An intriguing mix of Norwegian, Pakistani and Geordie, startling artist Nadine Shah offers something emotional and unsettling. And Tim Hughes discovers that her ‘Dum and Mad’ like her music too...

Intense, brooding, and emotional, Nadine Shah has a voice which seems to reach into the soul... and gently rip it out.

By turns dark and uplifting, her gothic tales of modern morality are replete with love, lust, loss and vengeance, and make for compulsive, if sometimes uneasy, listening.

So it comes as a surprise to find this British/Norwegian/Pakistani lass warm, chatty and engaging, giggly even – and with an unexpected sing-song Geordie accent.

“People expect me to be miserable,” she laughs when I express surprise at her cheerfulness.

“My music can be unsettling. That’s the desired effect. It’s the nature of the subject matter I’m writing about.”

That means everything from adultery, mental illness and regret – as well as the tenderness of love. The result is a stunning debut, Love your Dum and Mad – a wordplay on ‘love your mum and dad’ and named after a painting by a late artist friend, Matthew Stephens-Scott, whose lurid art adorns the sleeve.

Produced by Ben Hillier (whose credits include Blur, Depeche Mode and The Horrors), it is a spine-tingling body of work which pairs Nadine’s driving vocals with her unconventional, often minimal instrumentation and electronica.

“I’m not a traditional pianist,” she confesses when pressed on her style. “I don’t have chords or melodies in my head, but I do have a brain full of odd lines. I take it one stanza at a time and go to the piano and find something that fits.

“The chords that resonated were those in a minor key. I’m drawn to that stuff rather than beautiful majestic chords and crescendos.”

And it’s all deeply personal. “If you have conviction in your lyrics then it’s important to make it sound emotive,” she tells me. “It all comes from the lyrics. I’m interested in simplicity in music, the power of repetition and the space inbetween.

“Some of it is autobiographical but it’s all exaggerated. I didn’t want it to be too autobiographical because that’s like hanging out your dirty laundry.”

The record follows the release of two acclaimed EPs, Dreary Town and the menacing Aching Bones.

“The album was inspired by the passing of a friend with mental illness, which was a painful experience,” she says. “But it’s also based on dialogue I’ve heard in films and phrases that stand out, which I can then build something around. I don’t know why they are macabre, but they are. Even at art college I was obsessed with debauchery. I feel compelled to write things that are beautifully sad.”

Endearingly, she modestly admits to not being a musician in the conventional sense. “I’ve had some frustration,” she confesses. “I have a big voice, like Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, but I don’t have a vast musical knowledge. I just do things that showcase my big voice. When I was young, I’d have been the embarrassing kid on X Factor.”

But it was an early love of more conventional singer-songwriting which inspired her. “My mum had an Eva Cassidy CD and I loved her voice and sang all her songs,” she says. “I also loved gospel, and went from there to jazz. Then I met some people when I was visiting London who took me under their wing and trained me up to be a proper jazz singer. If there is any trace of jazz in my piano now, it’s not intentional. I’m still at beginner’s level.”

Her style has been compared to the likes of Bat For Lashes and other purveyors of gloomy songwriting. “Imagine Judie Garland singing Interpol,” she laughs.

“People also say I sound a bit like PJ Harvey or Nick Cave. If those two had a baby I think it would sound like me.”

Now living in London’s Stoke Newington, she grew up in the village of Whitburn, near Sunderland (which technically makes her a Mackem – or Wearsider – rather than a true Geordie). She recorded some of her songs in her dad’s Tyneside curtain shop.

“Ben [Hillier] and I were looking for somewhere special and had no money, so we did it there,” she recalls. “It was fun, not glamorous, but interesting.”

Has her Nordic/South Asian background shaped her as an artist? She laughs.

“It seemed more important in Newcastle than in London where there are people from all over,” she says. “I definitely stood out. I’m really a combination of Geordie and Pakistani, though. My mum is more Geordie than Scandinavian.

“I couldn’t help but be influenced by my dad’s culture though. However, I’m not a very good practicing Muslim. “Still, some people expect me to be more Asian, and to turn up with a tabla [Indian drums] or something.”

And are they proud of her success?

“They are now!” she smiles. “They wanted me to do something academic but as soon as they saw me in the paper, they stopped saying I should go back to university. They’re great.”

  • Nadine Shah plays the O2 Academy Oxford on Sunday. Support comes from Cloud Boat. Tickets are £7 from ticketweb.co.uk Love Your Dum and Mad is out on the Apollo label