Introducing... Stephen Fretwell, the singer songwriter who left sunny Scunny for miserable Manchester.

Born in Scunthorpe, the town of Kevin Keegan and Ian Botham, Stephen Fretwell has found his singer-songwriting feet in Manchester. Last summer he recorded his debut album, Magpie, at the Abbey Road Studios, releasing it through Fiction Records in November. Run is his latest single, and Fretwell's story is expected to run and run, as CHARLES

HUTCHINSON hears.

Did Scunthorpe play any part in shaping your music?

"The musical tradition in Scunthorpe is mainly rock cover bands. I lived there for 18 years and survived there for 18 years and then, with three of my friends, we decided we had to get out of there and enrolled at university in Manchester. I went for about a week, I was going to read English, but it was so much easier to make music in Manchester than in Scunthorpe, so I just got on with that.

"There's a big community of musicians in Manchester and I got taken up by them. That's how I met Elbow and went on tour with them before I had even a sniff of a record deal."

Your debut album seemed a long time in coming after your early EPs. What happened?

"I've just been doing what I've been doing for two-and-a-half-years. I put out a ten-inch on vinyl only in November 2002, and that was just something for Manchester when I didn't really play anywhere but Manchester. But gradually I played a bit in London, and then I signed for a major label in London.

"It was important to make sure I had a decent deal for the album, as I didn't want to just put it out without people being able to hear it, otherwise there's no point in putting so much effort into it."

Magpie took two weeks to record and two weeks to mix. Did you enjoy working at the famous Abbey Road studios?

"It was all done live, apart from one song, Rose, which we tracked up, but I don't like studios very much. It's nice to be able to walk in there and play and then get out. The air conditioning gets to your skin and lips."

Why did you choose Magpie, a bird associated with thieving and bad luck, as your album title?

"I just like magpie birds. I like the look of them, and where I am in Chorlton, South Manchester, is over-run with them, and while I was thinking of a title, they came to mind... though it has given journalists bait for bad reviews as they're an unlucky bird and they do have that reputation for stealing."

Is that why you are photographed in an Aladdin's cave of junk for the album cover?

"It was slightly that, but I wanted to make a cover based on a Renaissance painting where there's a story going on but you're not sure what it is. You can't tell whether the girl in the album pictures is smiling or scowling...and I couldn't possibly say who she is!"

How did the album sleeve come together?

"It was just stuff collected by a few friends and then put together in the garden of a stately home. It looks dark but the sky in the mirror in the corner shows it was shot in daylight. The pictures are dark because hopefully that reflects the vibe of the album and that's what you should so with your artwork."

Your lyrics regularly use 'you' and 'I'. How come?

"I get asked a lot about this thing of being very confessional and self-obsessed but it's not that. It's hard to write a song unless you feel compelled to say something, and that's why it's 'you' or 'I', because maybe I'm trying to change something in myself or in someone else."

Stephen Fretwell plays Fibbers, York, on Sunday, supported by Mike Newsham, Jim Gipson. Tickets: £6 advance, £7 door.

Updated: 10:13 Friday, February 18, 2005