Polly Phonic

FRAGILE, vulnerable and innocent, Polly Scattergood comes across as a damaged and slightly unhinged soul.

Her transparent lyrics betray a searing honesty and a depth of experience.

And, when coupled with her childlike voice and smouldering indie rock, they make for eerie, uneasy, yet compulsive, listening.

With her debut album widely hailed as one of the year’s most exciting debuts, and an adoring fan base, this idiosyncratic Essex singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist – who sings disturbing tales of suicidal tendencies, sadness, sex, and stinging insults – is something of an unknown quantity.

“Everyone has lots of different layers to them,” explains 23 year-old Miss Scattergood (“Yes it is my real name… blame my parents!”).

“When you start writing, you put yourself in a vulnerable place. But I don’t think of myself as a vulnerable person.”

She actually started writing at the tender age of 11 – after finding a guitar under the stairs at her parents’ Colchester home.

So, with such unsettling themes, where does her inspiration come from?

“They all come from my own experiences,” she insists.

“My work is pretty lyrical – and it is the lyrics that I write first and foremost. I don’t think about what I want to say; it just comes out quite naturally. It’s something I’ve always done – it’s who I am.”

“Take the song Nitrogen Pink,” she adds. “It’s about deterioration. Everything slowly disappears over time. Though I want it to be uplifting.”

She has clearly led a rich and eventful young life, and her songwriting has seen her compared to Kate Bush.

“I’ve heard the comparisons,” she says. “It’s great. I’m certainly not offended.”

Yet in one respect she is as fragile as she sounds: “I suffer really bad stage fright,” she confesses.

“It’s a real fear. I’m quite a perfectionist and I don’t like the idea of things going wrong and of me disappointing people.

“I’ve been hypnotised a couple of times, by a lady who used to be a singer, and she told me that in live music everyone makes mistakes. But I’m still not over it.”

She may not sound like it, but Polly is just the latest product of the oft-maligned Brit School – the Croydon-based establishment which has also churned out the likes of Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash, Leona Lewis, Katie Melua, Adele and members of the The Kooks and The Feeling.

It is, I suggest, a bit of pop production line, so how does she feel to be associated with it? “It is perceived as a factory,” she agrees. “But that’s only because so many people have come out of it.

“I don’t know if the Brit School gave me a head start, but it gave me an education which I’m lucky to have.

“If I hadn’t gone there, I wouldn’t have been able to learn about music. I certainly didn’t have any money to pay for lessons.

“The teaching style there is so relaxed though.

“For me it was a place that allowed me to sit in a room on my own for hours every day, and play music.

“You are supposed to do a music test to get in, but I failed three times. Yet they still let me in! I told them I couldn’t read music, but I took 20 of my lyric books in, in an old bag, and said ‘these are my songs’.

“They take people from every walk of life though, and everyone mucks in together.

“It breeds excitement to be surrounded by other creative people. Everyone feeds off each other.”

So did any material from those books find its way on to the album?

“No, they are mostly the most recent tracks.

“I now have over 100 lyric books – though they are not all filled with good songs.

“I write the whole time, and over half will never see the light of day.”

Does that mean she already has enough songs for her second album.

“No,” she says. “I get bored of songs, so I always like them to be new.”

She encouraged curious gig-goers in Oxford to come down to the O2 Academy tomorrow to hear her in action.

“Everyone’s welcome… no matter who you are,” she laughs.

“Just come with happy hearts and open minds!”

Polly Scattergood plays the Oxford O2 Academy, tomorrow.

Tickets are £6. Her eponymous album is out now on Mute.