Could we have a potted history of Anna Calvi, please?

I started playing the violin when I was about six. I picked up the guitar when I was eight or nine and wrote my first song about then. Later, I played guitar in lots of bands until, a few years ago, I decided it was time to learn to confront my fear and sing. I locked myself away and practised some six hours a day until I found my voice. Then I started recording my first album in a little basement studio of my own. Bill Ryder-Jones who was in The Coral saw me at a gig and told Laurence Bell, the head of Domino Records. Laurence came to a few shows and asked if I wanted to join their roster which obviously I said yes to. I finished off the reocrdings with Rob Ellis (ed.: frequent collaborator of P.J. Harvey) in France. And that's where we are now.

What sort of influences and experiences went into forming your style?

I just respond to music that's very passionate. So I was instantly fond of artists like Nina Simone and Edith Piaf, people who give everything of themselves in their music. People who don't hold back. There is no irony or tongue-in-cheekness about them. It's very emotional. That's what's always appealed to me.

That's intriguing, because England is all about irony. Did you feel out of sinc with the environment you grew up in?

I definitely feel that I'm not part of a scene, like a "London scene". I've always done my own thing. My mum was brought up in Geneva and my Dad was brought up in Italy, and I suppose I never felt completely English because of this family background. But I don't know if that's had an effect on my music. Maybe.

Can you recollect the feelings that made you pick up an instrument so early in your life?

I used to get unbelievably excited when I'd see a musical instrument and even when I was four years old I was begging my parents to let me play the violin. They tried to put me off for a few years because they thought I was too young, but I just kept begging until they gave in. I just used to stare at it. I thought it was the most amazing magical thing. So I've just always really been drawn to any type of musical instrument. When I started playing the guitar I didn't have any lessons at all. I just improvised and taught myself. I really enjoyed that creative freedom when you make your own rules on an instrument.

Were there any guitar players you were particularly impressed by?

Well, my Dad used to play me Jimi Hendrix and Django Reinhardt, those were the two guitar players I really loved, and still do. I just like players who really push their instruments to be just free, expressive and dangerous.

One guitarist I keep thinking of particularly when I hear your bluesy passages is Peter Green.

I don't know him.

You went on to study music at Southampton University. What did that bring you as an artist?

It was great because I already had a big love for classical music but it just opened up my ears and my eyes to lots of other music. I really got into 20th century classical music through studying it. You just learn a lot when you study the score and analyse the music. That's not how I usually experience music, in an analytical way. But learning about that side of music is really helpful and it just opens up a lot of possibilities.

What modern composers do you like?

People like Messiaen, Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy, John Adams. I love Steve Reich and Philip Glass, too. But personally I related most to Debussy and Ravel.

Would you say that maybe the dynamics of your songs is something you have drawn from classical music? There are a lot of loud/quiet passages in your music.

Definitely. I try and bring an orchestral element to all of the songs even if they're just on guitar and drums. The sense of tension and release, which is what you get a lot in classical music, I really try to exploit that.

The harmonium is one of the lead instruments in your band. It's a great sound, for sure, but wouldn't it be easier to do it with a laptop?

I love real instruments, you can't beat them. I knew a guy who had one and the first time I heard it I just thought it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. It almost brought me to tears. It's got such an amazing sound. It can feel really huge, almost like a church organ, but it can also feel solitary and stoic and almost timeless. It could almost have been around a thousand years ago. It's got real personality to it. You can it breathe and pump air, it's got lungs.

What did the producer, Rob Ellis, bring to your songs?

He's a really great musician and arranger. When we got together I had already solidified a lot of the ideas in my minds, so it was really good working with him because he didn't come in with his own vision and said: that's how we should do it. He was very respectful. That's what's great about working with a really good producer. They bring ideas you wouldn't have thought of yourself and transform your vision into something that's even more magnificent than you had even hoped. He loves Ravel and Debussy as welll so when I tried to get that orchestral element into the music he could relate to that.

It's interesting that you chose Rob Ellis. He is also one of P.J. Harvey's long-term collaborators. There is a certain similarity in spirit between what you do and what she does. Would you agree?

Our song writing styles are very different but I get the sense that she throws herself into music with complete wild abandon, and I really respect that. I think she's a great artist. But comparing us ? it's like every single female artist gets compared to P.J. Harvey. So it doesn't really mean anything to me.

Brian Eno also pops up on your album. How did that come about?

His friend happened to see me at a show and loved it and told Brian about me. So Brian actually looked me up on YouTube, which is kind of funny, and he liked it and got in touch. We met up, he heard some of my demos and he's been really supportive since then. He said he wants to be my protector which is really nice. Then he actually came along when we were mixing the album and some vocals on a couple of songs. It was quite a moment for me to be able to do some work with Brian.

In recent weeks you've become omnipresent in the UK press. Do you pay any attention to what's written about your music and the music around you?

I've worked incredibly hard to make this album and I just hope there's gonna be people who like it. That's it, really. My influences are so wide, ranging from classical music to Robert Johnson to Edith Piaf, so I'm really not particularly interested in what happens to be fashionable right now, and I never have been. I just feel strongly that I wanted to make a piece of work that I felt was really true to my artistic vision and felt like it came from my heart. I don't mean that in a cheesy way. I wanted to express myself as honestly as possible.

There's a lot of drama to your music. Is a live performance also a bit like a theatrical performance for you?

It doesn't feel theatrical. I just need to feel something when I'm on stage. I get into a different part of me. I just sort of go into a trance where I feel different, where I can express myself in a way I can't in normal life. I try to really feel the emotion of the music when I play, otherwise there's no point to doing it. It's not like a show, "hey, how cool am I!".

Apart from your own emotions, what else triggers your muse?

I'm a very visual person. I paint as well. I like Peter Doig in particular, the colours are so rich and strong. I get very influenced by artists and film makers. I really love films where the cinematography is really beautiful. I want to see beauty, basically. There's been a film recently, "I Am Love", with Tilda Swinton. It's like evey single scene of that film, the colours are so rich, so much effort has been made to make it that really beautiful piece of art. I love that. And I try to do that.

Do you have a hard time, then, in London? A lot of London is anything but beautiful.

Trying to find your own beauty is a way of dealing with that.