inthemix | Features | Uffie: Electro's pint-sized pinup girl

Is Uffie the official pin-up girl of the French electro movement? Otherwise known as Anna-Catherine Hartley and part of the ever-popular Ed Banger crew, she’s got attitude to spare. Since first appearing on the radar early last year, Uffie has gone on to tour the world, feature on magazine covers everywhere and become an all-round style icon. Speaking to us from the south of France where this badass girl rapper is erm… recovering from a cold, inthemix gets the lowdown on both her forthcoming debut album and her upcoming Australian shows.

Hi Uffie, how are you?

Not too good actually, I’ve got a cold at the moment so I’m in south of France with my Dad… I’m here to try and get over it.

You move around a fair bit: Miami, Los Angeles and Paris. Are you still living in Paris?

Yeah, I’m still in Paris. I love the place… I’ve been here for a few years now, so it’s my home, although I never really get to spend much time here anymore.

How’s the music scene over in Paris – is it still as strong as ever?

Yeah, the city is so exciting right now, well I guess it has been for a while. There’s a real buzz at the moment and so much happening, but none of us [the Ed Banger crew] are there because we’re all on tour… It is cool though.

You’ve got the album due soon. How far off is it, and what can we expect?

We’re [Uffie along with Feadz and Mr Oizo still recording at the moment, but it’s good… Because it’s an album we can be much more experimental in terms of what we do musically. It’s really nice not to have to worry about how well it will go down in the clubs. But, there’s going to be some real club bangers on there too!

We’ve got a deadline for recording, but release hasn’t been confirmed yet. It’s a lot of work and I had to cancel the first two weeks of the Asian tour so we can make sure we finish it before we come to Australia. I’ve been touring for the last two years doing normally three or four cities per week, and then coming back to Paris to record the album. It can get pretty tough.

How many tracks can we expect?

“I think we’re going to have 8 on there but I’m not sure yet – we’ve got so many tracks that we’ve done already and we’ve got more that we’re still working on. It’s just going to be hard cutting them all back and choosing the ones that we really like. We’ve got a new track coming out in January though…

Have you got a name for it yet?

No, I still haven’t decided on one yet, but it’s a really cool track.

I read somewhere that you were keen to work with Amanda Blanc, who collaborates with Spank Rock: will she be on the album?

We’ve been talking about working together for so long and it will be cool when we do, but she’s working on her album too. So we just never have the time to get together and work on anything. When we do though, it’s going to be good!

Are we going to hear the new material on the tour?

Yeah, we’ve got so much stuff and this tour is going to be the first time we play some of these tracks out – so there’ll be a few surprises in there. I’m really excited to be coming out to Australia this time…. Australia is a cool place, it’s going to be summer and the festival line-up looks really good!”

Catch Uffie strutting the stage along with Feadz at the following dates…

Dec 31 – Gilkisons Dance Studio, Perth
Jan 1 – Field Day, Sydney
Jan 1 – The Hot Barbeque, Melbourne
Jan 5 – Summafieldayze, Gold Coast
Jan 6 – Sounds on Sunday, Sydney

And check out this interview with the lady herself…