...Gwyneth Herbert, the 23-year-old jazz singer with Hampshire and Surrey village roots and a Durham University degree in English Literature.

Do you like the intimacy of cabaret performances?

"I do actually. I've played all sorts of venues over the last two years but it's nice to get back to this style, looking people in the eye when you sing.

"Maybe the performance style changes depending on where you play; if you're performing to 2,000 people you have to work to make the person right at the back feel part of it, and we used to adapt the set for different venues but you just end up being schizophrenic. You should show your audience more respect than that, so we'll be doing a lot of stuff from the new album because everybody's up for hearing new things."

How is work on the new album for Universal Classics and Jazz progressing?

"It's mostly original material; some written with Will Rutter, some with Tom Cawley, on piano, and some I've written myself. At the moment the plan is to go into the studio in September/October, though we've yet to decide on a producer and studio. I'd quite like to go for Larry Klein, who produced Joni Mitchell's best albums.

"The new songs seem to be really wide-ranging; Baby Flight is about a hedonist who lives a beautiful but empty life; there's a song about adultery called Lipstick And Lies; and in Harrogate we'll definitely be doing the new one about the naughty, impish young boy whose mother keeps trying to tell him he has the potential to achieve things."

What do you look for in a song?

"I'm influenced by the great American songwriters, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Carole King, Joni Mitchell. I like the fact they're real story songs rather than just being flippant about love... and as a jazz singer I'm allowed to be world weary about drugs and adultery, but my songs are wry rather than bleak! As the lyricist, I've allowed myself to have some fun with them."

Gwyneth Herbert, Cedar Court Hotel, Harrogate, Monday, 8 for 8.30pm. Tickets: £20 on 01423537230.

Updated: 08:55 Friday, July 22, 2005