Mutya Buena, TOUCHMUTYA BUENA
Published in Touch, the original uk urban music magazine
Mutya Buena’s formidable reputation precedes her. Known for being the fiery core of the Sugababes, she was central to the girl group’s success as well as its notoriety as the bitchiest band in popland.
Outspoken and petulant she may have been but she was also the only Sugababe who could undoubtedly sing. So when she abruptly resigned from the band in December 2005, leaving Heidi, Keisha and a heap of number one singles, triple platinum albums and awards in her wake, pop lost one of it’s most inscrutable stars.
So what has she been up to since? Plenty, if her debut solo album Real Girl is anything to go by. So off I head to her record label’s west London HQ to meet the mighty Mutya. First shock, she’s on time. Second shock, in her vest and jeans and picking at a chicken salad, the prickly prima donna I’m expecting turns out to be more the veritable girl next door. Relaxed, shy almost, we mutually coo over each other’s manicures before settling down to talk about her abrupt exit from the Subababes, which she puts down to post-natal depression.
“I got pregnant, it happened, I didn’t plan it, but I thought I’d be able to handle it. Then I just ended up feeling like no one understood me and I that was all by myself. There were times when I’d be laughing but crying,” she explains of her early experiences as a young mum to daughter Tahlia. “And when it came to being in the group, there’d be certain things I wouldn’t feel comfortable with. It could be something silly like I didn’t like a pair of shoes they were trying to make me wear so I’d get very touchy. Having to express myself was hard. I was okay with my daughter, it was everyone else I couldn’t talk to. And that includes my family, it wasn’t like I was just picking on the girls, but I kept myself distant and quiet.”
Mutya’s absence from promotional duties couldn’t have come at a worse time. The band were riding high with their fourth LP Taller In More Ways and singles Push the Button and Ugly but for the first time since she formed the Sugababes aged just 13, she couldn’t put the trio first. “When you have a child, your priorities change, your whole lifestyle becomes different. You’re a mum who sits indoors and looks after the child. So I made the decision I had to leave. I felt like, if I’m not going to be a good mother, I shouldn’t have had a kid so I chose to be there for my daughter.”
Looking back, and still only 23 years old, her old self is a distant memory. “Tahila is the best thing that has ever happened to me. She’s calmed me down. I’m a lot more thoughtful these days and I’ve become such a softie. I even cried at Hollyoaks the other day!” She also claims to harbour no ill feeling toward the other girls or her replacement Amelle Berrebah. But are they all still friends? “Um, I would like to say I was but I haven’t seen them for a year or so. People say Amelle is close to how I am in terms of tone of voice but I don’t know nothing of her,” she says, rather tellingly. “I just let the Sugababes do what they’re doing to tell you the truth. I’d been in the band for years and needed a break. For me it was the right thing to do, I’ve got no regrets and I’m happy now.”
Mutya took time off to be a family with boyfriend Jay but it wasn’t long before she started mucking about in the studio again and finding a new, more mature sound. “Sugababes music was fun and not taken too serious. Now I want to show off my vocals and be more soulful. It’s great doing your own music and being able to express yourself.”
The new album sews pop and R’n’B together yet leaves the raw edges exposed on a set that allows Mutya’s downtown voice to sparkle. The title track and first single samples It Aint Over til it’s Over by Lenny Kravitz and epitomises her newfound unpolished spirit. In contrast, Groove Armada lends a hand on the 1980s electro banger Out of Control and changing direction again, the Salaam Remi-produced B-Boy Baby features the not so dulcet tones of Amy Winehouse on an update of The Ronettes’ Be My Baby. “Lyrically B-Boy is quite funny. When my mum first heard it she loved it and then she realised what the line ‘When I hear his voice, things get wet’ meant. She didn’t know what to say!”
She secured her mum’s forgiveness quick enough though by dueting with George Michael on This is Not a Real Love. “He’s my mum’s idol, she thinks he’s gorgeous so it was a dream come true for her.” Although Mutya and George are an unlikely twosome, they still found some common ground. “He went to the same high school as me and had the same music teacher so we ended up talking quite a bit. He’s a great guy.”
Other tracks take on more serious subject matter such as My Song (depression and loneliness), Strung Out (drug abuse) and It’s Not Easy, which is about impending parenthood. “When I was walking around with a big bump I wondered what she would be like - a spoilt brat or a nice cute little girl?” And which one is Tahlia? “She’s a nice cute little girl. She’s got a bit of a feisty attitude too.” Hmm, wonder where she got that from mommy. “Yeah, I know. But it’s not me, she gets it from my sisters! She’s two now and she loves singing and dancing. She gets up and shakes her little bum.”
With Real Girl finished, Mutya’s started to road test her solo material on stage with a live band and gauging who her new audience is shaping up to be. “I’ve got a lot of fans I had from before and a lot of new ones too. There are gothic ones, urban ones and people I see when I go out raving in Watford or South London. And I’ve got GAY coming up, which as one of the best crowds ever. Everyone is trashed out of their heads and all they want to do it dance.”
So with every fan base seemingly covered, will this real girl make the grade where other ex-girl group members have failed? Well, put it this way - if you put Mutya in a ring with Siobhan Donaghy, Geri Halliwell and Kerry Katona, I know where I’d lay my bet. Seconds out, round two.
Words Helen Jennings