BEAUTY, brains and an ear for a great song, VV Brown has got it all.

But she is also a mass of contradictions.

Her feel-good indie-pop has a retro ‘60s edge, but is rooted in the here and now.

Her music is unashamedly joyful, while her lyrics delve into pain and hurt.

And her Bond girl-looks mark her out as a style icon, yet she admits to being a private woman, who prefers nights in with her family.

Yet to VV (real name Vanessa), it all makes perfect sense.

“I’m a bit of a contradiction,” says the Northampton-born singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer.

“I’m introverted and extroverted at the same time. Sometimes I’m crazy and the next I’m sad. I do have mood swings.

“I like partying, but I’m also a home bird. I go to so many parties, it has become like work, and now I appreciate staying in, sitting around the table, eating tomato soup and talking about boys.

“I’m also schitzophrenic musically.”

This Thursday, VV Brown (the name is a hip-hop nickname from school) plays her debut Oxford show. And her Phil Spector-ish high-octane doo-wop-pop, which she describes as “musical mashed potatoes”, is busy earning admirers, not least Damon Albarn who invited her to perform on his Africa Exprez adventure in Lagos, and Gavin & Stacey stars James Corden and Mathew Horne, whose upcoming film debut Lesbian Vampire Killers features her song Crying Blood.

Harbouring a desire to be a star since writing her first songs at the age of five, VV has earned recognition the hard way.

Landing a place at Oxford University to study law, she pulled out to make her name in music. And after signing to a major label at the age of 19, things looked like they were going well.

She soon found herself in Los Angeles, working with big producers and even provided backing vocals for the Pussycat Dolls.

But she wasn’t happy. “I felt lost,” she says. And she shunned California, disillusioned and broke.

“I reached the age where I wasn’t willing to compromise,” she explains. “People glamorise my work with the Pussycat Dolls, but it was just something I did to pay the rent. I went in, got paid and it fed me for a week.”

Selling her keyboard to pay for her flight home, she moved in with her aunt in London. But rather than admitting defeat, she set out to do it her way – starting by buying a guitar she saw in a charity shop, taking all but one of the strings off, and marking the frets out with her red nail varnish.

She wrote Crying Blood the very next day.

“Things have been very gradual, she says.”

“It feels like I’ve been doing this for ever, but that I’ve still got a long way to go.

“I’ve been wanted to be known as an established artist for a long time, but it’s a slow evolutionary process. My mum and friends know the real story – of the constant sacrifice, and gigs where nobody came.

“Now, whether I sell a million records or one, I know who I am.”

And she is still attached to that one-stringed guitar. “Just having the one string to play bass notes, made me feel freer,” says the classically-trained pianist. “I also couldn’t be bothered to learn all the chords!”

This year we’re going to be hearing a lot more from VV Brown. But, how do we know we’re hearing the real her? Well we don’t.

“I’m a songwriter as well as an artist,” she says. “And I like to do what I call musical dressing-up. Some songs I write don’t represent me at all. I like to change the colour of my spots!”

VV Brown and Gary Go play the Oxford O2 Academy on Thursday.

Tickets are £6.