Of all the songs you sing, which stirs your emotions the most? 25aubrey
When I was little and doing the classical stuff, it would have been My Lagan Love – a beautiful Irish air – or a Welsh song Mae Hiraeth Yn y Mor [“there is longing in the sea”]. I don’t long for my pop stuff but the EPs had a lot of pertinence. The song Nerve is really emotionally hardcore. In Pop Dungeon [Church’s live covers show], the one that gets me is With Every Heartbeat by Robyn, which is such a lean song but packed full of pathos, meaning and glory.
You collaborated with the likes of Eg White, Corinne Bailey Rae, Guy Chambers, Marcella Detroit and Rob Davis on 2005’s Tissues and Issues. What was it like to work with such a stellar cast on your first contemporary album? VerulamiumParkRanger
I didn’t quite appreciate the experience, to be honest. If I worked with those people now, I’d appreciate that they’ve written incredible pop songs, but I was desperate to break out of the mould that had been created for me. I really wanted to go to Atlanta and work with R&B producers and writers, but the record company wanted pop. They said they’d make me a “pop princess”, but I was in love with Black music and wanted to sound like Jill Scott.
