It’s been a busy decade for Pixie Lott. While the singer took a step back from releasing new music, she used the time to add a plethora of strings to her bow.
From starring in a West End play and becoming a coach on The Voice Kids UK, to getting married and having her first child – she has pushed herself personally and professionally.
For the past five years, she has been diving into how these experiences have shaped her life, and from that self-reflection she has created her fourth studio album, Encino.
The deeply autobiographical 13-track record is her first album in 10 years and it sees her taking control of her music more than she has ever done before as she has co-written all of the songs.
“I’m beyond excited because it feels like it’s been a very long time coming”, Lott, 33, tells me over a video call, beaming with pride as she reflects on her new collection.
“Music is my all-time number one love so to have an album coming out again after so long feels so good, even just to say those words.”
Her first three records released between 2009 and 2014 – which contained the chart-toppers Boys And Girls, All About Tonight and Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh) – were created alongside a large team of producers and writers, making it more challenging to build close relationships.
This time round she worked closely with producers and songwriters Jeeve and Dave Gibson in a studio in Encino, California which allowed her to develop the trust needed to explore the more vulnerable areas of romance, family, nostalgia and her mental health.
“I started it as a complete passion side-project just for myself because I really wanted to make an album this way,” she says.
“Just timeless real music, live musicians in mind, just about the storytelling and the vocals and really crafting it and taking time on it.
“It was always just a little side thing and then I was like, ‘I absolutely love this. Let’s just put everything into it’.”
Say So, a piano-led track that came out of her time starring as Holly Golightly in the West End production of Truman Capote’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s in 2016, is one of the most vulnerable tracks on the record. It explores the emotional turmoil she went through while delving into the character which left her feeling broken afterwards.
“By the end of it, I was a complete mess because the character, which I ended up doing eight times a week and the show is two-and-a-half-hours long, I felt like I was being the character more than I was being myself,” she explains.
“And the story was based on the book, not the film, so it was very dark. The second act was extremely sad and you end up on the floor of the stage crying your eyes out having lost everything in your life…
“I was fine at the start and towards the end it crept up on me that I was taking myself to that place emotionally so much (that) I didn’t know I was hurting my brain. By the end of it, I didn’t know what was going on and I was completely broken, and I did it to myself without realising.”
She says she wanted to write about the experience as it was such a transformational time for her, but also hopes others will be able to relate to it.
“Whether it lifts them up, whether it sits with them when they’re going through the hard times, if it helps people in any way that would just be a dream come true”, Lott adds.
“I hope that going to those places can help people feel a bit less alone.”
Whereas on the album’s lead single, Somebody’s Daughter, she provides a reminder for people to think before they write or speak negatively about someone after dealing with hurtful comments being hurled against her since she was a teenager.
“I’ve been in the industry for a long time and you have a thick skin anyway, and some of it’s just quite comical,” she says.
“But I learned early on not to read any of that stuff because you only read it and feel bad about yourself or bad about your day, it’s never going to bring happiness and positivity.
“But sometimes you can’t help it when it’s just popped up or you go on a hashtag and then you see it. So I’ve definitely seen some things over the years that haven’t been very nice, and then you just think ‘They don’t really know the situation’.
“I feel like this song, hopefully, if someone listens to it and then thinks ‘Oh, actually, maybe I won’t write or say that mean thing’. Even if it’s just one person, it’s a good thing.”
Becoming a mother in the past year has also changed her perspective on what is important in life. The singer, whose real name is Victoria Lott, welcomed her baby boy Albert, who she has nicknamed Bertie, with her husband Oliver Cheshire last October.
Lott has been in a relationship with Cheshire since 2010 and got engaged in 2016, before later marrying in 2022.
“I knew it would be a life-changing thing, as everyone says, but it is more than I ever thought,” Lott says as reflects on motherhood.
“And obviously you love that little baby so much and it feels like it’s part of you, like you grew it and then it just feels like it’s part of you, but on the outside. You do feel very protective.”
The pop star completed the writing for the album before Bertie arrived, but she now feels some of the songs have taken on a new meaning, specifically her track Happy.
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“That song’s about appreciating the simple things in life and the easy things in life, like food on the table and leaves on the trees, and that’s what I feel like he has taught me already.
“Just really enjoying the slow mornings and the simple things that you can take for granted, they’re actually the best things in life.”
Ahead of the album’s launch in September, the singer is set to perform her new tracks from the album at Hoxton Hall in London on July 11.
“I loved recording it (the album) in the studio, but I can’t wait to now get to the next stage, which is getting out to people live in the face,” she says with a grin.
“The band sound amazing and I can’t wait to do it at Hoxton’s beautiful, intimate theatre, and so I’m just hoping that the atmosphere will just be off the scale.”
Pixie Lott’s new single Somebody’s Daughter is out now and tickets for her Hoxton Hall show on July 11 are available now.
