TINIE TEMPAH

The concept is simple. After searching around the Rollacoaster office, we found a generously sized biscuit tin and filled it with an array of thought-provoking questions. Each issue, we will find a different personality and ask them to pick out 10 of the questions, to which they must provide accurate and honest answers Who will rise to this monstrous challenge? First up it’s Tinie Tempah.
    The London rapper exploded onto the UK music scene earlier this year scoring a number one with Passout, and narrowly missed the top spot again with his follow-up track, Frisky. (Combined, the singles have sold in excess of 750,000 copies so far.) He has grabbed the attention of world-renowned artists (Kelly Rowland and Swedish House Mafia feature on the album), supported Jay-Z on tour and shared a stage with Snoop Dogg at Glastonbury.
    Tinie Tempah may have the confidence to set the music world ablaze, but does he have what it takes to answer our cleverly drafted and potentially insightful questions?  Without hesitation, he delves his hand into the pot and pulls out a folded piece of paper and unrolls it to reveal the first of our biscuit-tin questions:

What is your favourite smell?
When a lady walks past that’s the best smell. That was one of my lyrics on Freestyle, “Nothing smells better than a lady’s scent”. A clean hygienic lady with some perfume on and hair spray and good moisturising cream – there’s no better smell.  I love the smell of petrol as well, but that’s quite dangerous.  Don’t sniff petrol!

What is your weakness?
A pretty face, I’m not going to lie. I’m quite big on features – nice prominent features. And if I meet a girl who is gorgeous I’m a sucker. I’m very confident with women, but sometimes when I meet a girl with a nice face… it doesn’t all go out the window, but she can probably tell that I’m getting a little bit weak at the knees.

What is your workout routine?
Performing! I don’t really have time, of recent, for the gym. So my workout routine is a good half an hour on stage, fully energetic – it’s a very good workout!

Savoury or sweet snacks?
Sweet – all the way.

When did you last cry?
I’ll be honest – I went home to my Mum’s house about a month and a half ago. She was acting kind of weird so I was like, ‘What’s wrong?’ And she started crying; and she said her mum was really ill and, because she was uncontrollably crying, I started crying. I am a bit of a Mummy’s boy. But she is all right - and my Nan is all right.

Have you ever been star-struck?
Well, I was pretty star-struck by Snoop Dogg.  He’s a legend.  He’s a fucking legend, if you don’t mind me saying. And with Jay-Z I was pretty star-struck too. I supported him on tour with Mr Hudson, and he was just backstage chilling and walked past me, so I introduced myself to him. He looked at my eyes and said ‘My man!’ and I was like: ‘That’s Jay-Z!’  But probably the person I’ve been most star-struck by was Prince William.  When I performed at Radio One’s Big Weekend he came to watch my set. When I was walking off-stage, just before the encore, my manager goes ‘Prince William is here!’ I was like, ‘No Way!’  And I look round and there is a tall, kingly guy, with a hat.  So I finished the set and I came off stage and we were just chatting for about 10 minutes. I didn’t know what to say. I’m not going to be like: ‘What are you doing this summer –  are you going to Ibiza?’ So I was like ‘How’s your dad?’ But he was understanding and basically said that he really liked the music and he knew the words – that was a pretty big deal for me.

What do you look for in the opposite sex?
A pretty face, of course, but also confidence.  I also like somebody who is in tune with who they are as a person. If I meet a girl, it’s good if she knows her values, what she’s about, what she wants to do, and where she is going in life. Some women are just there for the moment. I also look for somebody who is quite tolerant; as you can imagine, I am a little bit everywhere at the minute so I need somebody who has a bit of patience. And somebody who will take care of their appearance, and knows how to put an outfit together.

What is your favourite biscuit?
Probably a chocolate HobNob. Good with tea. You can never go wrong with a HobNob.

What is your favourite holiday destination?
Recently I’ve been to a load of places but it’s all been work-related so that sort of cancels them out. I was talking to a girl – who I am sort of seeing – and I was like, we should randomly just go to the airport one day and get on a plane.  We can go wherever.  She said Italy – it’s maybe not my favourite destination but it could be where I am going.

What is your earliest memory?
Having pictures taken with my sisters, you know, professional portraits and my parents dressed us really nicely.  I must have been about three and one sister was two, and the other sister was just born and I was holding her. I’ve got a song called Snap, which is about taking pictures
and preserving memories. Pictures can tell you a thousand things – it can trigger how you were feeling, whom you liked, and what you were into. It’s good to look back on.  So when I do my live show, you might see it on a screen behind the live band.

As a final question, we ask Tinie to come up with his own question that we will put into the mix for the next personality to potentially pick out. His suggestion? “Where is the weirdest place you’ve ever had sex?” However he refuses to reveal his own answer.

[Originally published in Rollcoaster Magazine Issue 1. Photography Roger Rich.]

ROBYN TALKS

Two-Thirds of a way Through a whirlwind year, robyn Talks Music, Milkshakes and being a Swede

It’s a good time to be Swedish. Like a new wave of all-conquering Vikings, the Swedes are tearing up the literary, film and (of course) music charts, coming a long way since the relatively tame days of Pippi Longstocking and ABBA. When announced earlier this year that Robyn would release not one, but three albums in 2010 (following five years out of the studio), her fans must have felt a sense of the proverbial bus: ‘you wait for one, then three come along at once’, and then eagerly awaited this titillating musical trilogy. Body Talk Part 1 was released back in June, and Part 2 was out last week. Part 3 remains TBC. Rollacoaster is fortunate enough to have stolen some time from the diminutive pop star between photo shoots (she’s in the UK for another promotional whirlwind), before she hops back on a plane to return to her homeland to continue work on the third title.

A surprising amount of music in the world originates from Sweden. with your three albums this year, are you looking to single-handedly increase
that percentage? 
[Smiles] I’m not thinking in the terms of Swedish music or taking over the world – I’m just making music. I’ve been making records for about 15 years and the scenario of releasing an album, then touring, and not making an album until maybe every fifth year just felt boring. So it’s not a conceptual idea or any kind of attempt at breaking a world record or anything – it’s just a new way of working.

Do you have a travelling recording studio that goes everywhere with you? 
No, I go back to Sweden regularly to record with the people I work with there – which is nice for me because I get to be home a bit as well.

What’s the best thing about Sweden? 
It would probably be that you get free dental care until you are 18.

Excellent! Although not if you’re too old for that…. other prominent Swedish exports currently include films and books, such as Let The Right One In and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – are you a fan of any of those? 
I’m more inclined to read, Let The Right One In.

Are you a fan of vampires? 
Not really a fan of vampires, but I think that writer [John Ajvide Lindqvist] is interesting. He’s made a couple of books – not only about vampires but zombies and all kinds of scary stuff.

Do you find you are patriotic? 
As I’m growing older it is easier to appreciate our social system and how people are taken care of in Sweden. And I appreciate that there are not a lot of people – you can go out into the woods and really be alone. There is a lot of nature. It’s a calm and good place to go back to when you’ve been touring!

Out of Alexander Skarsgård, Freddie Ljungberg or Benny Andersson, who would you choose? 
Um… Benny Andersson, I would say.

Is that the musical connection? or do you think he is desirable? 
Oh, you mean like that!? [Laughs]

Well, whatever! 
Well, yeah for me it’s Benny. I think ABBA is the most admirable accomplishment out of those three, for me.

If you could make a Swede super group, who would be in it? 
Neneh Cherry, Karin Dreijer from The Knife and one of the girls from ABBA.

How did Snoop Dogg get on board for the track U Should Know Better on body Talk Part 2? 
I did some vocals for one of his remixes [2008’s Sexual Eruption] and we just decided to say “Hi” when I was in LA and hook up. He’s a really interesting person – he loves music, he’s very smart and funny.

Are there other people you would want to work with? 
I don’t keep a list... I work with a lot of people who are not generally known.

Are there any unsung champions you would like to highlight now? 
Well there is Klas Åhlund – he has a band called Teddybears who some people know about – we make most of the music on my albums together.  There is also a guy called Patrik Berger who produced Dancing On My Own. There are lots of people in Sweden that are amazing.

You’ve been touring with Kelis for the All Hearts Tour in America. We’ve heard that her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, but is her milkshake better than yours? 
[Giggles] We have different types of milkshake. I think hers is more strawberry, mine is more liquorice.

Did you enjoy touring together? 
We loved touring together and I think our fans really liked us touring together as well – it felt like it, at least. She’s a really cool chick, she’s really down to earth, really nice.

Will that same tour be coming to the UK? 
Maybe. We haven’t talked about it yet, we’ll see. We’re already booked doing different things so it’s more about organisation than the actual will – we’d both love to do it.

How is Body Talk Part 3 going?
It’s going really well. It’s very early. I’ve just started writing again so it’s very hard to say. But I have some things I’m working on with Klas, Patrik Berger, Kleerup and Diplo. Hopefully it’ll be done this year, but it might take a bit more time. It could take until next year. We’ll see.

Do you shop in Ikea?
Of course! Doesn’t everyone?

[Originally published in Rollacoaster Issue 1, September 2010. Photography John-Paul Pietrus.]

Emer Kenny

EastEnders star and scriptwriter Emer Kenny, exposes her softer side, her hopes to follow strong leading actresses and some surprising dream jobs


Famous for playing hard-edged Zsa Zsa Carter in EastEnders, actress Emer Kenny is as far removed from her tough on-screen counterpart as you could expect when we meet her in the flesh at the BBC Elstree studios for our Rollacoaster shoot. A children’s TV show is being filmed on a neighbouring lot and kids run up to the soap actress looking at her in awe asking if she is, indeed, Zsa Zsa.  Kenny herself humbly smiles and talks to the kids who run around in excitement.
    “I’m a lot softer than Zsa Zsa,” she tells us.  “When she first came in she was very hard and really rude but as I played her I think she has softened up – which is good because playing that hard character all the time is actually quite wearing.”
    The character Zsa Zsa is one Emer knows better than anyone – not just because she has been playing her almost daily on EastEnders since January, but because she also wrote the character as one of the script writers for E20 (the online EastEnders spin-off) before casting for the part even began. With Zsa Zsa departing Albert Square in November, Emer is looking forward to getting into new projects and hopes to find new headstrong characters to play.
    “I like strong independent women,” she says, citing Hollywood’s leading ladies Sigourney Weaver, Helena Bonham Carter and Charlize Theron as inspiration. “Ripley in Alien – that’s a character that could have been a man, but it was better that she was a woman. And I like Sigourney because she’s really tall. And I’m tall. It’s one of those things I can’t change but maybe one day it will be an asset. Ripley – she’s statuesque, she’s Amazonian.” Indeed one of Emer’s “dream” characters to play is none other than Amazonian warrior princess Wonderwoman. “I’m not kidding you!” she says with a snort of excitement. “Or Catherine Earnshaw from Wuthering Heights.” Having told us she can do a great rendition of Run DMC’s It’s Tricky, is being a rapper another avenue Emer could explore if acting doesn’t work out? “I’m not going to be a rapper, no!” she laughs. That’s like my secret dream that no one is meant to know about – but now you do.”

[Originally published in Rollacoaster Issue 1, September 2010. Photography Andrew Woffinden.]