Love Jones

VANITIES

Nicky Love’s rock catharsis

After one horrendous year in which her father, grandfather, and grandmother died, her boyfriend went mad, and a close friend committed suicide, singer Nicky Love pulled herself together. In 1993 she left her native Australia for London, where she met Robbie Robertson—a founding member of the Band, who had been hired by David Geffen and Mo Ostin as a sort of talent scout for DreamWorks Records—and played him her songs.

“I saw the possibilities immediately,” says Robertson. “She just had a different thing going on—sexuality and a touch of danger—but she wasn’t some scruffy street kid. There was a sophistication there.” According to Love, who claims she’s “naive and jaded,” it was crucial that she not be presented as “some fluff in a skirt with dancers behind me. I wanted to do something modern and honest.”

Despite her age, 28, her past includes a past. “I used to party quite a lot,” she admits. “I was in a band called the Freaked Out Flower Children, but privately we were called ‘the Fucked Up Flower Children.’ I tried stuff, but it was nothing I wanted to go back to. A lot of people I knew weren’t so lucky.”

For her debut, Honeyvision, out next month, Robertson put her in the studio with groovy U.K. producers, including Marius de Vries (PJ Harvey, Bjork, Madonna). The result: On audio—catchy pop tunes illustrating tales of betrayal, madness, and anger. On video—Love displays one of the best sneers since Jagger or Presley.

Love lives in Spain with her husband, British businessman Janies White (they got married last year in Las Vegas at the Bellagio hotel), but is currently in Los Angeles, preparing for a U.S. tour this spring. “Seeing what a big, bloody business this is in America,” she says, “you realize that someone could replace you in a second. You’ve got to be serious; there’s just no room for that old rock ’n’ roll mentality.”

LISA ROBINSON