Sunday Mail interview

This interview appeared on the Sunday Mail website past Sunday. It clearly is from before Roisin's unfortunate accident in Moscow on Saturday night. (Pictures by Thomas Schweigert - see www.purephotography.de)

You're known for your unique fashion sense - including dressing like a liquorice all sort for your new single's sleeve - can we expect lots of costumes on your tour?

There's a few all right. There's a full band, too. I have two great backing singers and two dancers as well and it should be a bit of a party from start to finish.

Tell us about the infamous outfit you wore for Let Me Know.

It is a little bit Bertie Bassett! It's by Gareth Pugh, an avant garde designer. When you're wearing it you can't do much - you can't smoke unless someone puts a cigarette in your mouth and takes it out, which is probably a good thing.

Where was the song's video shot?

In a cafe in Slough. It becomes my own private disco. It was my idea. I worked with Scott King, who did the concept for the sleeve, the graphics and wrote the treatment for my album Overpowered. We're running with the idea of keeping the performer in a mundane scenario. He saw something in me which was glamorous and expressive but also someone down-to-earth who swears a lot. I'm a very creative artist but I don't see myself as alienated from ordinary people.

Does that grounding come from your Irish background?

Yeah, I'm as common as muck. You have to embrace who you are. Everyone as they get older accepts who they are more.

Did leaving Moloko help you to find out who you are?

It was a very protracted ending. We made an album and toured knowing it would be our last. It took two years for us to extract ourselves from one another and disband. When I made Ruby Blue, my first solo album, it was similar to how I worked in Moloko. I couldn't envisage myself here now feeling like a solo artist. I went forward quietly without addressing the big question of whether I could be a solo artist or not. The really good part is I get to do what I want. I get to say: "I need, I want and I want to work with so-and-so." People don't try to tell me what to do - they wouldn't dare.

You rejected a track by top producer Calvin Harris for your album but did you feel pressured to take it?

It didn't fit with the rest of the record. I decided not to use it and he got upset. I can't hold that against him. I saw him recently, he apologised profusely. Now Sophie Ellis Bextor has recorded that song to release as a single, so it hasn't gone to waste. If it makes a global No.1 obviously I'll be a little p***** off but I knew it didn't suit me. I wouldn't rule out working with Calvin in the future though.

Will you ever go back to Moloko?

I doubt it. I'd be loathe to say it would never happen but it seems so long ago and I've moved on so much.