Uffie

The Miami born, sneaker-loving 18-year-old

Uffie AKA Anna Cathryn Hartly is about to take the world by storm by dropping her infectious blend of Electro-Hop.

Leaving America for a brief trip to Paris to stay with her father and having already lived in Hong Kong as a child, Uffie is mature beyond her years whilst Paris has now become both her home and the start of a poignant career.

“I noticed that in Europe everything is just so much more liberal, in weird ways, and that definitely clicked with me.”

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“I left America when I was 16 for a holiday with my dad in Paris and ended up staying. When you have straight parents and live in America there is a certain way to go, a certain mould and I just didn’t fit that mould!” laughs Uffie. “I noticed that in Europe everything is just so much more liberal, in weird ways, and that definitely clicked with me.”

After being approached at the tender age of 16 by one of her top rated DJs Feadz at an after-party for a fashion show that Uffie had organized, he managed to convince her to sing on one of his tracks. However things weren’t that simple because the then shy Uffie was reluctant to let anyone hear her voice, and even made everyone leave the studio to record them.

“Feadz was always pushing me saying, ‘you have such a weird voice we should try something please’, until finally I just wrote ‘Pop The Glock’, which was supposed to be a really funky gangster parody,” laughs Uffie. “We ended up doing it with a vocoder and all really liked it, then Mr Oizo was like ‘I want to try one!’ So we did ‘Rided Off’ and just kept going. I have always loved music but never ever thought I’d get involved with it till last year.”

But as Uffie spoke to Clash from the offices of her new home at Ed Banger records in Paris, it was hard to believe that she’s only been on the music scene for around twelve months, having already shared the same stage with such prolific figures as Pharell Williams and Tow Life Crew.

From a once coy 16 year old girl who didn’t really have any interest in becoming a recording artist, to the now distinct sounds of an outspoken young woman with her own opinions to boot, it’s just hard not to fall in love with her, and I’m sure she will be riding high as the queen of what seems to be her own ‘artistic movement’ for years to come. With Uffie spitting lyrics like an AK47 rifle, rhyming skills, thumping electronic beats, and a kick ass pair of Nikes to match, what more could you possibly want from a singer?

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