It was in Hoxton Bar & Kitchen that she was first unleashed. All winks to the camera, 50s pouts and Carry On arse wiggles, the music journalists, tastemakers and East End scenesters toasting what was soon to be the newest darling of the pop charts. She showcased her burlesque 40s RnB voice, all aquiver at the high notes, and overshadowed fellow performers of the night Elviin and Josh Weller, who also guests on Faith's album. Rapturous applause, albeit some of it drunken, greeted the razzmatazz finale of her set, a taster from her debut album that features writing collaborations with Greg Kurstin, Ed Harcourt, Paddy Byrne and songwriter Jodi “Mika's-Grace-Kelly” Marr.

 

That’s when it happened. Paloma-mania hit. All at once she was everywhere. Her music killed, her movies topped the charts – she was the Goth in St Trinians – and, with the thanks of glossy magazines, she instantly earned the reputation of Britain’s new hottest commodity, with superlative praise from broadsheets declaring, "Bjork meets Roisin Murphy while possessed by the ghost of Billie Holiday" and "Portishead meet Piaf”. Praise indeed. “There are a lot of new pop girls waiting in the wings, but this one's success seems assured,” The Guardian insisted. Already the tastemaker’s wet dream, though her album hadn’t even yet hit, it didn’t take a genius to see that the Hackney home girl done good. Very good.

 

Hynam Kendall: I’ve got to get it out of the way first; did you get to meet Girls Aloud on the set of St Trinians? Were you a fan? I love them. 

Paloma Faith: No, because I am not a big fan of Girls Aloud. It’s not really my type of music.

HK: What about Gemma Arterton? I sat next to her in Soho House once. She’s very pretty.  

PF: Yes - Gemma is such a lovely girl. She comes to my gigs when she can and I actually fell in love with her in Tess [of The Derbivilles]. We are both very busy, but we try to keep updated on one another as much as possible. She's so great and totally my type of gal! 

HK: And Lily Cole? You worked with Lily again on the The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus

PF: Lily I see a bit less than Gemma because she is so busy. I saw her last at her birthday party. She's really nice too, and very intelligent. When we were on St Trinians, she was going to a birthday party and she picked some lovely wild flowers and put ribbon around them and asked me "Is this ok to give as a birthday present?" I said "If my mate was Lily Cole and she gave me that, I'd be well pissed off!" Haha! Poor girl just didn't have time to go shopping. 

HK: You’re an actress-slash-singer... can I call you the British JLO… 

PF: I'd like to think of myself more as a female David Bowie or Tom Waits. I hope I can continue to do both as both are equally important to me. Each one is a different type of therapy.

HK: Unlike JLO, You’ve also been a magician’s assistant… a burlesque dancer… a ghost at a funfair... 

PF: ...Life drawing model, chicken boiler, agent provocateur lady, housekeeper in hotels, barmaid, street casting person, performance artist, DJ, washing up girl. The chicken boiling was the worst. I couldn't get the stench off my skin for days afterwards. All the performance ones aren’t that different to my job now, I suppose. Life is a performance anyway. There is a book called The Theatre and Its Double by Antonin Artaud which is all about this. We are all performing and acting in real life, all playing a role.

HK: If that’s true, your role is a very vampish, theatrical one 

PF: Yes! And my live act is very theatrical. There are a lot of references to my inspirations: David Lynch, Slava the Clown, Josephine Baker, Edith Piaf, they are all in there. I tend to think the word "burlesque" is too restrictive an umbrella. I prefer "theatrical".

HK: With the freedom of being “theatrical” then, how extreme can we expect you to go?

PF: I performed early on in my career, before I got a deal, at the Luminaire. I had a song about the death of my childhood. I actually rigged myself up with blood bags so I would appear to be bleeding on stage. 

HK: Your new song is on a Rimmel advert, a wholesome outlet a million miles away from blood bags

PF: Yes – the blood bags were great and very shocking, but I don't think a major label would let me do that anymore!

HK: So we can say goodbye to the type of performances that used to make you a spectacle? Illusionists, fan dancing, singing blindfolded…

PF: ...giant balloons, being sawn in half, snowstorms, windy libraries, a living room on stage, a field of flowers, Petra Storrs mirrored dresses...

HK: Speaking of your stage outfits, who do you wear? You always look amazing

PF: Ashish, Bernard Chandran, Conchita Perez, vintage clothes and costumes, Fred Butler, Amechi Ignachio, Marco Mitanovski, Carianne Moore, and, of course, whoever will lend me or make me things!

HK: You got an MA Time Based Arts, in which you specialised in site specific performance. Do you think you’ve benefited from coming from this art background and not a music background?

PF: Yes. I think I know how to perform and I know how to attract people visually. We live in a culture where people are used to all their senses being stimulated all the time. I endeavour to do that in music. So many musicians are really talented, but they don't add anything to their music in the live show. You may as well just stay at home and listen to the CD. I think my live show is better than my CD.

HK: You’re really being championed for maximum exposure. Do you want to be a big household name, or is that naff?

PF: I think I'd like people to buy my records first and foremost. I don't mind if they don't recognise me. I just want people to love the songs and the show.

HK: It’s all well and good doing it for the art, but in the end you don’t just make the music for yourself - you want an audience.

PF: Yes, my shows rely on the audience! Without them there would be no spectacle! 

HK: I’m going to ask something you won’t like

PF: Go on

HK: Do the Amy Winehouse comparisons annoy you? 

PF: Well, I think she's talented, but I think my music sounds very different and lyrically I use metaphor and visual language a lot more.

HK: But there have been lots of comparisons

PF: I think I was probably raised listening to some of the same types of music as her and that shows in the way we sing.

HK: Like her - you sing about being crazy and unhinged… is this how you really are?

PF: I think I'm just free. I'm impulsive. If you dare me to do something I'll probably do it!

HK: Was the record company ever worried about the similarities? Did they ever push for something different through fear of comparison? 

PF: I am not like Amy Winehouse!!!!!

HK: What do you think of your pop tag?  

PF: I don't mind anything. I just want people to like the music!

HK: They do. There are lots of blogs and websites for your superfans. One of my favourites reads: “Hi Paloma, you are about the best person in the world. You were very good acting when you was [sic] in St. Trinians. You were the best actor I mean you are the best sorry I can’t just get over you. By the way my real whole name is Claire Louise Mcgibbon, secret ok, don’t tell anyone or else you won’t be the best in St. Trinians.”

PF: Haha! I’ll take all the fans I can get! 

Paloma Faith’s debut album Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful? is out on 28 September.