Little Mix has always been a living example of girl power, but the British gals may have outdone themselves with their fourth LP, Glory Days.

In the year since the group released its previous album, Get Weird, every Little Mix member has been through ups and downs (whether together or individually), experiences that they weren’t just able to channel into songs — they were able to create an album they loved in record time. Billboard got a chance to catch up with the group’s Perrie Edwards and Leigh-Anne Pinnock ahead of the big release, finding out why this album is so special to them and their hopes going into the Glory Days era.

“With Get Weird, it just didn’t seem to be working. Like we couldn’t get the right songs, it just wasn’t jelling,” Pinnock explains. “And this time around, I feel like we just had so much to write about it just happened. It felt natural.”

Agreeing with Pinnock, Edwards piggybacked off the “natural” comment, mentioning how honest everyone was in the songwriting sessions, which resulted in a different concept and production process than they’ve ever had before. There were times when the writing hit a wall, though. Little Mix’s solution? Fro-yo.

During one of their last recording sessions, Edwards explained that the writer they were working with suggested a frozen yogurt run when it seemed like everyone was struggling with their creativity. “So we ordered an Uber, jumped in the car, and stayed at the mall for about half an hour just eating frozen yogurt,” laughs Edwards. Upon returning with full bellies, “We wrote one of our favorite songs on the album in like 10 minutes after that,” Edwards says. “I guess it was the sugar rush.”

A few months after Glory Days hits stores (Nov. 18), Little Mix is set for a trek across North America in support of Ariana Grande, an opportunity for which the girls are extremely excited and grateful. They have yet to figure out the set list for their opening gigs, but Edwards hopes it includes “Touch” — a sexy, danceable track with a bit of a “Hips Don’t Lie”-vibe — while Pinnock is eager to sing heartbreaking ballad “Nobody Like You” because of its powerful vocal moments for each member.

But whatever the girls choose to perform from Glory Days, power moments are bound to happen no matter what. The album is chock-full of them, particularly in songs like the “boy bye” declaration “F.U.,” feisty beat-dropper “Power” and anthemic single “Shout Out to My Ex.”

Although there are tinges of heartbreak and struggles on the album, the overall feeling that resonates from Glory Days is that the Little Mix girls have turned the past year’s hardships into success — coming out stronger, both musically and emotionally, because of it.

“The reason that we called the album Glory Days is because we’re gonna look back on this time and say that it was the glory days, the best time of our life,” Edwards says. “Hopefully our fans can share that with us.”

Adds Pinnock, “We’ve heard a lot of people say that we’ve changed their lives with our music. That’s what we set out to do.”

Source: billboard.com

There’s no better person in the Little Mix universe to talk about this with than Jesy herself. The native from Romford, in East London, is familiar with the lashing tongue of Internet trolls. When talking about online culture, a steady theme of female empowerment laces the Nelson’s musings. It seems that, for her, comfort in her own skin is a top priority.

Jesy spoke to Idolator just days ahead of Glory Days’ release, phoning us up from her management’s London office. She spoke about Little Mix’s upcoming tour with Ariana Grande, Internet trolling and her engagement to Jake Roche from band Rixton. Days after this interview happened, the relationship went under scrutiny after fans noticed Jesy was not donning her engagement ring. Considering the prominent tattoo on her thigh reads, “A tiger never loses sleep over the opinions of sheep,” she’s most likely un-bothered.

Let’s get one thing out of the way: The performance on The X Factor was amazing. It’s totally surprising that it was the first time you all performed in heels.
JESY NELSON: Yes. It was terrifying. It’s really weird because obviously, as a woman, I feel like when any girl wears a pair of heels you just automatically feel sassier and sexier, and you just get a bit more confident. I’m probably going to say we’re not going to do it all the time because we’ve got dance routines that are just full-on and we’d never be able to do some of them routines in heels, but that night’s wasn’t for that long. We’ll definitely keep performing in heels. It feels sassy.

What do you think that whole backlash about what you were wearing was about, really?
JN: Oh, I don’t know. I just think everyone has something negative to say, and I think with four girls who are so confident and we want to rock it with confidence, I just think that’s a great thing. There’s not many girls who feel that confident in the world, and I think we’re all different shapes and sizes, and I think we’re sending out a good message to young girls that it doesn’t matter what size you are — if you feel confident, then you should be able to wear whatever you want. I like that about us.

The whole backlash was a little crazy.
JN: Isn’t it? No one runs at Beyoncé. Everyone praises her and calls her a queen when she comes out in a leotard. No one runs at gymnasts when they’re swinging around the pole doing their Olympics, so why is everyone moaning at us for wearing a leotard? They’re bloody comfortable and they’re easy to move in. Everyone needs to get a grip.

You had a really rough time with Internet trolls in the very beginning. Has it gotten easier? Even a little bit?
JN: I mean, to be honest, I think in the beginning because I’d never — obviously, you’ve got friends in the industry who are so new to everything. I just wasn’t used to seeing all these comments and being able to just have people say stuff about me, about literally the whole world. It was just awful, but I don’t look at that stuff anymore. I just think, “What is the point?” There’s no point in looking at negative stuff when you feel good about yourself and you feel positive. That’s all that should matter. No one else’s opinions matter. If you feel good about yourself then fuck everyone else.

How was the making of Glory Days different from Get Weird? Last time you four scrapped a whole album.
JS: Well, with the last album we just didn’t really know what kind of route we wanted to go. We didn’t really know what sound we wanted to go with, so it was a lot harder. This time around, we knew exactly what we wanted to do. We knew exactly what sound we wanted to go for, so it all kind of came really naturally. We had so much to talk about, it just all happened really quickly and we just knew it was right. We loved every single song. None of them felt like album fillers. It was really, really a much more enjoyable experience this time, I’d say.

What was the vibe like in the room when you all cutting “Shout Out to My Ex”? Some in the group were definitely going through stuff. It must have been amazing.
JN: It was. It was literally like,we just knew when we heard the song this has to be the next single because one, it’s just I feel like no one’s really ever done a song which is about heartbreak that makes you feel good about yourself, that makes you think, “Oh, fuck you. I don’t need you anymore.” That’s what we love about it. You listen to it and it makes you feel empowered, it makes you feel like you don’t need your ex, which we absolutely loved. I just think it’s a proper girl power anthem. When we were cutting it, it was just so amazing. We were so excited. We couldn’t wait for everybody to hear it.

Little Mix came right out of the gate contributing to the songwriting to your albums, which is historically very hard for new pop groups to do. What was the process of you all actually getting into that?
JN: We’re very creative in the fact that we literally are hands-on with everything we do that involves our choreography, the way we dress, the way — just everything. Literally from the very beginning, as soon as we got put together as a group, we knew exactly how we wanted to be perceived. It comes quite easy. We all used to write before, anyway. We used to write our own little songs before the group, so it was never a question of, “Oh, God — I’ve never done this before. This is scary.” What was exciting is knowing that there were four people to be able to experience it with and share stories with and write about our experiences together. We can all relate to the same things, but we’ve all got different stories to tell, and yeah — they all come out in our music, which is really nice. Just knowing that someone across the world can listen to our songs and feel better about themselves and feel more empowered just feels amazing.

Little Mix is heading on tour with Ariana. What are you looking forward to the most?
JN: Oh my gosh. I think one, obviously, getting to connect with her fans and hopefully them becoming our fans. And seeing our fans, as well. Two, just performing in the most epic arenas every night, like being able to play just incredible, iconic venues is just going to be insane. Madison Square Garden’s going to be great, and being able to watch Ariana perform every night because her album — we literally have it on repeat every day, so being able to see her perform is going to be so much fun. We’ve met her a few times, and she’s always been so lovely, but really getting to hopefully become friends with her would be lovely.

You’re engaged, but I was reading about you talking about having no rush into actually getting into the wedding. Were you just getting tired of the question, “When’s the wedding?”
JN: Yes. It’s funny, because when my fiancé proposed to me, he’d never done it like, “We’re getting married tomorrow.” He felt like when he called me his girlfriend, it wasn’t enough. He felt like it really undermined our relationship, and he loved the fact that — I don’t know, he loved the fact that he can say I’m his fiancé instead of just his girlfriend, and I love that. I think that’s really sweet. We’re in no rush. We want to travel the world together. There’s so much we want to do together, and at the moment, we’re so focused on our own careers that there just isn’t time. We’re literally in no rush. I think when we know, we’ll know, and we’ll do it, and [it will] probably be really intimate, hardly any people there. We’re very much in love, and we’ll do it when we feel the time is right.

Source: idolator.com

Everytime we chat to these girls it gets a bit weird… but we never thought it would go THIS FAR!

Often referred to as this generation’s Spice Girls, Little Mix are just on the cusp of releasing their latest album Glory Days. The girls are no newcomers to the FAULT scene, having previously been featured in issue 17– back when Salute was only just being released. It has been a while since and the foursome has surely done some growing up in the meanwhile. We caught up with Little Mix ahead of their album release and here’s their take on the past 5 years of their careers.

You’ve gone a long way since people first saw you on the X Factor. You’ve rocketed to the top, broken records and vanished the jinx of the X-Factor winner. How does it feel to prove everyone wrong?
Perrie: It feels really good. Every little bit of success we get, we feel massively grateful and humbled for it. I don’t think I’ve ever expected to have the success that we have now. But I’m glad we broke that curse for X Factor. We’re very proud of ourselves.

It’s been five years now. What do you think is the most important lesson that you’ve learned over the past five years?
Perrie Just to try and stay grounded with all your family and friends. Hold your loved ones really close. And try to keep your own little circle of friends. It’s hard to trust people in this industry. So yeah, keep all your family close.
Jade To appreciate what we have. I think it’s very easy in this job to think negatively and think low of yourself after working such long hours. We’re always tired, but we have to remember that we’re in a much better position than many other girls. And also – to never underestimate our success.

So straight out of the X Factor – what were the biggest issues that you encountered in the industry?
Leigh-Anne We didn’t have a clue what to expect. When you’re in a show like that, you’re kind of thrown into it in a way that you don’t really have any time to adjust to it. I think we were just really lucky to have each other. Doing that on your own – must be so much pressure. I’m just really happy that I got to have these girls as my comfort blanket.

Was there a specific moment in your careers when you realized that you’re becoming role models for young girls and therefore had a responsibility towards them?
Perrie I think being named role models kind of happened just naturally, we never really asked for it. Which is lovely, I love the fact that girls look up to us and we empower people and inspire them. But obviously, we’re young girls and we’re going to do silly things sometimes that can kind of put pressure on us, but we’re just being ourselves. And if that means that we’re being role models by just being ourselves, then that’s incredible. It’s a massive compliment.

And as so, do you have any particular life stories that you’d like to share with your young audience for them to learn from?
Leigh-Anne Well, both Jade and me had bad skin when we were young. And we used to get teased. And at the time – you think it’s the worst thing in the world. What I would say to anyone that is suffering from it is the fact that it will go away and it’s not the end of the world.

As women in the public eye working in an industry that constantly scrutinizes people – women first and foremost – have you ever felt you had a responsibility to act against it?
Perrie Well, now that we’ve got a bit of influence – which is amazing – we try our best to make something positive out of it. We don’t think it’s fair that women get scrutinized more than men. Everything is harder for a woman in every kind of aspect and that’s why we try to empower women with our music, our image and everything we stand for. If we can help a little bit, then we’re doing okay.

How did you all find your individualities under the given circumstances?
Perrie We kind of stayed the same I think. From the beginning, we all knew who we were individually, what our style was and what we liked and disliked. Nothing changed, it just evolved. We like to be individuals because more people can relate to us. People relate to Leigh-Anne differently than they relate to me and so on. We’re all tight knit, but we embrace our individualities too.

Have you always had this mindset?
Perrie Yeah, we’ve had the same beliefs pretty much from the beginning. We’ve always wanted to be girl-power; we’ve always wanted to inspire people.

How do you usually cope with the pressure of that omnipresent eye of the media?
Perrie At first, it was really horrible. We were really young; I was 17 when I got put into Little Mix. I felt like a baby, I didn’t know how to fend for myself. Moving to London was terrifying – to not be with my family. I think, at first, we found it hard reading things about ourselves that weren’t true. Like rumours or seeing a bad picture right on the front of a magazine or whatever it was. But now, we literally couldn’t care less.
Leigh-Anne It doesn’t matter. We’ve learned how to deal with it all of it now. Everybody gets it. Adele, Beyoncé, everyone gets scrutinized. And it’s usually from people who don’t have a life.

What’s next for Little Mix?
Perrie Hopefully a lot more success. But we’re very happy with this album. It’s a lot more mature, it’s very honest and it’s different to what we’ve done before. We just hope it does really well.

What’s your FAULT?
Perrie I can be stubborn.
Leigh-Anne When I gen drunk, I take things really seriously.
Jade Mine is overthinking. I’m too much of a perfectionist.

Fault Magazine

Source: fault-magazine.com

Below you can watch interview of Little Mix in Sydney for Daily Telegraph: