Rising Stars: Noisettes

First Published: October 2, 2009 10:51 PM EDT Credit: Sandrine Dulermo and Michael Labica

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Caption AccessHollywood.com’s newest Rising Stars: NoisettesIt’s a big week for British pop trio Noisettes.

The group – singer and bassist Shingai Shoniwa (think Kylie meets Grace Jones), guitarist Dan Smith and drummer Jamie Morrison – AccessHollywood.com’s newest Rising Stars, are riding high off the release of their second album, “Wild Young Hearts,” by racking up appearances on show’s like “Ellen.”

“I think me and her might see if we can get a couple of moves choreographed together before the gig, that’d be hilarious,” Shingai laughs down the phone line from New York City. “Maybe we should like, put her between the backing vocalists as well. That would be huge.”

Huge is actually what Noisettes are posed to be thanks to their rather spectacular new album. Songs like “Never Forget You” mix indie garage rock with a modern twist on late ‘50s Motown, while other cuts like “Don’t Upset The Rhythm (Go Baby Go)” sound like Billie Holiday shaking it at a swanky London arts disco.

Shingai, who grew up in London, is a big part of the band’s appeal, no doubt helped by the years she spent entertaining as a youngster.

“If you come from a big African family full of siblings, you always grow up doing things to entertain the family,” she told Access. “A lot of big black families growing up in London in the ‘80s and ‘90s probably didn’t have like, three TVs and laptops like kids have now, so you make your own entertainment.”

Shingai knew music was her calling and she paired up with her bandmates – Dan and Jamie — at a London performing arts school in the early ‘00s. The band’s big break, in 2005, came after London angular pop rockers Bloc Party picked them as their support act for their U.K. and U.S. treks after Shingai and Dan stalked BP’s singer, Kele Okereke, at a house party.

A debut album, “What’s the Time Mr. Wolf,” full of spirited indie rock came in 2007, setting up a nice college fan base stateside. The new record, however, is poised to bring them to the masses and Shingai can’t stop buzzing about it.

“All of my favorite bands always develop and evolve album to album, and at the end of the day I think it’s going to be really hard for anybody to ever pigeonhole a Noisettes album,” she explained. “How can a girl that’s grown up listening to African music, jazz, [David] Bowie, Nina Simon, Grace Jones, Billie Holiday, Earth Wind and Fire, Diana Ross… How can a girl like that ever make a generic, manufactured album?”

Shingai said her three-piece are proud of their fantastic new songs, even if you can’t pin the collection down to just one genre.

“We just like to think that what we do is like, off the wall pop music,” she said. “The best pop music, I think, is the kind that brings a variety of different people together in an audience. If you look at a Noisettes audience you’ve got like the old guys… young kids… couples that you know this is their make up gig… the gay crowd, the afro punks, you’ve got the people who love soul, you’ve got people who love jazz.

“I’ll never stop making music that breaks barriers,” she continues. “I don’t give a f*** about barriers. I think musicians should be breaking down barriers, not creating them.”

Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.