I still love the skinny jeans thing and I wear my favorite leather jacket constantly. I like being kind of a rock star. I love that I can feel comfortable in a small dress or I can feel comfortable wearing a baggy T-shirt.
Two things I’m obsessed with are the countryside and fields and being in the open space and body parts, so you’ll hear me mentioning body parts and human anatomy. I’ve listened to my songs and I think I am quite visual and I talk about bones and flesh a lot.
There are so many things to think about when you make an album. Like, who am I trying to impress? Am I going to get respect, critical acclaim? Or am I going to sell lots of records?
Since I met Starsmith, my producer, I really feel like I’m making music because we write it together and produce it together. I’ve got a proper involvement in the end product as opposed to just writing a song and finding someone else to produce it.
Not much shocked me. You know, I worked in a home for Alzheimer’s patients and my dad used to be really into murders and stuff, so I saw dead bodies. It desensitised me to a lot of things.
It’s so important to take vitamins. People always get ill on tour because of the close proximity in the bus with everyone.
Men are wary of me because they know, by listening to my music, that a relationship with me will be quite deep.
You pick up loads of baggage with your first record with reaction to it from fans and critics. So I went to Ireland by myself for a couple of weeks with my guitar. I read lots of poetry, I read Patti Smith’s autobiography and started words and phrases and then songs started to take shape.
When I sing along with Britney Spears I will sing in an American accent. But eventually I found my own voice. My songs are so brutally honest, it would be alien to sing in any accent other than my own. Don’t get me wrong – I can imitate singers. I can do bar mitzvahs and weddings.
I’d hate it to become style over substance, I’d hate people to start putting me in a magazine article about my style. I don’t like dressing up in something I’m not necessarily comfortable in just to make it more of a show. I want the power to come from what I sing about and how I sing.
The only really safe thing to do is to write a diary of where you’ve been, what time you went to bed, what you ate. If I wrote honestly about everything I think it’d be a disaster. It would cause a lot of trouble.
I feel like my figure is a challenge because I’m quite flat chested but I’ve got a booty so I’ve got to look for the right things.
I was the first person to go to university from my family.
I suffer panic attacks which has made me really conscious about my fitness and I have become addicted to jogging. It might sound odd but a lot of good has come out of it. My fans send letters saying they have taken up jogging because I do it.
I love designer stuff but like it will only be like, on a whim. I love Alexander Wang so much, but it’s expensive.
America saw me as a projection of me that I always wanted. Thats why I love going to America so much. I feel like I started off in America exactly how I wanted to start everywhere.
My mum was too busy raising four of us to encourage my hopes. But I’m glad I had the upbringing I did. It made me a worrier and a thoughtful, curious person.
When I heard Bjork’s debut, that was when I first realized that I could be a singer, even with my unusual voice.
Cover versions, that’s my forte, that’s all I ever used to do. When you play your own songs, it’s quite scary, ’cause I’m quite honest and open, they can be very revealing. But covers, I don’t have to think about, just get me up there!
I don’t think there was ever a moment when I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to be a singer!’ I guess it just happened. I performed a lot when I was younger and stuff, but I remember getting to the point where I thought I might have to get a normal job.