Duffy this week released her hotly anticipated debut album, Rockferry. The Welsh songstress talks about her new-found fame and what it was like working with ex-Suede man, Bernard Butler.

By Andy Welch

She's "the new Dusty Springfield", as well as "this year's Amy Winehouse" and "the one to watch in 2008". But whatever tag is used to describe her, chances are you'll have already heard of 23-year-old Welsh songstress, Duffy.

The singularly monikered singer ("My name's actually Aimee but don't call me that, it's way too official") is currently at No 1 with her stunning Motown-infused debut single, Mercy, and released her first album on Monday.

In her soft Welsh lilt, she explained why she had been looking forward to the release of Rockferry so much.

"I'm performing the songs live every night but there are probably only about four of the 10 songs on the album that people know at the moment. I don't make my music so I can get a kick out of it - I mean, I do really enjoy it, obviously - but it's more for other people to enjoy.

"I can't wait for people to own the album, appreciate it and then come to the shows and sing along. At the moment, I just get doll faces staring back at me, kind of open-mouthed, wide-eyed stares. A couple of people mime the words they know but I can't wait for it all to be about the audience rather than me."

It's the first of a few selfless, almost self-deprecating comments from the star-to-be, born in the small north Wales town of Nefyn on the Llyn Peninsula.

That's not to say she's hard on herself or melancholic - far from it, she's bright, chirpy and utterly charming, despite a gruelling schedule at the moment - but even though she loves her music, she's not sure why she's getting so much attention.

"It's all very unexpected, the response I've been getting. Lots of people want to talk to me but I'm honestly not that interesting," she says with a wry smile. "People should just listen to my record - it says everything about me."

Rockferry does sound like an immensely personal album. Named after a town on the Wirral, it brims with the epic melodrama of the likes of the Walker Brothers and Phil Spector's fabled "Wall Of Sound", with the enduring, timeless songs of Motown's mid-60s heyday and, of course, Duffy's soulful, distinctive voice.

Thematically, it's all classic fare - love, heartbreak, loss and regret - but never sounds cliched. Sure, we've been told by countless singers before Duffy to "hold on" (Hanging On Too Long) and she's definitely not the first artist to declare she's not a "stepping stone" to another relationship (Stepping Stone) but, in Duffy's hands, such sentiments ring fresh, honest and true.

Perhaps such convincing delivery is the by-product of a string of failed relationships and a broken heart? Perhaps not.

"Well, without wanting to give too many of my hidden secrets away, I'd say no, it's not like that really," she says, slightly coyly. "My songs aren't written directly from personal experience.

"Of course there's an element of that in there but that's not how I write. I don't write with the intention of being autobiographical and I don't feel like I've got any love hangovers or anything like that - I'm not writing messages to anyone about how I felt about them, I'm just writing stories."

Duffy's words have been put to music by various songwriters, most notably former-Suede guitarist and renowned record producer, Bernard Butler, who was introduced to Duffy by her manager, Jeanette Lee, of Rough Trade Records, in September, 2004.

A month later, the fledgling songwriting team had written their first composition, the album's title track, and have been working together ever since. Butler, who produced albums for the Libertines, Manic Street Preachers, Bert Jansch and Roy Orbison, also lent his considerable studio talents to Rockferry, "I think people assume the record industry is a lot more contrived than it actually is," she says of her partnership with Butler. "There was never a point where someone said 'let's get you and Bernard Butler together, it would be great.' It was a casual thing - we met, had a laugh hanging out and one day decided to make some music. I love working with Bernard. The same thing happened with (sometime KT Tunstall collaborator) Jimmy Hogarth. Jeanette's friend is his friend, so that's how that came about. I also wrote Mercy and Stepping Stone with a guy called Steve Booker last year."

In the countless features and articles written about Duffy so far, she's been depicted as a naïve girl from a sleepy Welsh backwater a million miles from London in every sense, almost unaware the 21st century was going on around her.

While Duffy happily admits she might not be as worldly wise as the "cool cats" she now knows in the capital, she's not quite as wet-behind-the-ears as some of the more patronising descriptions would have us believe.

"I moved to Pembrokeshire when my parents split up but I went back to Nefyn when I was 15 to go and live with my dad. I left all my friends and my sisters and my mum to do that. I don't think you make that sort of decision without not knowing what you want to do with your life," she says.

After moving back north, she started singing in various bands and competed on Waw Ffactor, the Welsh version of X Factor.

"Some people concern themselves with the latest trends, know who the hottest new model is and what parties are hip - but I don't care about that stuff, even now I'm in London. It's a personal thing, I could have been in Wales and taken notice of things like that but I don't care - I just concern myself with music."

So what does the rest of the year hold for Duffy? There'll undoubtedly be numerous festival appearances and tour dates for May have just been announced but, despite this, Duffy's looking forward to much more ordinary things.

"I probably need something else to think about apart from this album, which I've been living and breathing for the last four years.

"I want to go out and have a laugh and maybe I'll go on a couple of dates. Why not? I want to have a couple of dates! Basically, I want to do all the normal things that any other single 23-year-old wants to do."

Name: Aimee Anne Duffy

Age: 23

Significant other: Duffy's single

Career high: Debut single Mercy going to No 1

Career low: Working in a fishery while planning her singing career

Famous for: Her retro-styled music

Words of wisdom: "Being compared to Dusty Springfield doesn't annoy me, not at all, but I genuinely don't feel I deserve a comparison like that. She went to Memphis in the middle of the 1960s, when she was a top pop star in the UK. It was a big deal for her to fly there and do that and she made these big, dramatic records and went on and on for years after. How can one girl from Wales possibly even stand next to someone like that?"