Congratulations on your new album The Soul Sessions 2 - it must feel weird celebrating ten years in the industry at such a young age.
"I guess it is weird when you look at it on paper, but I've never done anything else, so for me it's not weird. I'd rather have started at that point than carrying on going to school and wasting my time, so I guess I didn't waste my years."
Did you choose which tracks you wanted to cover?
"I actually picked from a massive list of songs that Steve Greenberg had chosen. He's the man with the songs, he's got some amazing songs under his belt. He knows all the obscure tracks that you just wouldn't think of. So I just listened to them all and in the end just chose the ones that I liked best."
What made you decide those specific tracks?
"Well I genuinely liked the songs and listened to them in my car the couple of weeks leading up to it. I just kind of woke up in the morning and went to the studio, and said, 'Which one shall we do?' Then we'd play it and say, 'Nah, we won't do that one, what about this one?'"
You're clearly influenced by older music, but are you ever inspired by modern artists?
"Yeah, sometimes. Maybe not the charts, but I do listen to new music, if it's good. If it's good it finds me, because someone will go, 'This is f**king good, listen to it'. I don't have to pain myself by listening to the radio, I don't have to trawl through all that s**t, someone else will do that! And then they'll go, 'Joss I was listening to the radio and then this song came up'. And I'm like, 'Oh thanks'. So my ears aren't suffering and I only hear nice things."
What nice things have you been listening to in the past year?
"I love Birdy, I think she is just beautiful, I think she is really a special person. Something is going to be beautiful with that girl, I mean, it already is but, something is going on there and I'm just excited about what she's going to become. She's, you know, a baby as I was, and she sounds lovely and that song 'Skinny Love' that she sings, she just means it. Ah, it's just so sweet. I don't know, who else is new? Adele is gorgeous obviously, but that's not new anymore is it?"
Not really, but she's still dominating the charts...
"She's just rocking it man. So that's lovely to hear - English girls doing their thing. Rumer, f**king cool. It's just nice, it's nice to be living in a place, and coming from a place that produces that much soul."
Over the past few years your career has had more of a focus in the US than the UK. Are you craving to have another big hit in the UK?
"No, you know what? I think I'd rather not, because I really like living here and I think that I'd rather just live here. It's such a strange thing because I don't think people even take me seriously when I say that. Like, why would I want to work in my house? I live here, it's my home, I couldn't think of anything worse. Really man, like it sucks.
"It's nice to have people like your music, absolutely. It's such a compliment and it's a really heart-warming thing when someone says, 'Oh I love this song', and they really have listened to it and they know about the instruments and everything. That's really lovely, and nice to have in your country as well, but to have this massive blow-up thing, anywhere, is a quite stressful thing. But in your own country? I don't know if that's a good idea. You can't have a normal life then, you basically say goodbye to your happiness. I don't think that's positive or healthy."
So what happens if The Soul Sessions Vol. 2 is a big hit in the UK?
"I don't know what will happen. F**king hell, I actually worry about that. Yeah, and that would be great like Warner and everyone, every f**king man and his dog is like, 'Yeah let's make it the biggest thing in the world'. And I'm like, 'Really, I don't know if that's such a good idea, let's go somewhere else'.
"I mean there's a whole world out there. Everyone needs music and I believe that people in England that love my music, they are loyal fans. If they love it they'll find it anyway. It's lovely to be able to sing on these TV shows. I will do some, because I want people to know that it exists. But I don't want it to go too far, because it's scary."
Well I suppose it's a weird profession to be in because you want to be successful with your music but at the same time you want to retain some sort of...
"You want a life. And just be able to chat to someone in the pub, that you might not have met before and have a nice conversation with them, without them going, 'Oh my God, are you that girl?'"
Last year we saw you team up with Mick Jagger for SuperHeavy - how did you find that whole experience?
"That was pretty mad actually. You know Mick Jagger's a legend, but he's actually just a really lovely guy. So that was a nice thing. I don't feel nervous around him or anything because he doesn't deliberately do that to you. I think that only happens when people act that way. And obviously [there's a] massive amount of respect for the man, he's amazing, he's Mick Jagger. But he's just a warm, lovely, friendly, open, chatty guy. So yeah, it's pretty cool."
Obviously having so much British talent in one group, it would be good for the Olympics. Have they not spoken to you at all?
"No, I think that's it now, it was literally a creative project and it's gone. There is no touring for us, we made an album, we made a video, we just kind of gelled. It's a shame really."
Would you ever consider a role on a singing competition like The Voice?
"I am interested in nurturing young talent and stuff, but not on The Voice. I don't know how much of that is about the voice. I think a lot of it is, more than the other shows, but not enough for me. I think it would need to be more than that. I would like to do a show on the radio, that would be a really good show."
That really would be just about the voice.
"It really is the voice, anything that is about a visual, anything that means you have to sit in a chair for two and a half hours having your make-up done is not about the voice. And I'm not trying to diss the show, because I think it's a really good show and it's much better than The X Factor or anything like that, and it's moving in the right direction and they've got better singers this time."
Do you have any plans to tour Soul Sessions Vol. 2?
"Yeah, I'm going to play in Europe, around the place. I think I'm going to do 10 or 12 gigs around the place in Europe. Then I'll do the same in America and then probably the same amount of gigs in South America. And then I'll be done. Then I'll make another record."
That's your year sorted then.
"That's pretty much my year booked, yeah. Next year I'm going to do a gig in every country in the world. I think there's something like 196. It would take two years to do."
Has anyone ever done that before?
"No."
So you want to be the first?
"Yeah. I'm going to be the first one to do it. And probably the last because I think no-one else can be bothered."
I've seen Lady GaGa's list of tour dates - I'm sure she'd give you a run for your money.
"Yeah, she's got a lot of dates, she's a hard-working woman that girl. (Laughs) So that will be fun, it's just an ambition of mine. I don't know how good it is financially to do. It's definitely not. And promo-wise, it's just not good. But to achieve something like that would just be amazing. Just because, why not? And then I'd come home and chill out. They'll be like, 'Get back to work', and I'll be like, 'No, done it all now'."
Do no like the way she comes across in this interview.
She's gonna start working on new material soon and she said she's going to tour in every country in the world over 2 years.
I hope she announces more UK dates!
