Just Insatiable

YOU’D think stepping out from the security of the country’s most successful girl band would fill you with dread. Not if you’re Nadine Coyle. The Girls Aloud star released her debut solo single, Insatiable, on Monday, followed by an album next week, and she simply can’t wait.

It’s a flying visit to the UK from her permanent Los Angeles base where, at the same time as topping charts around the world with Girls Aloud, she’s established a busy bar, Nadine’s Irish Mist, on Sunset Beach.

“Living in LA and working here can be hard,” she admits, “late-night or early-morning phone calls, that kind of thing. But I’ve been there four years now, so I’m used to it.”

Insatiable, her forthcoming album, sees her break away from Girls Aloud for the first time. Her solo career was rumoured to be kicking off two years ago, but back then Coyle was happy just to be writing songs, potentially for other artists.

“It’s mad. I didn’t intend to do a solo album, but I had a publishing deal with EMI and I really enjoyed the sessions with other writers and using the loops and samples on GarageBand (industry-standard music software on the Mac).

“Then someone heard them and now I’m here promoting the solo record.”

That someone was William Orbit, who’s worked with Madonna among others, suggesting it wasn’t as much a case of happy coincidence as Coyle would have us believe.

The pair worked on one of the album’s songs, Unbroken, together, while other collaborators include Robbie Williams’ former musical director Guy Chambers, and German producer Toby Gad, the brains behind Fergie’s Big Girls Don’t Cry and Beyonce’s If I Were A Boy. Coyle’s album is unusual because it will be released by Tesco, with the supermarket being the only stockist, apart from iTunes.

“It’s where I buy my CDs,” she reasons. “Especially before Christmas, it’s where everyone gets their records from.”

Ever since Girls Aloud announced they were taking a year-long hiatus – which quickly turned into a break of indeterminable length – Coyle was quickly turned into the villain of the band by the press.

She was the one holding off the reunion, or the one who wanted the band to split up permanently, according to whichever paper or glossy magazine you read.

There’s also the matter of Geordie Cheryl Cole’s ascension to status of National Sweetheart, and the success of the X Factor judge’s own solo album 3 Words, and single Fight For This Love (the UK’s fastest-selling single last year) to consider.

“I don’t feel there’s any competition,” says Coyle when the C-word is mentioned. “I’m not doing this because of Cheryl. It depends who I’m up against in the charts that week. It’s more about working. I’m not going to work in my bar, I can’t do that, and I can’t really do anything else. I’m a singer. This is what I do,” she adds.

After the success of Girls Aloud – 20 consecutive top ten singles (a chart record for a female group), four No 1s, two No 1 albums, Coyle also feels she can afford not to worry too much about criticism.

“When we first started off, Sound Of The Underground was an amazing song, but as a band, we weren’t really that good. We had to learn the trade, learn our stuff. Four years in we’d cracked it, and then after eight years we were really very good.

“My solo work is completely different, and I don’t feel like I have anything to prove, to myself or anyone else. I wouldn’t put myself under that sort of pressure, it would be too much. I definitely don’t want that.”

What Coyle does want, however, is to live out her girlhood fantasies of performing her solo material with a live band and backing singers.

“When I was little, I dreamed of being a singer. I did imagine videos with big sweeping camera angles, big lights, dresses, the whole works, and now I can live that out a bit.

“I’m going to be auditioning a whole load of goodlooking, buff eye candy dancers as well. You know, it’s just me being thorough,” she says with a mischievous cackle.

As if on cue, her fiance, Jason Bell, former cornerback for the New York Giants, walks through from the next room. “Would you like me to go to Starbucks for you?” he asks.

Coyle shoots him a winning smile and off he goes.

So are Girls Aloud going to get back together or not?

“Yes,” says Coyle, reluctant to comment.