Ahead of a debut headlineluke-sital-singh Irish show, Luke Sital-Singh has previously impressed Irish audiences pairing his delicate acoustic play and ardent vocals supporting the likes of Martha Wainwright and The Staves. With two EP’s under his belt, a summer looms that will see him as part of the undercard for The Rolling Stones as well as an Electric Picnic slot. We caught up with the Londoner to understand his recent trajectory, progress on his debut album, a bromance with Villagers and why 2013 may prove the catalyst year for Luke Sital-Singh.

Your Headline tour is coming to an end before you head over to the States to play Sasquatch festival. How did it go for you?

It went great, better than I could have hoped for actually. I’ve been doing mostly support tours for my career so it’s a scary process when you start asking people to turn up to your own gigs. People were coming, some of them sold out, and it was really good fun.

Speaking of your support slots Irish, audiences would have first been introduced to you as support to Martha Wainwright and The Staves. They’re two very credible varieties of female musicians, how do you feel you benefited from them support slots?

They were both really great tours, very different. The Staves was a good laugh and a new band relatively speaking. They have a good mix in audience of oldish and young current trendy people, so it was good to play to both. Martha is a complete veteran and it was really fun to watch her just do her thing that she’s perfected over the years and her crowd was a lot more of a kind of tribe. Both were really different tours to play, but both were very good.

In terms of the EP’s, both ‘Fail for you’ and ‘Old Flint’ have garnered a lot of praise and it sees you on a support slot for The Rolling Stones in the summer. Has your head justifiable grown an extensive amount because of that feat?

My heads healthy! It’s weird and certainly strange. I mean its part of a massive event with lots of bands and stages, it’s still strange and I can’t quite understand why. I’m just going to take everything as it comes  because that is massively fun and the next day you may have some relatively bad news where you have to cancel or something. It’s a strange world where you don’t really know where you are at any point but you just have to enjoy and roll with it.

There are similarities between yourself and our own Conor O’Brien of Villagers. You recently had a brief coming together while on tour, how was that for you?

It was great, absolutely awesome and it was probable the favourite tour I’ve been on. I got to go all the way around Europe which was really fun. Villagers as a band are just awesome, really inspiring to watch every night and also the most fun guys. Going into a tour like that, my tour it’s been mainly me and my tour managers , this was a big party of people and I think by the second night Conor was straddling me over a chair and I thought ‘Yeah this tour is gonna be fun’…

 It was very different to The Staves and Martha so, that tour…?

Yeah it was very different! It was really good he’s an amazing songwriter and just a really fun guy to be around.

What are the plans for the debut album..?

The plans are to make one. It will be recorded this year, probably in the summer, and we’ll start working on it relatively soon. Then tentatively it will probably come out early next year. It’s coming!

‘Fail For You’ and ‘Old Flint’ EP are brutally honest and they’re delicate acoustic tracks. Do you feel pressured to stick to this formula or what can we expect as a whole from the album..?

I don’t really feel pressure I think I’ve just done what I do best really. You know I’ve got this far, me and my manager, I’m not signed. I’m doing something quite simple and doing something I think I do best really and just sing my songs. I always seem to get a good reaction when I play live so it’s always a case of just trying to capture that live thing when it came to recording. Both EPs are really based around me just signing in the room and adding instruments after and where appropriate and I think that’s what made it work. I think for an album you do think about making it that much bigger if you’ve got the budget for it. [That] is another restriction because we can’t really afford a big orchestra and all that. I think I’d like to keep the first album relatively similar to the EPs with scope for other albums. The EPs will probable give a good indication of what the album will be like.

In relation to that do you find it hard plying your trade as an unsigned artist, or do you like the freedom you can exhibit by not having Record Label pressures on you to conform to a sound you may not believe in?

I don’t really know what it’s like to be signed. I think you hear a lot of horror stories and stuff. I know a few bands that deal with labels and it’s not something they enjoy. I only know my experience, there’s a different pressure and stuff when you’re running your own show and my manager can be quite demanding. I think it’s good to have other people around you getting you out of bed and making you work. But creatively it’s been great not having to work with or to please anyone else. Like I said, my managers quite a creative man and likes to have input with my music and not just be management. So I have had other people’s input but maybe not to the extent that you do when you’re signed to someone.

Your trajectory up the music ranks has sped up of late and it can only continue. How arduous a process was it to get where you are right now?

It probably wasn’t as hard as it was long. It’s hard, I suppose, because you don’t know what’s going to happen and you don’t really know if it’s going well. I’ve been trudging away without much direction for quite a few years now. It was only the start of last year that I started getting a bit of traction and influential people started coming to the shows: press and internet blogs and all that stuff talking about me. That’s the stuff that really starts to help. It has been quite a steep rise in my audience and stuff. At the same time it’s like, I’ve been trudging away invisible for enough years, it didn’t blow me away too much or scare me because I try not take it for granted. I’m a little bit of a glass half empty guy. I just got to enjoy it as it happens really. That would be my advice to anyone wondering how hard it is; it’s more long really and you just got to keep going.

In terms of writing everyone has their own process. What’s yours?

I have no idea what mine is, I’ve got too many. Whatever works that day is mine. It’s very temperamental. I think the thing that tends to happen is I collect ideas very subconsciously. I don’t keep a notebook and write things down, I just go through life and my mind just robs things. Then when it come down to strumming away on the guitar I’ll start humming and one of those lines that was in my head will come out and then it’ll meld in and I’ll try carry on. I’m a first line person – I rarely have a chorus – and then write as the first line of the song dictates. That’s the closest thing to a process I’ve got. I’ve been experimenting writing with other people recently and it’s a completely different. I just want to be the best writer in the world that I can be. It’s quite interesting to see how other people write songs and learn from them. So I’ve definitely not got my way yet; I’m still learning.

How is 2013 shaping up for you?

It is quite busy. It’s festival season now. The tour’s finished but I have festivals lined up most weekends, and then try to fit in recording the album in between. That will pretty much lead in to September and I imagine we’ll probably try be looking at doing some other support tours.

Your upcoming Dublin date is in the Little Museum of Dublin and, as a venue, it’s pretty representative of your music in its delicacy and intimacy. Do you prefer these types of show or lean more towards festival stages?

I definitely prefer the small, intimate thing. It’s definitely what really suits my music. Festivals I find quite intimidating, just because it’s not really the atmosphere of what I do. Usually you’re just trying to get through the show without something being thrown at you. I mean, I’m doing a lot of small  festivals so hopefully they’ll be pretty good but the huge ones – I’m never really that great. I’m looking forward to the Dublin show. There have been a few quirky little gigs on my last tour. I’ve done some strange shows, like playing a cinema and museum which all add to it. I’d much rather do gigs to ten people who are listening than ten thousand who aren’t.

Luke Sital-Singh plays The Little Museum of Dublin on May 22nd.