Paloma Faith thinks motherhood has made her a "better" singer.
The 36-year-old singer gave birth to her first child – who she has with her partner Leyman Lahcine – in December last year, and though the artist "never really felt" like a "proper singer", she believes that has all changed and having a baby has made her "lung capacity bigger" , which has affected her voice.
The ‘Only Love Can Hurt Like This’ hitmaker said: "I never really felt I was a proper singer. I always felt like I was a sort of impersonator of a singer for a long time. You can even listen to my first album and hear it, that I wasn’t very good then. I’ve learned later in life and on the job.
"And this is going to sound mad, but I feel like I can sing better now I’ve had a baby, that something’s changed in my body. My lung capacity is bigger and I feel more alive and stronger, more enduring, and that’s affected my voice and opened something up in my brain that’s saying ‘you can’. Before there was a ‘you can’t’, an almost physical inability."
And the former ‘The Voice’ judge has admitted records she used to struggle performing are not as "difficult" now, although her new album ‘The Architect’ is more challenging "singing-wise" than her previous releases.
She said: "Songs I used to find difficult aren’t any more. But I do feel this album is a challenge singing-wise, because I’ve got some big songs on there. Yeah, I might have shot myself in the foot there. Anyway, a lot of people have commented on how my voice sounds worlds apart from the first album. It’s to do with experience and hard work I think."
Paloma – who won the British Female Solo Artist gong at the Brit Awards in 2015 – always fears the release of a new song or LP will be the "ruination" of her career in the music business.
Speaking to the Scotsman Online, she said: "I always feel like the next one’s the one that’s going to be the ruination of my career. I start thinking, ‘OK, what am I going to do if this doesn’t work?’.
"I don’t think it is irrational in this current music climate because look at some of the massive artists that came out at the same time as me – like Duffy, where’s Duffy? I don’t think anything’s guaranteed, everything’s changing. With this album, Spotify is the most powerful thing on the planet now, and I don’t have a Spotify following, so I am literally trying to build it now."
But Paloma wants her music career to have longevity because she loves performing live and has admitted taking to the stage to entertain crowds is the "only reason" she is a singer.
She said: "Performing live, it’s the only reason I do this job. There’s something about it that makes you feel very alive, having to deal with the moment. I love seeing people’s faces and the instant feedback. There’s also the concept of human fallibility and I like when things go a bit wrong. People don’t remember the perfect gigs, the memorable ones are the not perfect ones."
Paloma Faith: ‘I can sing better now I’ve had a baby’
