Happy Soul

All that expectation must surely weigh heavy but Lianne La Haves is having too much of a good time to care.

“I can’t believe this is my job,” the 22-year-old soul-folk sensation tells me, while driving around the reaches of outer London to pick up her band at the start of a select headline tour which brings her to Oxford for the first time tomorrow.

“It’s all going really well, and I’m enjoying it so much. But it has all taken me by surprise!” she says. “I guess there is some pressure, but I’m still having a lot of fun – and sticking to my original plan of making music that I’m proud of and want to share with the world.

“I’m very happy with what I’ve done and, if it all comes off, it’ll be great.

“But even if it doesn’t, I’ll still be very happy.”

With so many plaudits, following appearances with Willy Mason and a storming appearance on Jools Holland’s show (which won her a tour support from fellow guests Bon Iver), the half Greek-half Jamaican Lianne might be expected to be smug.

Instead, she is disarmingly chatty and down to earth, with a sparky sense of humour and easy laugh.

Described as 2012’s answer to Corinne Bailey Rae, the multi-instrumentalist counts the likes of Jill Scott, The Fugees and Mary J Blige as her inspirations – and for that she thanks her music-loving mum, who filled their South London home with soul.

Her father taught her how to find her way around what are now the tools of her trade – the guitar and keyboard.

“I’ve been influenced by jazz and blues and have been singing them all my life,” she says. “The same goes for folk, I guess; I like that storytelling angle. “But the biggest influence is soul. I feel it encompasses everything else. And you need to sing from your heart.

“There was a lot of stuff I listened to when I was growing up, but I responded most to female artists; I wanted to sing like them.”

Lianne, who now lives north of the river in Hackney, has achieved success the old-fashioned way – working her way up through steady gigging – first as part of an outfit called The Paris Parade, then as a backing singer for her friend Paloma Faith, and then launching her solo career, releasing her debut EP Lost and Found last year.

She admits she took a gamble. “It was a risk to drop out of art college to become a gigging musician,” she says. “For a while I had no idea what I was going to do. I became a backing singer, which was lucky and meant I was able to meet people I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to.”

She is grateful to burlesque-artist-turned-actor-and-singer Paloma for giving her that break.

“Paloma is a very close friend of mine and we become closer all the time,” she says. “She showed me a lot of the world and I learned a lot. I also had space to work on my own writing.

“She will always be an eccentric, and beautiful, star – and she is very proud of me. One day I hope I can help someone else in my position, like she did.” Lianne bubbles with enthusiasm, but there is no doubt which part of her job she enjoys most.

“Going on tour,” she says. “I love playing shows and seeing, for the first time, people who have come of their own accord to see me play. I love it that people want to come out and listen to my music.

“It is so much fun on the road, but I have to take care of myself as I have to be able to sing well all the time. “It is tempting to party, especially if a gig goes well. But if you do everything in moderation, you’ll be fine!

“It has been an amazing journey over the past two years,” she goes on.

“But the strangest thing is probably being recognised.

“It happened in a Vietnamese restaurant near my home the other day.

“I’ve been going there for four years, but then one of the waitresses asked me for my autograph.

“That’s insane!”

* Lianna La Haves plays the Oxford 02 Academy on Friday, March 9. Tickets have sold out.