All Saints are all tangled up. Not, not in rosary beads or praying but in "shooting their video for the next single" says their personal assistant, speaking on the phone from London. "They're under immense pressure at the moment. So Shaznay will talk to you when she gets a break and if I were you I'd grab her while you can."
Nice idea. No doubt there are millions who would love to "grab" Shaznay or any of the members of All Saints and take them home, to meet mummy, or whatever, because that is how phenomenally popular the band has become over a seemingly short space of time. But don't be fooled. Their "meteoric" rise to fame over the past two months, as in topping the charts with Never Ever, belies a musical history that goes back at least five years. "Overnight" success? Not.
Shaznay T. Lewis, (22) and Melanie Blatt, also 22, met while working in a studio in London's All Saints Road, yes, well-spotted, hence the name. Shaznay was doing backing vocals with hip-hop artist Rodney C, in exchange for free studio time while Mel was "listening and learning" for two years, making tea and not being paid, before she got a chance to sing. Both formed All Saints, with Simone Rainford, since departed, then Nicole Appleton (22) who brought on board sister Nathalie (24). Nicky had studied at the London Performing Dance School and sometimes sang "in bars and hotels" with sister Natalie who "always wanted to sing". And that, give or take a flop single, failed record deal, teaming up with manager John Benson, signing to London records and recording their debut album, is the "overnight" success story of All Saints.
As for the eponymous album itself, which is awash with the band's shared love of R 'n' B, hiphop and sweeping pop melodies, 90 per cent of "the lyrics and arrangements" were done by Shaznay herself. Indeed, Music Week claimed: "the key thing about one of the best pop albums of the year is the songwriting." Hang on a sec, it's the phone, four hours late, but as the woman said, I better grab "Shaz" while I can.
"I'm sorry," she sighs, obviously exhausted. And despite pretty accurate claims that when she raps she sounds like Bart Simpson, Shaznay sure doesn't sound like him when she speaks. "But my nickname is `Bart' because I am compared to him, so that's cool," she exclaims, laughing. Shaznay also admits that, yes, her first love is rap and hip-hop.
"I love the rhythm, the beat, the poetry, the rhyming, the fact that rap songs are stories and tell the truth," she says. "That's where I get a lot of my inspiration and always did, even when I started writing poetry back in school, when I was 16 or so, just to express myself at some level. And that's what led, naturally, to the songwriting."
That said, "K Gee", Karl Gordon, is listed as the "producer" of most of the tracks on All Saints. Perhaps aware that there are lingering suspicions that All Saints are more of a studio-enhanced, manufactured band, like The Spice Girls, than legitimate musicians, Shaznay claims "we all called the shots in the studio". In fact, she's insistent.
"We do describe Karl as the fifth All-Saint but we all have an input when we're recording. There are five brains here, five talents working together. The same applies to the overall strategy behind the band," she states.
Even so, some see evidence of a well-planned "let's be the opposite of The Spice Girls" marketing strategy behind All Saints, right down to Mel's controversial comment: "The day The Spice Girls call themselves artists, I'll kill myself. We're much better looking and we've more upstairs." This strategy also could apply to the loose-fitting dungarees look, the "hard" hip-hop base and the fact that the band first got "cred" in "legit" rock mags before crossing over into the teen market.
"Mel shouldn't kill herself over anybody! And maybe if we came along a year before The Spice Girls they'd be compared to us,".
"And as I say, the music we play is the music we love. We also dress as we are. And as for the cross-over appeal, things just fell that way. We, genuinely, were not aiming for a particular age group, or audience. We just wanted to play music and plug into whoever appreciated it. But we are fortunate to have the interest, from both the adult rock press and the teen magazines. This showed us, that by not thinking `what route will we go?' All Saints actually ended up going all routes! But it's not a case of anyone with some master plan pinned to a wall."
Tellingly, at this point, probably pinning some poor passer-by to a wall and giving a very clear indication of her priorities, Shaznay T. Lewis suddenly shouts "Oui!" which is then deciphered, to this reporter as, "I've to talk to my lawyer. Bye." However, remembering, again, the advice to "grab" this particular "Saint" whenever the opportunity arises, I remind her that the assistant promised "you guys will have at least 20 minutes" and that we've just passed the six-minute mark. Shaznay laughs and replies, "she lied!" Even so, without my yielding to the urge to shout "Oui!" she agrees to talk "a little while" longer.
So, let's cut to the bone, ask about sexually-assertive songs such as Bootie Call in which this clearly-less-than-saintly self-described "Catholic girl" phones a male late at night because she needs some uncomplicated, eh, company. For a few hours, no more. And, indeed, her reported claim that music is more important to her than men right now. "Being sexually assertive is no problem, though, yeah, I am a Catholic girl," she responds.
"But something like Bootie Call is life, a side of me that has to be expressed, right? And men have been calling women that way for ages, so why shouldn't we turn it all around? But music, though important, isn't more important to me than men, or my family."
Fair enough. And indicating the kind of substance that isn't always evident in the songs of the girl groups to whom they are most often, erroneously, compared, Shaznay's War Of Nerves she claims she wrote as a response to the death of Princess Diana. But this is no sentimental ode to "Di". Instead, the song focuses on the kind of questions about mortality which she, as millions of other people, suddenly had to apply to her own life.
"I never really thought about things like my own death until it happened to Diana," she reflects. "And the song definitely did help me face those feelings. Then one fan wrote and said War Of Nerves helped him deal with the death of his mother. That was very touching. And if people relate, like that, to even one song I write, that is the whole deal, at the end of the day. It's like this Childline concert. I've never needed to call a child helpline but I am going to be a mother some day and I'd hope, if anything happened to my children, that there would be some organisation in society that would advise them. That's why this whole thing isn't just another gig for All Saints, it's something we really do support and look forward to playing."
And with that, Shaznay T. Lewis took flight.
All Saints will appear in concert at the Childline Pop Extravaganza at the Point Theatre tonight. Also appearing are Boyzone, Chill, Fab, Carter Twins, FAB, OTT and Dove. The show will be hosted by Gerry Ryan, Denise Van Auten and Dustin. It will be broadcast live on RTE Network 2. Childline is a service provided free by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and can be called, by any child who wants to "speak to someone who cares" at 1800-666 666.