Candie Payne is the name on everyone’s lips right now.
She’s bewitched Jonathan Ross, impressed Jools Holland and this week she playing her first solo gig in Liverpool.
How do you feel about playing in your home city after all this time?“I’m really nervous. I’ve done tours, but always supporting someone and they’ve never been in Merseyside, so it’s a big thing for me. It’s probably a good job I didn’t do it any earlier - I’d have been ten times as nervous.”
There is a certain sixties vibe to your work, is that where you draw your inspiration from?“I can see where you’d get that from, there is that sound there, but it isn’t something I consciously set out to do. It just happened.
“I think anyone who is in a band is influenced by the sixties, it was such an amazing decade for music and art – a really creative time.
“But I wouldn’t say I singled that era out any more than I do the forties – I love singers like Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee.
“People can put it into boxes if they like, but I don’t. I don’t really follow what’s currently going on in music, and I don’t draw a line between modern music and earlier bands. It’s all just music to me.”
Your upcoming single, I Wish I Could Have Loved You More, has been championed by Radio 2 and is a favourite of Jonathan Ross’. have you turned on the radio and heard yourself singing yet?
“No - I still haven’t turned on the radio and heard it. People keep telling me ‘Oh I heard you on Jonathon Ross’ and I keep missing it. I’ve heard myself when I’ve been listening out for it - Abi and Dave from the Zutons played it when they did a show on Radio 1. That was cool, but no I clearly need to listen to the radio more.
You're obviously from a very musical family (both of her brothers - Howie and Sean - are musicians, the former best known as the vocalist of The Stills and the latter as the drummer for the Zutons). Were you always destined to be a musician?
“As I was growing up I always wanted to do something creative, but I thought ‘I’m not doing music’.
"That was always Howie and Sean’s thing. I was into art, so I thought about becoming a fashion designer, or an artist of some kind. But then, over time, the music just happened.
“Howie and Sean have always been great about everything – they are incredibly supportive. I can go to them about anything, and it’s great to be surrounded by people who understand what’s happening.”
Are there any more Payne siblings waiting in the wings to wow us with their musical talent?
“We’ve got an older sister, but she’s not into music in that way. But she did help Sean and Howie get into music in the first place. She used to bring home albums for them to listen to and she backs us all the way. But no, I don’t think she has any plans to go into music herself.”
How have your parents responded to your musical aspirations?
“My mum and dad are proud of us all, but they never pushed us. It was never about our careers. They always wanted us to be nice people, polite, to represent Liverpool wherever we go. That’s what I work to do.”
What's next for you?
“Whatever happens in the next few months will shape the next few years for me. I’m going on another tour, then doing the summer festivals and hopefully they’ll let me do a second album, but you just have to see how it goes.”
On Friday you perfeomed on Later with Jools Holland, alongside Travis, Beverley Knight, Joanna Newsom and Dizzee Rascal. How was that?
“I’m so flattered to be asked to do it. Everyone else on there in on their fourth or fifth album. I’ve not even got my first out yet.”
Candie Payne's single I Wish I Could Have Loved You More is out on Monday May 14 or to download now. An audience with Candie Payne will be broadcast tonight on The Pool with Dave Monks on BBC Radio Merseyside from 8-10pm.