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Profile
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Edele
Lynch
They’re spunky. They’re Irish. They make millions of preteen girls go bananas for their infectious blend of melodic pop and Irish jiggery. But make no mistake—B*Witched is not the Spice Girls. In fact, the four young women in B*Witched—twins Edele and Keavy Lynch (19), Sinead O’Caroll (20), and Lindsay Armaou (18)—actually write and play the majority of the music on their first album, B*Witched. We grabbed a few moments with Edele, the self-proclaimed leader of the group, to find out what life is like for these teens who are on top of the world. Does it bother you that you’re so often compared to other bands like The Spice Girls or All Saints? No, it doesn’t bother us, because I think, you know, like that, we’re a new band and we’re here firstly here in the states, and I think people just want to have some sort of idea what sort of band we are. And we’re girls and they’re girls, and that’s why they compare us, but that’s the only way you can compare us because our music is quite different.
I know one of the biggest differences between B*Witched and other “girl bands” is that you guys actually came together and started playing and writing your own music, rather than being a producer-created band. Yeah, we got ourselves together, and we just clicked straight away, musically and socially, and we just started the band then.
Did you guys make a conscious effort to make sure that people recognized that the four of you actually do have musical talent? Yeah, I think it’s pretty obvious when you look at the group that we actually do have musical talent, and we do write our own music, which people never seem to really realize. If you read the album, we actually do write quite a bit of our music. We just want to keep writing music and playing it and making everybody else happy.
Do all four members participate in writing? We do, yeah. I mean, it can happen all different ways. Maybe one of us will come up with an idea and we’ll start writing, and then we’ll finish it off in the studio, or else maybe we’ll go into the studio and start writing it all together from total scratch—it happens all different ways.
Where do you guys get inspiration? Well, you can actually get inspiration at any time of the day, I mean you could be sitting on an airplane on your way to another state and maybe get an inspiration for a melody or some lyrics, just be thinking about something. Generally, what our music is about is just experiences that we have had or maybe experiences we’ve seen around us from other people, you know?
The main core of your audience is so young (8-12)—do you think B*Witched will be able to grow with your fan base? Oh do you think? I would have given the main core of our audience from eight to about seventeen or eighteen. That’s what we’re hoping to do. At the moment we have quite a wide audience of people listening to our music. You know, the main ones are quite young, but we actually do have a lot of older people that listen to it. And you know, there’s a lot of people that just appreciate good pop music, and they listen to it and it just makes them feel really happy. I mean, only time will tell, but I think that’s what we’re hoping to do is just grow with our fans, and as our music grows, maybe make more fans as well, older and younger.
Do you feel any sort of moral obligation to be a good role model for your audience since they’re mainly young girls? We don’t really feel obligated to be good role models. You know, we’ve had a lot of parents actually come to us and tell us that we do it very well. They say, “Oh I’m so glad that you’re out now because you’re a great role model for my kids,” and I mean that’s brilliant for us to hear, because obviously we do it quite naturally. We don’t consciously think of that, but we do it quite well, so we don’t have to, so that’s really good.
What is it about your band that you think has made you so successful? Four number one U.K. singles is a pretty amazing feat. I think the four of us pulled together are quite talented, and I think that’s obvious, and I also think our music is just happy and positive music, and people do want music to listen to that makes them feel happy. We also have a difference in ourselves—with every song we do has its own difference, and it’s also tied together with the Irish music, and it’s something different.
Do any of the members of B*Witched have boyfriends? Not at the moment. We’re traveling so much, and even more now that we’ve come to America, so we haven’t had time to meet anybody—but hopefully we will soon. [Laughs.]
I see that you guys have an official B*Witched web page—does the band like to surf the Net? We never get any time—I’ve never actually surfed the net. About the only time I’ve ever surfed the Net is actually to go to my own website just to check it out like. To be honest, we actually don’t get any time to do it—but I hear it’s really good.
I know your producer picked your name (B*Witched)—who chose the unusual spelling of it? We actually had some people come in and draw up our logo for us. We thought that we might want something in the middle there instead of an “e,” because Bewitched has been done before. And there was a couple of ideas floating around, and the main one we came down to was the star.
You guys must feel like you’re on top of the world right now—what’s your next move? Do you think you’ll branch out musically? At the moment we’re going to concentrate on touring because we’re doing the [Nickelodeon’s] All That tour when we come back in August. And we’re also writing our second album at the moment, which is due out at the end of the year. We also have our own tour coming up in the U.K., our own arena tour, and we’re going to do a couple of dates over here in America before Christmastime as well. Yeah, we’re doing a lot, actually, between here and there, doing it musically and touring.
Is your new album going to be a departure from your current album, or will it be a similar sound? I think it’s actually going to be quite different, and it’s not that we actually took a decision to make sure that it would be different or growing or anything. I think we’ve just grown and we’ve seen an awful lot more of the world and we have different experiences and different ideas and [we’re] experimenting with different things, so it is going to be quite different.
What would you say is the most significant change in your lives since you hit it big? I think the biggest change in our lives would have to be just moving away from home, away from family and all the rest. I mean it’s quite hard, you move away from family and you leave all your friends behind, and even though you make new friends in the business, you never actually see them.
So you’re no longer living in Ireland? No, we live in England together—we have an apartment together. So it’s quite hard when you’re away all the time because your social life just becomes over the phone like.
Who makes you star struck? Nobody, I don’t think. I haven’t met anybody so far [that does]. I think it’s just Irish people in general are quite laid-back. I don’t know, I just have the idea that I just appreciate everybody that is doing really well for themselves. And I don’t see that anybody is better than anyone else just because maybe they’re successful in the public eye. I don’t think I’d be star struck. I mean, I like to meet these people and I really appreciate meeting them because I appreciate their music like. We met Celine Dion and we met the Bee Gees, and they’re both two legendary artists, and they were absolutely fantastic. I mean they were just really really nice, really down to earth. What annoys me is when you meet some people and they would be really rude like. You know, when they’re really rude and they think that maybe they’re better than everybody else just because they’re successful in the public eye, and I think that’s just ridiculous like. And that annoys me, and it makes you feel awkward around those people because you don’t know what to say.
I wanted to do a little word association. I have four words and I wanted you to tell me the first thing that comes to mind. Right.
Donut. Yuck. [Laughs.] I don’t like donuts.
Grease. Uh, Lindsay. Lindsay’s half Greek.
Denim. B*Witched! What can I say?
Pamela Anderson. Long blonde hair and I won’t say the other thing. [Laughs.]
Well, Edele, that was all I had for you—was there anything else you wanted to add? Just that our new single, “Rollercoaster,” is out now, and obviously B*Witched, the album, is out now, and it’s a lot of fun. And also to say thanks a million to all our fans for all your support, and we hope to get to see them soon and perform in their state.
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