- When I was with the girls, doing stuff like interviews was easier. Now, it's just me. It feels a bit scary. On stage, though, it's different. I feel free again. It reminds me of why I wanted to get into this business in the first place.
- I don't think that friends should really be in a band together. Eventually business gets in the way because you have different views on how things should be done. But maybe we would have drifted apart anyway. We grew up in our time with the band. We became women - and our lives went in very different ways.
- I don't actually like people touching me. Never have. That was a part of the band I didn't like. You always had people touching you - make-up artists, stylists, fans. People can think they own you. They all want a little piece of you.
- [recalling an embarrassing encounter at CD:UK in early 2006] I made the effort to go and see the girls, and say hello to Amelle, and they threw it in my face. Apparently, Heidi was shocked and upset, and I made Amelle feel out of place and put them all off their performance. I haven't spoken to them since.
- [on being replaced as a Sugababe] It was hurtful, yeah. I said to my managers, 'Don't make her like me.' But it was a cloning. I know it was me who wanted out, but it's still hard to see that. It's like seeing your ex with another girl - you don't want him any more, but it hurts anyway.
- I have always been uncomfortable with the showy side of the business.
- We all found it a bit scary. We weren't much more than children ourselves, yet we had all these girls looking up to us, wanting to be us. There was a load of pressure on us to act in a certain way.
- I was always going off to beauty shows, singing and dancing. I'm sure they were fixed. If your parents paid enough, you won. I never did.
- I had a great time and mostly I wouldn't change anything, but I wish I could do it all again, but starting now [2007] rather than when I was 11 or 12. I missed out on a lot of family things - events, functions.
- [The final straw, she says, was a bout of post-natal depression. She was back at work just months after her little girl was born, growing increasingly frustrated as her bandmates became angry at her perceived lack of commitment.] They didn't see that my priorities had changed and there were days when I just had to get home to my baby. [So she quit, and says that when she left she was not planning to go solo.] When I got the chance to do it on my own - on my terms - I jumped at it.
- [2007] [What if Tahlia, in ten years time, comes home and says she wants to be in a band?] [Mutya laughs] I'll tell her no way. I'll tell her she has to wait, have a childhood, get her head together. If she has talent, she will always have talent. Talent will wait. Her childhood won't.
- It was quick [being replaced by Amelle]. Within four, five days of me saying I've left, she's on the page. I literally said to my managers before, 'please, whatever you do, make me feel like I had a place in the Sugababes, don't make her like me'. A replacement but not a replacement, d'youknowhatImean? And it was like a cloning.
- They were saying to me on my new video, 'try not to smile too much' [cackles] but to tell you the truth, these days, it's all happy days for me...
- [So who has made, we might wonder, the Sugababe millions?] I wish I knew, 'cos it definitely ain't me! If I had, I woulda quit.
- [on her brown suede boots, pulled up over the knee, fringed in fake-fur, with six inch needle-thin heels] From Camden market, I bartered £30 off.
- I always really hated Red Dress so I was quite happy they did it [re-recording Mutya's parts in the song with Amelle]. My problem was with Follow Me Home (the subsequent single). My verse was talking about my daughter, it was personal and then the video was awful. I just saw a bunch of perverted men and paedophile guys. And they're singing 'follow me home'!?
- [From aged 15, she'd been called] a miserable bitch, in nightclubs, by strangers, and I did have an attitude, I was 15 years old! [and something of a sexual force-field] There's things I would've done back then I'd be too embarrassed about now. I could walk up to a guy and be looking at him like I'm the man. I was bold but now I'm like a virgin again. If a guy came up now I'd be (sweetly) 'no, sorry, no hard feelings', whereas before I'd be 'yeah I'll take your number' or (bawls) 'not interested!' And have an argument. I was terrible! Because I can't play fake. I like to think I'm as real as it gets.
- [on growing up in controlled pop conditions for seven years] It was restrictions [over songs, clothes, booze, fags].
- [on Siobhan's overnight walk-out in 2001] It was like losing a sister, me and Siobhan got on great and I never disrespected her.
- We both [herself and Amy Winehouse] like a drink, God knows what would happen! I see a comedy video there. I couldn't see myself taking things seriously like (po-faced) 'I'm back'. That song [B Boy Baby], there's too much crying of laughter and smiling and taking the piss out yourself. And that coming out of my mouth, you know things are a lot different! The Sugababes was serious. Now, I wanna rip myself open with... stupidness. I'm at that part of my life where I can't give a shit no more.
- [on her initial troubles with new girl Heidi Range] At first I ignored her, then I loved her to bits.
- [on Keisha's control freak tendencies] Keisha is a very, very, very serious person when it comes to her job, and now, being the only original girl, she's probably a lot more serious! [In the early years, Keisha took her singing so seriously, she'd sing abnormally quietly in rehearsals so her mic would be turned up and then blast her vocals come the show, skewing the finely-tuned sound.] How did you find out about that!? Yeah, she'd be like that (coughs feebly) and then go on stage and be bam! 'Oh, you got your voice back quick enough!' It's funny, I'd completely forgot about that. Well, it's funny now...
- [The all-new, grown-up, non-bitchin', big-smilin' Mutya Buena is a technology-enthusiast "addicted" to MySpace, who owns seven mobile phones, is brash, tough and fuck-you funny, the sound and vision of what a modern proper pop star is.] Right now (2007), the talent in England is what everyone wants to listen to. I love Razorlights. (sic) And Arctic Monkeys. I do a cover of the Kooks' Naive. Then there's Amy, Lily Allen. It reminds me of the punk days when everyone did whatever they wanted. No one cares if they've got a cigarette, a pint in their hand, you can go on stage without makeup now and look the way you wanna look! When I was in the Sugababes, everything out during my time was so perfected. Now, I see guys not brushing their hair, even on the poppiest show. And this is what English talent's about. About not giving a shit.
- [Today (2007), the only Sugababe Mutya is in contact with is Siobhan, (who also releases a new album in June) after a reconciliation attempt with Keisha and Heidi at CD:UK in early 2006 was rebuffed.] I actually went down there with Keisha. I wanted to meet Amelle, I said hello and then I wasn't allowed to see them after because apparently Heidi was shocked and upset, I made Amelle feel out of place and put them all off their performance. (bristles) It took me to get up out of my bed to come and show there's no hard feelings and I got it pushed back right in my face so I thought 'forget it'. And I haven't really spoken to them since. You learn what's good for your life. But whatever's whatever. I was in a great band, I've got no issues, I've got my daughter now, my own album, I'm living my life. I'm a lot happier... than I think I've ever been.
- [In mid-2004, Mutya discovered she was pregnant (by her long-term boyfriend Jay) and the girls were initially supportive] until my daughter was born, then I missed shows and they'd get mad, it was messy. [They suggested a nanny.] My mum brought up eight of us while my dad was out working hard so I don't believe in nannies. [scoffs] If a nanny made my daughter cry I'd have to kill 'em. [She carried on but the stardust was fading anyway.] The girls said I used my daughter as an excuse to leave the band. But the last two years, I'd been losing the fun, it wasn't even an issue with the girls. But me having my daughter made me realise the girls were important but they're not that important.
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