Amanda Warner is the vocalist who featured on Mark Ronson’s catchy tune Bang Bang Bang and she’s about to hit the big-time fronting her own band MNDR. Here’s what she told TNT’s Alison Grinter…

In the UK you’re best known as the gal who sings and plays synths on Mark Ronson’s Bang Bang Bang. Is it true you didn’t know who he was when he sought you out for his album?
Yeah, but that doesn’t really reflect on the visibility of his career in the States… I lived in California at the time and was involved in more counter-culture things. It didn’t take me long to put it together – I was like, ‘oh he’s a producer’ and we just met each other. He gave me some tracks to write on and asked me if I could do Bang Bang Bang which was proving a little tricky. It was just one of those moments where things come together.

Did you need to brush up on your French to sing the “Je te plumerai la tête” bits borrowed from Aloutte?
Well, my mother’s French-Canadian so it wasn’t a huge stretch. But my French is actually awful – I don’t think any Parisians would enjoy my French accent too much.

You got pretty sick while you were making Bang Bang Bang is that right?
Two things happened: my parents had their 40th wedding anniversary and we took them on a three-day cruise and the water was really choppy. But when I got off the boat I felt like I was still on the boat! I had to go to a specialist at NYU and he said, ‘oh, you’ve got a really rare case of vertigo’. And aside from that I got a horrible flu which put me in the hospital for three days – I had a burning fever of 105 [Farenheit] and they said I maybe had dysentery. I lost 20 pounds in a week.

MNDR’s debut album is slated for release in late January – how’s it coming along?
The album is nearing completion. It’s going to be more of a classic pop album more than a dancefloor/electro album.

I love your “geek chic” look. Where do you get your fab glasses?
It’s not purposeful, it’s just kinda how I dress. I‘ve had those glasses for almost five years, they’ve been with me all over the US – I was living in San Francisco and I used to go to a eyewear couturier in the Bay area and he has 20,000 pairs of one-offs and these ones were just kind of glaring at me and had all this weird detail, and I was like, ‘oh they’re cool’ and just bought ’em.

You’re originally from the town of Fargo in North Dakota. Did the Coen brothers’ film Fargo get it right?
Yeah, I’m from 40 miles north of there, so pretty much. And yeah, it’s exactly like the movie. It’s not as hick – it has four colleges so there’s a lot of college kids. But the accent and the niceties are dead on. The funny thing is that the accent is really difficult and the only people who could really it were the local actors – the leads were a little off.

So Frances McDormand, who won an Oscar for that film, didn’t even nail the North Dakota accent?
No, she didn’t. She had a Milwaukee accent. She didn’t really get it. She was alright but it was more of a Wisconsin accent.

» MNDR’s debut single Fade To Black/I Go Away is out now through Trouble Records.