ON Monday, the debut album by York singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich takes its place in the CD racks across the country.

Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm carries rather more of a media vibe than usual for a York musician, trailed by radio support from BBC radio presenters Jo Whiley, Zane Lowe, Greg James and Dermot O’Leary, for whom he recorded a live session on his Saturday afternoon Radio 2 show.

His cover of Arcade Fire’s Rebellion from that session attracted 30,000 downloads, while his Helen Downing-directed promo videos have clocked up 400,000 views on YouTube, and all ten dates on his debut headline tour sold out in February and March. His support spot on Noah & The Whale’s April travels brought him further attention, and festival appearances at Glastonbury last weekend, Camden Crawl, Dot-To-Dot, Bestival, Boardmasters and Green Man will only add to the impetus.

Ask Benjamin – or plain Ben as he used to call himself in earlier gigging days in his home city – how he will feel when he first sees the album in the shops and he leans forward, a little weary eyed, in the City Screen café bar. “Can I be completely honest with you?” he says. “I think stuff like answering questions is kind of funny. I’m usually chilling with friends in my room, just drinking and chilling.

“I’m not trying to make it a magical thing. I’m 21, I’m writing my songs and releasing them. Everything is on a bigger scale now but I’m not looking to change my perspective that I just love playing guitar and writing songs.”

His album press release from Chuff Media introduces him in big bold type as “This Year’s Most Intriguing New Discovery”, and once more Benjamin looks somewhat nonplussed. “Intriguing? I got Zane Lowe’s Hottest Record of the Week [on Radio One] with Pictures and people are picking up on it, but there are loads of other people who are intriguing. Or maybe I’m being humble; I don’t know.”

Reticent might be a better word for it, but the songwriting has a quiet confidence about it, his lyrics as much as his way with an acoustic guitar attracting accolades for his two EPs, last year’s A Million Miles Out and this year’s Pictures.

“I can’t hide from the lyrics being the talking point,” Ben acknowledges. “But I’m so involved, it’s difficult to be one step removed from that.

“The lyrics come in their own way; they might come straightaway or they might come over a few months; there’s no formula to it.

“I just write lyrics; I’m sure some will call it poetry but for me, they’re my songs and just words to my songs. But if there’s an over-riding theme on this album it’s that they’re songs I’ve written over the past four or five years, when I was leaving my teens and leaving college at 18.”

By college he means Bootham School, although he is a self-taught guitarist rather than school-groomed. “I had a couple of lessons when I was ten, when I was at Hemplands Primary School, but I didn’t really like the structure of the lessons, so I quit then and started teaching myself at 14.”

He first emerged on the York music scene at 16 with “a couple of mates from school” in the rock’n’roll band The Nicoles. “It helped my writing process and I learnt about gigging, playing Fibbers and Cert 18,” he says.

The call of the solo artist was stronger, however. “I liked the idea of writing by myself. Acoustic guitar has always been my main instrument – the one I write on – and so it was a natural progression,” says Ben, who made his solo debut at Fibbers at 17 and signed up to London management company All On Red at the same age.

Yet it was the songs and not a need to be in the spotlight that took him down this path. “I’ve never been one of those people who says ‘I really want to be the centre of attention’. I’m quite shy…but what I really care about is the music and the funny thing is that being on the radio and TV just happened,” he says.

He signed a record deal at 19 with London company Dirty Hit Ltd and a publishing deal last year with B-Unique. Jo Whiley picked up on the song Atlas Hands off the first EP for her Radio One show, the O’Leary live session and chat on Radio 2 followed, and now he is in his brightest spotlight so far with Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm, a title that aptly captures the tantalising times he is in. “It’s that moment of stillness and quiet before the next big moment,” he says.

Another track title better sums up his present feelings. “For me, Butterfly Culture is the most significant song on there. It’s the oldest; the one I sang with The Nicoles, though I’ve changed the lyrics a couple of times since then,” says Ben.

“‘Butterfly Culture’ is that thing of being perceived as beautiful in the moment.” That moment appears to have arrived for Ben.

“I guess it does feel like I’ve got a chance now, not to ‘make it’ as I haven’t cared about making it commercially, but I’m at the point now when I have an audience and that’s cool – and useful too! – and now I can take it further.”

York has played its part in Ben reaching this point, his craft honed on singer-songwriter bills with David Ward Maclean, GT Turbo, Mark Wynn and Little Num Num Club host Chris Helme. “York has been a huge influence on me, not just the music here but the chilled atmosphere,” he says. “I’ve always had mates in the York music scene, and it’s a really healthy scene, where everyone is amazingly supportive of each other.”

You sense he is happiest among friends. “I don’t like all the attention,” he says. “For me, the album is my ten songs on the shelves. Some people buy it, some people don’t.”

Nevertheless, more attention is sure to come his way with a UK tour announced for October, including York on the 29th, and plans to play America before Christmas. And despite his relaxed air in this interview, he clearly takes his music-making seriously.

“I’ve worked on my singing and it’s got better over the two EPs and the album for sure – and I’ve had two sessions with a vocal coach as I got really ill during the recording sessions in London, and had to take a week off, so she’s given me tips on how to look after my voice with a couple of exercises before performing.”

He has tip of his own for anyone who wants to lump him in with today’s songwriters. “I love all the classic singer-songwriters, but I hate the way that term is used now,” he says. “It’s used to describe people like James Blunt and James Morrison, and that's great in the pop world, but for me it means people like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Elliott Smith, Bruce Springsteen and Ryan Adams. When I say I'm into songwriters that doesn't just mean I'm into guys with acoustic guitars. I listen to anything, and the song is always the main thing.”

Benjamin Francis Leftwich will play the National Centre for Early Music, York, on October 29, promoted by fellow York venue The Duchess as part of his 25-date autumn tour. Tickets: £8, online at theduchessyork.co.uk

Just one more thing…Why have you switched from Ben Leftwich to Benjamin Francis Leftwich?“To be honest, there wasn’t much thinking behind it. That’s my name. That’s my middle name!”