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What's the best thing about being on the road? "It's the feeling that you're a kid again and you're so catered for. I always say everyone should have a tour manager. They're very tolerant but have this ability to organise. It's like being on a school trip - it's so easy. I wouldn't say it was glamorous, though. You're sleeping on a bus and there's no bathroom. You just have a Portaloo and sometimes you have to shower at the venue - and it's not always that nice. But I love it. It's so free."

You recently got engaged to your drummer. Does it make things harder or easier being in a relationship with a band member? "It's much easier. The worst thing is coming off stage and phoning your boyfriend. I would find it difficult being in a relationship with someone who wasn't in the band."

How did you make the transition from folk singer to rock chick? "I suppose there's always that element of being a tomboy. Even when I was with The Skubhie Dubh Orchestra KT's first band - now known as The Fence Collective, there was still that rock and roll attitude. Even though the style of music was different there was still that way of roughing it on the road and partying till late."

How would you describe your music style? "I always find it difficult to answer this. I have a standard answer, if I can just think what it is. I'd say it's - hang on - it's sensitive, breezy girls' stomp. Actually, I'm thinking of inventing a new word: frock-funk rock for girls!"

You once said you found bantering between songs "excruciating". Has it got any easier? "Actually, that came from me not expressing myself very well. I love it, but it's hard to get right. When you first start, you gibber. Then you come off stage and think: What did I say? Oh no, I'm an idiot'. My advice would be, don't slag yourself off on stage. I used to do it but you should shut up and just play. If you're slagging yourself off, you just make the audience feel stupid for coming to see you."

Now you're a big star do you ever miss days of busking? "I think back on them really fondly but I can't say I miss it. It's something I think you can do when you're young. I mean, I'm young now, I'm only 30, but it would be more desperation and frustration if I was doing it now."

You spent ten years grafting away. Was there a defining moment when you realised you had made it? "It's hard to pinpoint it but there was an amazing moment when I played in San Francisco. It was my first time over there as a signed artist. It was in a theatre for a kid's charity. I was sharing the bill with Aqualung and I went on first. I didn't have a record deal over there and I was expecting maybe a few cheers. I didn't know it but a radio station out there had picked up on my music before I was signed. I got a standing ovation from 2,000 people. It was amazing. I just stood there and they wouldn't stop clapping."

How have you stayed so grounded when so many other stars go off the rails? "I was quite naive about tabloid culture and I didn't realise it's a definite choice. If you want to be part of it all you can choose to be. Ninety per cent of people you see in the tabloids have made the decision to be there to get publicity. Sometimes you can go down that road and then it goes wrong and you can't go back and that's really sad." You've never bought into the whole celebrity culture thing have you? "I wanted success but I wasn't thinking about fame. I feel it would cheapen me to put myself out there all the time."

Do you ever resent the apparently instant success of stars like Leona Lewis? "Reality shows like X Factor p** me off. It's embellished karaoke and it chokes all the space original artists could be taking up. It makes it very hard for people who are writing their own stuff and trying to get air play. But then someone like Leona is proving me wrong. She's brilliant. I saw her at the Brits and she was fantastic. She's such a great singer and she's beautiful and graceful, which is unusual for someone on a show like that. Leona is a talent, it's just a shame she came through that way. Why can't they have a show where people sing their own songs instead of being given stuff to perform?"

What do you think of teenage singers like Kate Nash and Adele? "I feel like Kate Nash's music isn't for me but each to their own. She seems like a cool girl and she really deserved her Brit. The great thing at the moment is there are so many female singers out there and there is such diversity. It's fantastic."

3:25pm Friday 4th April 2008

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