Here you are with your own record label Big Moon Records. Is that because you want to be more in charge of what you do?

Well I suppose so,there are lots of reasons,but really,I do want to be involved in all the different sides and the last album that I did I loved so much and I didn't feel that it had much exposure or much chance of anything and now I feel that I'm very loathed to let this one go 'cos I really like this one as well and I'm frightened that if I sign this one away to some big label it might just get lost,it'll probably get lost doing it this way but I've got to give it a go.

At least you're in charge

Even if I just start off doing it this way,then later on change, but at the moment it's only going to be available via mail order

So if people want a copy they can get in touch and we will give them the address where they can get the album from. We're going to play a track called Two Mountains..is there a story you can tell here?

I'm not very good at telling stories about songs because I find that I write better lyrics within the song than I do when I try to explain what the songs are about ...and I also like to leave it to the listener to decide what it means to them and hopefully..it means something....it means something to me.

(Plays Song to end).

You kind of let your songs breathe..

I try to, but when you do that they often have to fade them out early

It gives you a chance to hear what the other musicians are doing rather than just you vocally..

Well I think so 'cos I think that I have such fantastic musicians that play with me that I want to hear them as well... and if I were buying it I'd want to hear them too..

Do you find songwriting more difficult now that you have to come up with an album?

Actually no,I don't funnily enough. I used to struggle over songwriting 'cos I used to try too hard with the lyrics and when I wrote Wonderland with my keyboard player which is the last album..we started the album off and decided that we would go into the studio everyday and we would start and finish a song wether it was for me or somebody else or whatever it was or whatever style it was...we would actually start and finish it and once we started doing that we began writing a song a day and most of them are on Wonderland and a few are on this album... and I think that they're the best songs I've ever written because I haven't spent hours deliberating over words, I just thought... how would I say something? If I felt it,I would just say it like this and therefore I would just sing this and it doesn't matter if it doesn't all rhyme.. if it works melodically and rhythmically then that's OK.

So does it start..are they all different..does one start with a phrase..one start with an idea?

I'm quite lucky 'cos I do play an instrument but I'm not fantastic on any instrument so I tend to have a piano player that I write with. I write with quite a few people now, but they usually start off with a kind of feel of a track...maybe a few chords and hopefully I'll get a phrase from it because I think visually and like....Two Mountains was started with a backing track that I heard and for some reason I thought I'm gonna call this one Two Mountains ..and I wrote the whole song around that phrase and that's how most things seem to happen now... if I get stuck on a song then I just give up on it...I don't work on it..I might come back to it later but I just hope that I find a title or subject matter and then I just write how I would talk it..

You have a very haunting sound..how did you arrive at that sound..because they tried to put you into folk for quite a while didn't they?

Well they didn't really push me..It's just that when I started there was a lot of punk around and Stay with me till dawn which I really like..and I'm not making excuses for... was a ballad and that's what most people think I do and there weren't that many different outlets for me...then I did play in a few folk clubs..but I would never say I was a folk singer ..although I was influenced by a lot of folk singers

Not particularly women..

Sandy Denny.. I was into and Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro who are not folk at all..but these kind of women I think are wonderful, but I used to like Paul Rodgers and a lot of Tamla..not that you can hear it in my singing but I was very into Tamla Motown, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell and those kind of things when I was very young. I tend to like either very emotional sort of deep and meaningful sort of suicidal stuff or I like dance music which I shut myself off in a room sometimes and jump up and down.... and I'd really like to somehow combine a bit of both.

So you were a Leonard Cohen fan or not that suicidal?

Well I kind of was until my mum liked him so much and I thought that maybe I should move on and I became a Jackson Browne fan instead.

Am I right in saying that you never you never really had the great desire..you weren't driven to become a star..

No and I'm still not, and I think that's probably why I haven't...well I think it is because I don't write songs and sing just to be successful..I'm not saying I wouldn't like to be more successful than I am but I have no desire to be a star or a big star.I like my privacy...I'd really be happy if I could just make records at home and never have to go out...because I don't really like being looked at..I'm not an exhibitionist..I just like to sing and to write because I'm usually depressed about something or I feel something about something and I write to exorcise it really...

And you're not a great shaker and mover are you?

No..I tend to cling to the microphone and just sort of get through the shows.I do love them afterwards but I'm very nervous still..I've never really got any less nervous

·Have you tried anything?

Oh yes... (laughs)..I've tried therapy and hypnotherapy and in actual fact I can now go on stage without having a drink..I'm still terrified but when I was younger I used to have to drink and I don't drink so it was a very one off thing..I used to have to have it before I went on and sometimes during because I get so scared..I don't know what I'm scared of exactly but I can't seem to get over it

But what was that first Top of the Pops like then?

Oh terrible..the first one I think was where they had me on a like a stand and the band was somewhere else and then there was an orchestra that was right over the other side of the studio and I couldn't see the orchestra, I couldn't see my band..all I could think was I've just got to get that high top note 'cos we had to do it all live and I had to get this top note...the one in the middle..and I got it and once I got it I was so relieved that I forgot what came next for a second..all I could think of was that high note..it was terrible

'Cos when you're on stage you like an ensemble with your band

I certainly do..I mean..my band are like my best friends..I have to have that kind of relationship...I'm not someone that can just go on with session musicians at all..

Well you have your band playing live with you at the Jazz Caféon the 19th and 29th of August..have you got anymore dates?

Not yet..this is the first two and once we've seen if we can do it we'll put in a lot more...I haven't done it for a while and I had a baby a year and a half ago and I went a bit funny afterwards...I'm alright now but I need to just get up in front of an audience again and make sure that I can still do it and remember the words and all that kind of stuff

·The jazz café is quite an intimate venue isn't it ..and that's exactly why you want to do it?

..and that's exactly why I'm frightened of it.

Do you prefer anonymity in a bigger place?

Well if you're in a big theatre then you only really get to see the first two rows and so you can be oblivious to everything. In a smaller one if it's working it's fantastic..if its not then it can be very frightening

I'm sure it is..we're going to play you out with another track from Under The Angels..this one is Joan of Arc..I think we all know the story..

.... and this one is really self explanatory and very personal really,

Judie Tzuke..Thank you

Thank you.