Like many pop stars, Jade Williams, who will soon become very well known as Sunday Girl, started out singing along to the radio in her bedroom. Unlike most pop stars, though, it was because she was too scared to do anything else. "I was terrified of singing in front of anyone. My mum used to listen to me through the door, and when I was 17 she took me to a hypnotist to cure my fear. I had to do it because I'd always had a weird feeling that I needed to do something with singing and I felt guilty that I wasn't doing it."
She made up that lost time, finding genres from ska to the doomy end of synth pop and performing with jazz covers bands around her home town of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire. Now, aged 21, the covers are behind her. As Sunday Girl, Williams has found her own melancholic yet uplifting sound, honed with producers such as Diplo and Jim Elliot (a favourite of Kylie and Ladyhawke). She is a strong addition to the wave of synth-friendly feisty female artists such as Alison Goldfrapp and Bat for Lashes. She has also created the artwork for her forthcoming single and styled her publicity photos. "I like things to be simple," she explains. "My look is 'scruffy Chanel' because I love Coco Chanel's style, plain and masculine. It's a nice contrast to my music, which I want to feel like a wall of beautiful sound."
The name's not a reference to the Blondie song, by the way. It's a nickname earned by working at a pet shop before she left school to study set design at Wimbledon College of Art. "I worked every Sunday but nobody knew my name so they just called me Sunday Girl. I loved that job and was devastated when I had to leave to go to university. The best thing about the job was cuddling puppies and I fostered so many animals – kittens, guinea pigs, rabbits. Once I brought home a mastiff puppy and told my mum it was a small breed dog. She still didn't let me keep it."
Williams says her family is a bit bemused by her imminent pop stardom. "My dad was in the British judo team when he was younger and my mum's an estate agent. Music isn't their thing so they don't really know what I'm up to. When my dad sees this article, I hope it will sink in." "Four Floors" is available on iTunes now. "Stop Hey" will be released in June
