Introducing... Emiliana Torrini, the Icelandic singer-songwriter who plays Fibbers, York, on Sunday.

Emiliana Torrini, 27, is the "half-Italian, half-Icelandic melting pot of diva and dilettante, minx and moralist" (Fibbers website), who shares Bjork's romanticist awe but conjures more intimate, jazzier and warmer music.

Since releasing her electronic, trip-hopping debut Love In the Time Of Science in 1999, she has moved to Brighton, performed Gollum Song in The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers and written a number one for Kylie, Slow.

Her second album finds her in more introspective mood, as Charles Hutchinson reports.

Why is the new album called Fisherman's Woman?

"I wanted to call it Fisherman's Woman before I almost wrote the record, because it was the first lyric I wrote for the record, probably three years ago or something. It was, sort of, set in stone that I wanted to write with one instrument, only I wanted to get away from singing on top of production, which was something for me to make it more personal while I was working."

Describe your songwriting process

"I don't think we had any rules in writing, mostly just trying to jam it and have fun doing it. We only worked, like two hours a day! I'm always trying to run away from having to write and do the work. I'm always like 'Ooh! Shall we go for coffee now?', 'Ooh! Lets go for lunch!', 'shall we have wine?'. Distracting things to do, you know? Always distracting. That is maybe why it took a long time to write, because we could've done it probably in a month but it took two years!"

What made you choose Sunny Road as the lead-off single?

"I wrote Sunny Road as a letter. It took such a long time to finish the lyrics; we had the first verses and the chorus, and then it just stopped. I remember, when we were playing gigs we just sang it over and over again, the same thing, because we really wanted to play it live, we couldn't wait.

"It, sort of, became our favourite song. It was a very natural thing for it to become the single. When you hear the record it is the only single!"

Why do you take such care over the artwork for your records, gatefold sleeves and all?

"I really, really, really, wanted to have the artwork, sort of, homemade. Very natural to the record exactly. And I wanted it to be themed. I love beautiful artwork for records. It makes me want to buy it, it makes me think that the artist is into what they're doing.

"We approached Dave Howell; I have never seen as good artwork, they're just beautiful, it's all very homemade, all very organic. The first thing I wanted was just collages, and then it just moved on. Kevin Westenberg, a friend of mine, offered to take the pictures. I said 'OK' straight away, 'yeah, yeah, fine'.

"So we were just hiding in Hampstead Heath, so we wouldn't have to pay for the photographs because you have to get a permit, so we were just diving into bushes and stuff! I hand wrote everything, which I started to regret after a little while. The 7" was all signed by hand and numbered, flowers enclosed and there were 1,250 records like that and it was just 'aaah!', I hated myself!"

The request for you to write for Kylie Minogue came in the midst of making your album with producer Mr Dan. How did you react?

"We needed a little break from the record, you come to a point where you hit a little wall and you just go 'uhh, I just can't do this anymore, y'know?', just for a little bit.

"I spoke to Dan and asked him to be in on it with me, and so we went into the studio but we spent about half an hour on it, went to the pub, got really drunk and we were like (drunkenly) 'they're never gonna use it!', 'they're never gonna use it!'. And then we got the phone call that they wanted us to produce it, and it's going to be the first single!"

What do you recall of the recording session with Kylie for Slow?

"Dan and I were just, sort of, sat like two hippies in a studio going 'right, we don't know how to do this!'. We're not very professional or anything like that, we just sort of had the microphone here Emiliana holds her hand to mouth level, trying to make it comfy for her sitting and singing, and we heard this interview with her and she was just like 'they were mad!'. See we forgot to raise the microphone in the end so she was, like, sitting on her knees singing the song, the whole time and we didn't notice."

Did you enjoy the experience of working with the Aussie pop queen?

"It was a very fun thing to do. It was an opportunity to dust off my dancing shoes and write music that I don't normally write but love, and then keep the smokey-little-bar music to myself. It was fun to put your big toe into that world, and then go back and go 'ah, right, I love where I am'."

Emiliana Torrini, plus Ralfe Band and Hayley Hutchinson, Fibbers, York, Sunday. Tickets: £5 advance, £6 door.

Updated: 16:04 Thursday, March 31, 2005