When did you start as a musician? Did you start piano first? Were you always singing?

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Yeah. I actually always played piano first, as a kid, we had a piano in our house because my dad's friends needed somewhere to store their piano. So, they left it in our house for a few years and I used to play it for fun. And then I had some lessons, which I hated. I remember hating them so much. But I kept sort of playing by myself. Performed in school but not properly.

And then we moved to Ireland when I was 12 / 13 and the piano got left behind so I didn't actually play piano for a bit when I was a teenager. I think I started singing around then. I would just sing in my headphones, like just along to songs and stuff like that, and then I'd record myself on my phone and check how it sounded *laughs*. And then we got a piano a few years after, when I was about 16. So yeah, I think probably around that age, like teenager, 15 / 16 I started to properly get into singing and writing my own songs and playing piano again.

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Ah that's cool. I know your Irish/Pakistani - were you born here in London and then moved to Ireland? Or were you born in Ireland and moved here?

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I was born in London. My parents met in London, and then I was born here and then we moved back to Ireland when I was 12. And then I moved back to London when I was 18. But I love it here.

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Do you feel like your heritage has any kind of influence on your music, or actually, what are your influences for your music? Because your songs are so… They’re really beautiful, they’re quite melancholic.

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Ah, thank you. I think in terms of the cultural music of Pakistan or Ireland, I don't think those are massive influences on my sound, which you can probably tell from listening to it. But I feel like probably just being of those cultures generally affects who you are, and then that comes through in what you're writing. Where we lived in Ireland, it’s by the mountains, and it's all very grey, and quite rainy. But it suits that area and it sort of feels if it's ever really hot there, I'm like, 'This doesn't feel right.’ So, I grew up in my teenage years in that sort of vibe, so I think that my music’s almost dark and it suits that thing a bit.

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Where in Ireland did you grow up?

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In Northern Ireland, where my dad’s from in County Down. We moved there. It’s a little seaside town called Newcastle, and it’s at the foot of the mountains, and it’s also by the sea. So yeah, it's like sea and mountains. It's really nice.

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And then you moved back when you were 18?

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Yeah, I really missed London. I think I had an idea that I would always want to live in the city. I would watch Sex in the City in Ireland so much. I loved it. I just thought it was really glamorous. And I brought all my high heels over when I moved back. I never wore any of them because I was too poor to afford taxis or anything, and I wasn't going to trek across the whole city in my heels.

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*Laughs* Yeah you definitely need a car if you’re wearing heels all day.

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Exactly, yeah. I didn’t really think of the practicalities of that. I moved back to go to uni. So that is why I came back.