How would you describe the style of your music?

I think it’s a fusion of jazz, and increasingly pop. I also like to throw in a bit of story-telling as well.

What are your main musical / lyrical influences?

Number one is Tim Minchin – I absolutely love the guy, I think he’s incredible. I also really like Sara Bareilles. The thing about music and lyrics is, in my opinion, both music and lyrics have their own merit, but if you put them together and they work together than the merit is more than just the sum of the individual parts. I get inspired by lots of rhythmic things. But musical ideas – I think they’re completely separate. Every song has its own, some are better than others, but every song has its own lyrical idea and I don’t think you can pinch from other people’s lyrical ideas.

When did you start writing songs?

When I was thirteen. I know this because we used to have something called the House Music Festival at school. It was always the Sixth Formers who did the Composition category, because they were doing A-Level Music, so it was always a classic piano-accompanied flute piece or whatever. But our house was rubbish at music at that time, and they were like, “can you write us a song?”. I had two weeks to do it, and I won the competition, beating all the Sixth Formers! It was incredible – I realised I could actually write songs, and from there I just carried on writing.

Did singing or song-writing come first?

I think singing probably came first... I’ve always been good at music – as a youngster I played the piano, the drums, the clarinet, the violin, the recorder, everything. But I never dreamed of being a singer. But ever since I’ve been writing music... I love writing, and I really want to promote my writing more than just my singing, because I’m perfectly aware that there are better singers in the world than I am, but there’s only one songwriter like me! [laughs]

How do you start a song?

If I’m honest, normally an interesting phrase or an interesting idea will come into my head. It’s usually lyrics, or lyrics and a melody - the accompaniment can change, and does change as you write the song. If you record it then, and listen to yourself in two months playing it, you’ll realise how much it’s changed from the initial version. I find whenever I stop for a breather, I tend to do a lot of writing. I’m a very very busy person but I often find I write things on planes or on trains, just when you’ve got protected time when there’s nothing to do. You have the time to think when you’re travelling.

What’s the best song you’ve ever written?

That’s a difficult one! Well, I think the best song I’ve ever written is the one I’ve just written, every time. But I’ve written a new one called ‘Doctor Doctor’, which I like a lot. It depends what it’s for, I think, because I have quite a lot of different styles. Probably, lyrically speaking, ‘Mr Uniform’ has to be up there, just because it’s so sassy. I feel really cool when I sing it.

It’s a cliché, but a lot of your lyrics seem like diary entries. Do you write about real or imagined life?

A huge combination of both. When I was a bit younger, almost all my songs were make-believe. As I’ve got older, there have definitely been events in my life that sparked an idea. Maybe I fabricated things from the idea, but the idea was a real one in the first place. In the phase when you write songs about real people... I remember singing this song to about 250 people, and the person in my view was the gentleman who I’d written the song about! It was a very peculiar scenario. I have actually shied away from properly opening my heart up, otherwise you end up singing your diary, literally, to an audience of people who know exactly what you’re talking about. I also don’t often tell people what the songs are about, so that’s how I get round it.

You’re studying medicine – are you considering music as a career path?

It’s the classic question. Every time I’m interviewed on the radio they’re like, “so what are you doing at the moment?”, and I say I’m a student, and they pry further, and I’m like, oh I’m a medical student... at Cambridge. Then they’re like, “so do you actually want to sing...?!” But if you look at any songwriters around, until they are big, they all have a job. They have to, because you can’t afford to just be a singer-songwriter, really. Why can’t that job be medicine? I think they’re both compatible, because I’m most stimulated when I’m really busy, and I definitely am with medicine, so!

Where do you see your music going in the future?

I really like being challenged. Earlier this year I got a request from BBC Radio Lancashire, and they said they needed a jingle for a thing for Children in Need, so I wrote them a jingle, and that sort of thing is amazing. So if I could get sufficiently well-known with my musical style, I’d love to be asked to do really cool writing, any type of genre – I’ve written a musical, and I’ve written for the 24-hour musicals at the ADC. These days, I don’t mind singing to anybody. I’m sufficiently comfortable with my piano and singing, and I’ve made pretty much every mistake you can make. I’m getting so much better at covering them up – it doesn’t bother me any more, So, yeah. I’ll sing to any audience, anywhere.