London-based trio M.O - aka Frankee, Annie and Nadine – are a new UK girlband with a difference; the difference being that they seem to have spent most of the last few years only listening to ’90s R&B. Having supported everyone from Ciara to Wretch 32 to Little Mix, they straddle that space between the experimental end of R&B and dance (they've worked with lots of producers from the Black Butter stable, for example) and full-on, balls-out chart pop (new single Dance On My Own's just been added to the Radio 1 playlist don't you know).
With a style that recalls the baggy jeans and Timberland boots era of US girlbands such as Jade, SWV and early TLC, they certainly look the part. But who are M.O? Can they skateboard? Would they die for each other? And, most importantly, why do they call their fans Mobsters?
Let's find out shall we?
Give me an M!
All: M!
Give me an O!
All: O!
What have we got?
All: M.O!
No but seriously, who are you?
Annie: We are Annie (points to herself), Frankee and Nadine.
You're good at this. But what are you?
A: We are a UK R&B trio who love writing our own songs.
Get that in there. Are you a girlband though?
Nadine: Yes. We're inspired by groups like TLC, old-school Aaliyah and old-school J-Lo.
Will men like your songs?
A: We want our music to be able to reach out to everyone, so boys, girls, mums, sisters.
Frankee: Boys always like that dirty bass, don't they. They like bass they can blast in their cars.
Is there an upper age limit though?
A: I don't want to sound like I'm bigging my own trumpet, but we do always say we've got such a big range of fans. We did the Little Mix tour and that was a lot of kids and they seemed to love it as did their mums as well.
Are there any songs that are a bit risqué and you worry about little kids singing along about sex etc?
F: I don't think so because when I think about songs I liked when I was younger and they did have sex in them then I wouldn't understand it. Like Spice Girls' 2 Become 1.
A: Is that about sex?!
F: Yeah apparently.
She says 'put it on, put it on at one' at one point, meaning a condom.
A: Oh my God!
N: All J-Lo's songs are rude. And Thong Song!
F: I didn't even know what a thong was!
A: Oh I did. I'd just started wearing one when that came out.
People have called you a girlband with a twist? What's the twist?
N: The twist? Did we say that?
Oh well I just said it.
N: We do genuinely feel like there's no one like us out there.
A: We haven't come off a reality TV show and we weren't put together. We just really want to keep doing music we grew up on, like I'm obsessed with old-school J-Lo. I just want to hear those songs again.
But can't someone just go and listen to old J-Lo songs, though?
A: No they want something new!
N: They want M.O! We're just inspired by them but we want to be the first M.O.
A: We don't want to be compared to anyone.
Your name is quite hard to Google isn't it.
All: Yeah.
For example earlier I got Mo Farah, the singer MØ and female golf player Mo Martin. Can we change it?
N: Oh hell no!
A: You have to put the dot in though.
I did! Let's come up with three other girlband names for you and see which one is best: First up, Lady Garden?
F: What?
N: I wondered what you were on about. But no.
Ladies In Waiting?
N: Oh no, Jesus.
Women's Intuition?
A: I don't know what intuition means.
N: That's not too bad.
A: It's better than the other one we had; Mix Chicks.
Oh dear. Pick N Chicks?
All: No.
You were all in bands before M.O [Nadine and Annie were in Duchess and Frankee was in Mini Viva]. What did you learn from that experience?
F: That you have to stay true to yourself and know what you want and love what you do.
N: And you have to get on.
A: You can have the best songs and be the best singers but if you're not getting on then give it up.
So do you get on?
F: We wouldn't be here if we didn't.
A: We get bored of telling people, but we do really get on.
F: You spend so much time with each other so you have to genuinely love each other.
Describe each other in three words.
All: OH MY GOD.
F: Let's start with Annie. Loud.
N: Mental.
F: And caring.
Now Frankee.
N: Beautiful.
A: Curly.
N: Kind-hearted.
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Finally, Nadine.
A: We're all kind and care for each other. I know I got mental, but Nadine's got some of that too.
F: Creative.
A: So caring, mental and creative.
Are you all quite extreme people?
N: When we're together we are quite mad. We do need our own reality show.
What would it be called?
F: Mixed Up with M.O.
OTT with M.O?
N: What's wrong with Mixed Up?
Oh. Would you die for each other?
All: Definitely.
Really though?
A: Actually I don't know (laughs like a drain).
N: It depends. If we were in the street and someone was going to attack one of them I'd dive in.
F: We're very protective of each other.
What if we were playing extreme musical chairs and the only people left on the planet were you and Neon Jungle and there were only three chairs left. Would you kill them?
A: Us three would be on those seats.
F: There's three of us and four of them but there are only three seats.
A: So one of them's going to die anyway, so they might as well die together.
Do you get loads of free stuff now you're sort of famous?
F: We do actually.
N: Enough.
Anyone you'd like to mention in this interview that you haven't had stuff from yet?
A: Oh yeah. Nike! Timberland! Levi's!
What do you call your fans?
N: Mobsters.
Why?
F: It's more personal as opposed to just a fan; that feels a bit corporate to me.
N: Inclusive not exclusive.
A: We want everyone to be together.
But what if a new fans goes on your Twitter and it's all 'hey Mobsters', 'love you Mobsters' and they think 'I like the songs, I don't feel part of this', do you think they might feel excluded?
A: We hope not, we don't want it to be like that.
F: A lot of our new fans let us know on Twitter so we welcome them in.
You get played a lot on BBC 1Xtra. Why was it important to build a relationship with them?
N: [DJ] MistaJam has championed us so much and we can't believe the nice things he said about us. Everything we've done since the start is to build and grow at our own pace.
F: MistaJam is one of those tastemaker people who people listen to as well.
What about Scott Mills?
A: We love Scott Mills.
So when are you going to go to Radio 1 and be like 'HIYA!'
A: We're on Radio 1 baby! We got playlisted last week. We're in the New Music We Trust bit.
Do you have a top-10 single up your sleeves?
A: Definitely.
N: We hope so.
As you mentioned before, you toured with Little Mix. How was that? Is doing an arena tour fun or just a lot of hanging about in tour buses?
F: We got to eat a lot.
A: We had so much fun though. We would have a lie in, get up in the morning and go to the gym, we had a couple of hours in the day to have a look around. Then we'd head to the arena. And that's the other thing, we were going to arenas rather than like a little club or something.
F: Each arena has a different vibe too.
A: But the best thing was catering. It was like being in a restaurant.
F: We'd be in there every day before Little Mix.
Who's the worst member of Little Mix?
All: None of them!
A: I realised that touring is the thing I most enjoy, definitely.
If in the future you got to do an arena tour who would support you?
A: Who do we like? Everyone we love is bigger than us.
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But this is a hypothetical world where you're selling out arenas. J-Lo's last album didn't make the top 40 so you could get her.
A: Yeah. Or Mila J, we love her.
This is all very well, but you could have anyone, ever. Let's go big here guys! Whoever you want. Dead or alive.
N: Okay, Aaliyah.
A: I'm still thinking.
Your new single is called Dance On My Own. But what's your least favourite sandwich?
All: What?! Hang on.
Answer the question.
N: Jam.
F: I think it might be prawn mayonnaise.
A: I don't like anything with mustard in it.
No but back to Dance On My Own. It samples Flowers by Sweet Female Attitude – which is a pretty good girlband name actually – but why that song?
N: We're massive fans of old-school garage and that song just really stood out for us. Everyone loves that song.
A: It just doesn't get old.
The video's set in a car park in Clapham. When you got the treatment were you like 'oh yeah, cheers!'.
N: We like that sort of grittiness.
A: We also wanted people to know we're in London. But the location also means it could be New York, which also works with our sound and image.
You wear a lot of denim. How about a nice cotton trouser suit or maybe a dress for the next video?
A: We do quite like a trouser suit. We want one in a different colour for each person.
F: But the denim thing wasn't planned out, it's just natural.
A: Obviously in videos and shoots we do have help but they base it on what we like already.
N: We're not going to wear floral skirts, are we? You can wear a skirt with trainers and that works.
Can you cover Jade's Don't Walk Away for me please?
All: Yes.
A: We've spoken about that actually.
Right, so where is it?
A: It's coming.
Is it actually?!
All: Yes!
F: Dedicated to you, Michael.
Amazing. Well that's everything.
N: Ask us some more questions.
Er OK. What do you do when you're not in a girlband?
A: Nothing. This is all we do.
What are your hobbies? Gardening? Baking?
F: Shopping.
N: Spending time with family.
Can any of you roller-skate?
F: Yeah.
N: I definitely can. Give me a pair of skates and I'd be off.
Can you skateboard?
N: I used to skateboard up and down my road in my grungy jeans.
F: I've got a scar on my hands from skateboarding actually.
What did you do at school sports day?
A: Running was my thing.
F: I was on the relay team.
N: Relay team, 800 metres and 200 metres.
F: In the last year of school I just slowed down though.
A: I was really naughty and loud at school but I was always good at PE and sport. I used to play in the rounders team.
N: When I won the 800m I threw up as soon as I finished.
We could obviously speak about sports days for hours but we must end this madness now.
All: Bye!
Like this? Then you might also be interested in:
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MTV Presenter Becca Dudley Made Us An Excellent Getting Ready Playlist
Follow Michael on Twitter @MichaelCragg
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.