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to be democratised and it feels like anyone could have a hit from Soundcloud (and that can sometimes happen, but very rarely) in reality, it costs a lot of money to break a pop act and the people who hold the keys to the wallet are still there, and still holding the keys. Simon Cowell happens to be one of those people, so if you get asked to take part in his show, it's worth a bash, and we both agree with that. That's how we ended up on The X Factor.
The process itself is quite humiliating and dehumanising, they use pretty crude psychological methods to ensure that the participants are pretty much on edge all that time. Ash reckons that they probably break several human rights laws per episode.
How long have you been together and could you give us some info on your past careers, including who you have performed with?
We've been together doing Kitten and The Hip gigs for more than 4 years, but we took 18 months off while we attempted The X Factor, and then Scarlett went back this year to try it on her own. That came to nought, so we're back out there on the road with KATH next year, and have another album nearly ready to release. We also work for a lot of producers, some of them quite well known, and Scarlett has one tune out with Mark Lower which has 30,000,000 views on YouTube. That's quite a big record in anyone's eyes. Scarlett's also toured with Netsky, she was the singer and writer on Come Alive, one of his biggest hits to date.
Ashley does a lot of different things, including writing for kids TV, ads, writes and produces film scores and plays with a few different bands, including jazz legends Loose Tubes. Ashley has a long history of gigging but reckons one of his most memorable gigs was singing on stage with Elvis Costello and Debbie Harry, as part of a project with Roy Nathanson.