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5 Minutes With Paloma Faith

Paloma Faith
Paloma Faith

Describe your latest album, A Perfect Contradiction, in fewer than five words...
A history of soul.

How do you approach songwriting?
I write lyric ideas in a notebook everywhere I am and wherever I go. But I go to the studio to write melodies because I don't play an instrument.

What era has influenced you the most?
'50s! The soul and the rhythm and blues. All the artists that I love are [from that era]. Like Wynonie Harris, Etta James, LaVern Baker, Cab Calloway, Louis Prima ... I just love all that music.

If you could collaborate with someone - living or dead - who would you choose?
The Jewish writer Abel Meeropol who wrote "Strange Fruit" for Billie Holiday.

Flipping that question, who's your favourite person you've worked with so far?
[American singer/songwriter and producer) Raphael Saadiq, just 'cause I'm such a big fan of his.

What song do you wish you had written?
"Into My Arms" by Nick Cave. I think it's lyrically one of the most beautiful love songs ever. Do you know the lyric? He says: "I don't believe in an interventionist God/But I know, darling, that you do/But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him/Not to intervene when it came to you." Amazing.

Besides Nick Cave, what other Aussie music acts do you love?
I've covered INXS [see Paloma's version of "Never Tear Us Apart" here.]

You have many part-time jobs in your time. You've you worked in a pub, sang in a burlesque cabaret, sold lingerie in Agent Provocateur, been a life model and also a magician's assistant. Is that all true?
Yeah.

And what was your favourite out of all of those?
Well it's not on that list, but the best time I had was when I was a ghost on a ghost train. [But] It made me quite ill because it was nine hours a day, so I didn't see daylight. I did it for three months - literally my skin went sort of translucent because it was pitch black on the train.

Who is on your wish list to do a duet with?
Andre 3000 and Paolo Nutini.

How long have you been here in Australia?
This trip? About 36 hours.

But you're back touring the country next May. When you have longer than 36 hours on the ground what is something you want to do in Australia?
I really want to go to a bar I found in Melbourne called LuWow. It's a 1950s tiki bar and supposed to be amazing.

Who or what continues to inspire your music?
Life, the human condition, people, kindness of strangers, empathy ...

And last of all, what was your favourite album growing up?
Michael Jackson's Bad. It was the first album I ever bought and it was a cassette tape. I loved it so much that when I went to school I had it in my pocket even though I couldn't play it. I just wanted it to be there all the time.

Presale tickets for Paloma Faith's 2015 tour are available from September 5. http://www.livenation.com.au/artist/paloma-faith-tickets