Rae Morris refuses to label her sexualityAtlantic Records

Rae Morris is relaxed and upbeat.

The 23-year-old singer released her debut album Unguarded in January, prompting her nomination onto the BBC Sound of 2015 longlist among the likes of James Bay and Wolf Alice.

After playing a whopping 28 festivals this summer, she has just embarked on a UK tour which will bring her to the Cambridge Junction next week.

“This year, I’ve not really stopped touring this record since it came out. This summer has been so wonderful and busy. I’ve found new ways of playing the songs and they’ve turned into new, exciting things. I guess I just go for it really.”

As a self-conscious teenager in her native Blackpool, whose first job was waitressing at the football stadium, having a debut album which would reach number nine in the charts was then only a distant dream.

But the story of how she signed to Atlantic Records as a 19-year-old is quite extraordinary.

“I still can’t believe that it happened to me really. I was playing a lot of gigs around the North-West and really just going for it, not really with a record deal in mind but just so excited by this new thing that I could do, playing gigs and writing songs.

“And then one night I was on the way home from a gig in Liverpool in the back of my parents’ car, and a guy from Atlantic Records sent me a message on my Myspace page. I just couldn’t believe it.”

Cue four “crazy” months where interest in Rae from all sides of the music industry soared and her shows were inundated with record label reps, lawyers, managers, and even accountants.

“I was doing my A-levels at the time so they all kind of went down the pan a little bit,” she says, laughing.

Despite the hype, she decided to stick with Atlantic as she saw they were invested in her long-term development as an artist more than any others.

“They came to Blackpool and offered me my record deal over the table of a fish and chip restaurant called The Cottage Chippy and that was a really surreal moment cos that was the place I’d go with my family all the time.”

Her debut album, which she has called “a coming-of-age tale”, is a compelling combination of polished electro-pop and intensely personal balladry, drawing on the formative years she spent being mentored by, and in a relationship with, fellow Blackpudlian singer-songwriter Karima Francis.

“I have to write songs about something I care about and feel deeply. I always imagined songs just appeared and came to people in their dreams but I never thought that it was something I could do until I realised it I was able to hear melodies and feel where songs are going and should be coming from.

“I think as I write more and grow up a bit the subject matter is different and it can be about something other than love and that makes it easier.”

Rae learnt a lot about the process of song-writing from Karima and their relationship is undoubtedly a source of a lot of the emotional rawness on the album. What is more, she is thoroughly optimistic about the growing awareness that an individual does not need to label their sexuality as one thing or another.

“It think it’s a really exciting time. A lot of very influential pop-culture figures in particular are speaking out about not having to label and put boundaries and brackets on everything. Now, of all times, is the best time for young people who don’t want to put themselves in a bracket.

“I openly will say that I had an experience when I was in a relationship with a girl and I’ve been in relationships with boys since then. I don’t label my sexuality, and I never want to. There isn’t time to label ourselves and limit ourselves.”

Throughout the interview, Rae also comes across as deeply down-to-earth. She is highly conscious of her own development as an artist and how she has changed as a person over the past few years.

“My biggest fear in life, since the age of thirteen or so when life starts to get a bit awkward, was about coming across as a bad person and I was worried so much about what people would think of me. I was quite scared before of coming across as arrogant and I had this huge hang-up that I didn’t want people to think I was too full of myself or showing off.

“But seeing Kate Bush on stage changed everything about my fear of performing. Seeing her live made me realise that you can feel confident in your stage presence without coming across as a total dick!”

With a second album in the pipeline, which she has been writing between festivals, Rae has clearly managed her rise to stardom with maturity and given herself time to learn at a pace that suits her.

“Over the years, I’ve developed a confidence. I’m still not as confident as I’d like to be, but it has helped me to realise who I am and what I want to say.

“I’ve slotted into my way of doing things.”

Rae Morris will perform at the Cambridge Junction on 6th October.