THE tag line for next week's launch of Hayley Hutchinson's debut single on Gut Records is strikingly simple and admirably alliterative. "From solderer to songstress," it reads.

Probably the first artist to fund an album by soldering circuit boards, the York singer-songwriter has been able to leave behind the Huntington Road electronics factory where she worked three days a week.

"I've quit that job now, about five days after I signed the deal with Gut seven weeks ago. It means I can use all my time constructively for my music," says Hayley. "I've been writing songs and I'm almost ready to go into the studio to start demoing my next album."

However, her immediate focus must be on the songs she recorded, aptly in seven days, at Studio Seven in York in January 2004 for Independently Blue. Initially released last September on her own label, HaYLo Media, the self-financed record gained unexpected wings from an old Irish charmer, the king of breakfast blarney on BBC Radio 2.

"It was basically down to Terry Wogan. He picked up on the track Here's The Love, and that was the biggest break I had and the biggest surprise. I'd decided to send him the album on chance, not expecting him to play it, but he did. Apparently it was the producer, Paul Walters, who picked up on it first ...and Bob Harris put a good word in for me too," Hayley says.

"I've been listening to Terry on the radio since I was very young. He seems like a sweet guy! But I didn't hear my song the first time it was on, though I got loads of text messages from friends about it, and I knew things would change for me from then on.

"It was really strange, though, when I did finally hear it, driving to work at the electronics factory, it didn't feel like it was me. I think my mum was more excited; she wound down the window!"

Here's The Love has been receiving five plays a week on Radio 2's C list. On Monday it will be released as Hayley's first single for Gut Records, whose smart thinking has led to the song being moved to pole position in the album running order. The artwork remains the same - blue and more blue - and sensibly the release date for Independently Blue is being put back a week to August 1 to allow for a bigger gap between single and album.

She is happy to let Gut Records take the commercial and marketing decisions while being left to her own artistic devices.

"They've done Space's albums, Tom Jones's Reload album and Tears For Fears' new album, so that's quite diverse, and I think I'm the first singer-songwriter they've taken on. We're just building a team around me and the next thing is to get a booking agent on board, because getting out there and playing is one of the most important things," Hayley says.

"I'm still very much in control of things creatively and that was part of the deal. I like the fact they're an independent label, and Guy Holmes, who runs the company, understands the importance of the independents, rather than just signing off everything to a major label.

"If Gut Records would allow me, I'd like to go to America and record in Los Angeles with different musicians...in an ideal world."

Why not, when the last track on your debut album is called Happy Endings?

Updated: 09:24 Friday, July 15, 2005