begun to compile the album's track listings. With increasing media attention regarding her then-yet-to-be-released debut album, Hesketh topped the
BBC Sound of 2009 poll and received a Critics' Choice nomination at the
2009 BRIT Awards.
Hands was released in June 2009, accompanied by a limited edition 12-inch
vinyl release (limited to 1000 copies). The album peaked at number five on the
UK Albums Chart and has produced the top twenty hit "
New in Town" and top ten hit "
Remedy". The album also did well in Europe and Japan. Also in June 2009, Little Boots released an EP titled
Illuminations in the United States and Canada. It includes "
Stuck on Repeat", "New in Town", "Magical", "
Love Kills" (a cover of
Freddie Mercury's 1984 song) and "Not Now" (which is only available on the US edition). Designed to help relaunch
Elektra Records, the EP peaked at number fourteen on the
Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart. in 2009 Critical response to the album was generally favourable, generating a score of 70 on
Metacritic. In a review for
musicOMH, Michael Cragg called it "a well-crafted, glorious pop record." ClashMusic.com reviewer Joe Zadeh disagreed, writing that the album "falls victim to attempts to reach beyond more boundaries than necessary, and thus ironically loses the concentration of the more earnest listener." David Renshaw of
Gigwise.com described
Hands as "a big pop album" that "rival[s]
Lady Gaga,
Girls Aloud or
Lily Allen." Ben Thompson of
The Guardian wrote that the album's production was "diverse" and called the song "Symmetry", a duet with
Philip Oakey, a "joyous cross-generational head-to-head."
NME reviewer Emily Mackay wrote that "Little Boots gives us an inspiring story of self-realization" and called the album "brilliant". Pete Paphides of
The Times named "Stuck on Repeat" the album's "best moment" due to its "exquisite vulnerability". Little Boots was also nominated for Critics' Choice at the
2009 Brit Awards. and was named a 2009 artist to watch by American magazine
Rolling Stone. The artwork for the album has been compared to
Pink Floyd's 1973 album
The Dark Side of the Moon because of its geometric design and fairytale imagery. The album was released in the United States on 2 March 2010, debuting at number seven on the
Heatseekers Albums chart. With the release of her debut, she became linked to a recent wave of breakthrough female artists in their twenties playing 1980s-influenced music, including
Lady Gaga,
Ladyhawke,
Florence and the Machine and
Elly Jackson of
La Roux.
2010–2013: Nocturnes In an interview with music website
Artistdirect in March 2010, Little Boots stated that her second album would be "rawer and a bit more down-to-earth. It'll still be magical, but quite dark and spooky at the same time." She added that she had drawn inspiration from the poetry of
Edgar Allan Poe. In May 2011, she performed at China Music Valley Music Festival in Beijing, during which she performed a new song called "Crescendo". In late September 2011, Little Boots performed several old and new songs acoustically at the
Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles. In October 2011, she released a mixtape called
Shake Until Your Heart Breaks and announced that she would embark on an international DJ tour to promote her new material. She released the song "
Shake" digitally and on a limited edition vinyl in November 2011. Little Boots collaborated with English electronic producer
Michael Woods on the song "I Wish", which premiered during Woods's set on
BBC Radio 1's
Essential Mix on in December 2011. , May 2013 Little Boots unveiled her third mixtape,
Into the Future, in March 2012 via her official
SoundCloud page. The mix includes re-workings of
Azari & III's "Reckless with Your Love" and
Kylie Minogue's "
Slow", and a Tensnake remix of "
Every Night I Say a Prayer", a song she wrote with Andy Butler of
Hercules and Love Affair. "Every Night I Say a Prayer" was released in April 2012 as a free digital download and—to coincide with
Record Store Day—on limited 12-inch vinyl via 679 and
Trax Records. She supported the launch with a short live set at
Rough Trade East in London. This was followed by "
Headphones", released in June 2012, with the accompanying music video inspired by
Paris, Texas. Little Boots toured internationally in late 2012, including performances at San Francisco's
Folsom Street Fair and
Ibiza's
Space. In January 2013, Little Boots released two tracks on vinyl, "Superstitious Heart" and "Whatever Makes You Happy", under the pseudonym
LB. Her second album,
Nocturnes, was released in May 2013 and features the singles "Shake", "Every Night I Say a Prayer" and "
Broken Record". In an interview with
This Is Fake DIY, Little Boots said of the album: "I feel a lot more at peace about where I'm at creatively as an artist now than a year or so ago [...] I think everyone is always nervous releasing anything they've created into the world, but I've realised what I want to do and how I can achieve it, rather than trying to please other people." Sonically, she stated
Nocturnes "definitely feels more representative of me of an artist, at least now in 2012. It's less 80s synth pop influenced, it's quite an upbeat album, which I think has stemmed from the fact I have been DJing a lot, and listening to a lot of dance music." She has also characterised the album as "still electronic but draws a lot more influences from early house music and classic disco."
2014–2017: Business Pleasure, Working Girl and After Hours Little Boots released her fifth EP,
Business Pleasure, in December 2014. The lead single, "Taste It", premiered the preceding month. Her third studio album,
Working Girl, was released in July 2015 via her own label, On Repeat Records. In August 2015 it was announced that she had collaborated with
Jean-Michel Jarre on the track "If..!" from the album
Electronica. The track was released as a single ahead of the release of the album with accompanying promotional video. A remix competition for the track was also announced on the
Talenthouse website. In June 2016 Little Boots announced her sixth EP titled
After Hours as a continuation of her Working Girl era. The lead single
Staring at the Sun was released on worldwide on 3 June 2016 with the EP being released on 17 June 2016.
2018–2019: EPs and 10th Anniversary reissue of Hands Little Boots released her seventh EP
Burn on 6 April 2018. The EP features 4 songs, all of which are collaborative efforts with female producers. The EP was preceded by single "Shadows". In September 2019, she announced a 10th-anniversary re-issue of
Hands, accompanied by "Echoes", unreleased demos, rarities and B-sides. "'Echoes' was due to be a follow-up single after 'Hands'," she explained. "It was co-written with RedOne who I wrote 'Remedy' with, and who'd been working on a lot of the early
Gaga stuff at the time. It's super pop and 80s and fans loved it when I played it live. Given it took on almost mythical status on fan forums I'm very happy to be able to finally share the song decades later." In a November 2019 interview with
The Guardian,
Spice Girl Melanie C revealed she has been working with Little Boots on Chisholm's upcoming eighth studio album. That same year, she released her eighth EP,
Jump.
2020–present: ABBA Voyage and ''Tomorrow's Yesterdays'' After joining
ABBA Voyage in 2021, Little Boots announced that she would be releasing her fourth studio album, and unveiled its lead single "Silver Ballons". ''
Tomorrow's Yesterdays was released on 18 March 2022, seven years after Working Girl'' (2015). It was solely written and produced by herself.{{cite web|url=https://retropopmagazine.com/little-boots-fourth-album-tomorrows-yesterdays/|title=Little Boots announces fourth album 'Tomorrow's Yesterdays' == Musicianship and influences ==