Rock and Pop: Interview - Paloma Faith
Published: 18 November, 2010
by ROISIN GADELRAB
IS it a girl?” Paloma Faith asks as the call is put through for our interview.
“I’m glad it’s a girl because I’m in the bath,” she says. “I was trying to rush and then I thought, let’s take a gamble. It’s a 50-50 chance it’s going to be a man and if it is I’ll slowly edge out of the bath and try not to make any water noises. They might think I was flirting or something.”
Paloma’s insuppressible personality is apparent from her first words.
The former Islington Green pupil is due to play a gala show of her collaboration with trumpeter/arranger/composer Guy Barker – Down at the End of Lonely Street – alongside a full orchestra at the Barbican on December 10.
She says: “The Barbican’s like the cultural centre of the area I was brought up in. As a kid I always saw it as somewhere quite posh where rich people go. Now I’m playing there it feels like a breakthrough.”
She says the show is about loss and loneliness, adding: “There’s a few of my songs but mainly songs that have influenced me by the great queens of tragedy and torch singers.”
Renowned as a flamboyant performer, Paloma’s happily aware of her past limits.
“I wanted to perform from quite a young age but I knew I wasn’t very good,” she says. “I was about 10 when I did my first dance performance. I loved the excitement and adrenaline but didn’t know what I was doing. When they went right I went left and when they went up I went down, I totally stood out.
“For years after, I had the enthusiasm but not the ability. I think people thought I was a bit of a laughing stock – but I guess I found my way.”
A choreographer once told her he’d have to give her a lead role as she was hypnotic but “not very good” and was doing something different to everyone else.
Realising she wasn’t going to be a dancer was a “big setback”, so Paloma began singing in bars while studying theatre, hoping to work behind the scenes. But she began attracting attention with her voice.
“I started to do it to my own surprise because I hadn’t really sung that much,” she says. “Because the people I admired were so amazing I put myself beneath them and didn’t feel good enough, but through this last year touring this album I think my voice has improved so much.
“I’ve sort of learned on the job. In a way, my voice is better now than when I recorded my album. When I listen to the album I think, oh a bit shit, but I now play live and people say I’m so much better live.”
Paloma’s style has often attracted the attention of the Fashion Police.
“Sometimes I end up walking out in something I haven’t really thought about,” she says. “I look at it in pictures and think, what was I doing? I know it’s dressing up. I find it difficult to get dressed on a day off because I don’t actually remember what I think looks nice. I take pride in taking risks and being a bit funny with it.
“People put me in those columns, ‘what was she thinking?’ Well, I wasn’t. When I’m serious I think I’m very good at dressing like a Hollywood starlet.”
She once appeared on This Week to discuss education policy and has thrown her support behind the student cause: “It’s a shame they went violent because it reflects badly on their argument. It’s a shame for the students that genuinely are the future and are wonderful.”