Neon Jungle: We’re not as much Trouble as you think

Neon Jungle may look like trouble but they insist they’ve never even been in detention.

The sassy pop quartet, consisting of Japanese-born Asami Zdrenka, Scottish girl Shereen Cutkelvin, both 16, and Londoners Amira McCarthy,17, and Jessica Plummer, 20, are hoping to emulate Little Mix in the charts –  but say don’t lump them in the same basket as The X Factor winners.

‘The only thing we really have in common is that we are four girls and we make music,’ insists Jessica after the colourful singers, signed to Sony, swung by Guilty Pleasures for a chat.

Asami is chuffed they are already in the same race as Little Mix.

‘I think we’d all take it as a compliment,’ she said of the comparisons. ‘Because, I think, their success, in quite a short period of time, has skyrocketed and if we can come anywhere close to that we would be grateful.’

But while they may look a little more bad-ass than the DNA singers, the girls promise they are well behaved.

‘We are the biggest geeks, really. People see our exterior and they paint this picture of what we’ll be like and, really, we’re the most goofiest people,’ said Jessica.

Amira confirmed: ‘I’ve never been expelled or suspended. I haven’t even had a detention before! That’s good.’

But the girls are hoping to gatecrash Little Mix’s social circle in the hope that Asami can get her hands on Harry Styles, who she fancies the pants off.

Confident Jessica revealed she too has a crush on a famous musician.

‘I’m rinsing J Cole’s album, Born Sinner, which I’m just obsessed with and so I’ve become a little bit obsessed with him. Like, I’m not joking,’ said the cheeky minx.

‘I’ve googled his age and he’s 28 so I’m thinking when I’m, like, 25, and he’s like 33, maybe something could happen?’

But she went on to say: ‘But then it could change, because last week it was Pharrell and next week it could be Snoop Dogg.’

The ladies are gearing up for the September release of their debut single, Trouble.

[Originally published Metro Guilty Pleasures 22 July 2013]