She may not fit into the current music scene but Welsh songstress Duffy - whose second album is due out tomorrow - keeps producing timeless hits. By Stephen Jewell.
After selling 6.5 million copies worldwide of her 2008 debut album Rockferry, Duffy knows she has a lot to live up to with her second album Endlessly. Indeed the 26-year-old, who was born Aimee Ann Duffy in Nefyn, North Wales, was initially so overwhelmed by the electro-pop that currently dominates
the charts that she wasn't sure if there was a place for her timeless, 60s-influenced soul.
"I was aware that music was changing and I could hear the electronic movement," she admits when I meet her at a London hotel. "I didn't know how I was going to respond to that. I didn't want to make an electronic Chaka Khan-style record. It doesn't feel right for me.
"Maybe one day it will but let me get there on my own. Don't make me change what I'm doing just to become fashionable. I'm not a trend. If I were, I'd be changing like the wind. So what was I going to do? Who was going to put their arms around me and tell me that it was okay to make a record and yearn for songs that weren't trendy?"
That person turned out to be veteran American producer Albert Hammond, who approached her after watching her sing Stepping Stone on late-night American comedy show Saturday Night Live. Famous for penning hits such as the Hollies' The Air That I Breathe and his own It Never Rains in California, the 66-year-old had been retired for more than a decade, content to leave rock music to his son Albert Hammond jnr, who plays guitar in The Strokes.
"He's the light of my life because he keeps me inspired," says Duffy, who struck up a very different relationship with Hammond from the one she had with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, who helmed Rockferry.
"With Bernard it was like sitting with your brother but with Albert it was being with your father. Your brother's cool but your father or grandfather will ask different questions. With Albert there was much more of a family atmosphere than a professional working collaboration.
"I became part of his family and I'd go to his house to find solace. He'd tell me that I should be a movie star and that I should be in old films [like] Tammy Tell Me True and I'd say But I wasn't born until 1984 and that film came out in 1961'."
The real stroke of genius was hiring Philadelphia hip-hoppers The Roots as Endlessly's backing band. "Albert really facilitated this record and it was his idea to bring The Roots in," explains Duffy.
"He was the one reminding me what the songs were if I ever got hyper-aware of myself. He'd settle me down; he's such a champion. It was such an organic process and Albert and I stood side by side."
Duffy recently bumped into The Roots in New York on the set of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, where she performed Endlessly's first single, Well Well Well. "I was so embarrassed as it was like singing in front of your friends," she laughs.
"I'm such a big fan of theirs. I'd love to bring them over to the UK and do something with them. They really deserve to be rediscovered. The Seed is one of the best social pop songs of the past 15 years. It's talking about infidelity, men mistreating young girls, teenage pregnancy and teenage love."
Duffy appeared to bare her soul on Rockferry as anthems like Warwick Avenue, Stepping Stone and Mercy explored the break-up of a painful relationship. However, she insists that they were not based on personal experience. "I'm going to be honest with you, I've been let down but I've never been heartbroken," she says.
"I've seen heartache from people around me that I care about tremendously. I've never let it get that close. I'm not sure why that is; there's probably some deep-seated psychological root to it. But there's a little bit of self-preservation that comes into it because you can get burned if you get too close to the fire."
For the past year, Duffy has been dating Welsh rugby international Mike Phillips. Her newfound happiness seems to be reflected on Endlessly with songs like the carefree My Boy, although once again she begs to differ.
"I don't think your head should get too involved in that lyrical process," she says. "You've got to trust that this is the record you've made. I've never sat down with myself and wondered where Don't Forsake Me came from. Why did I write Endlessly? What influenced Well Well Well?
"Truthfully, if I did that I'd be an emotional wreck. I've lived through those experiences so I can write about them but whether I should then unpack them is another matter. I don't think it would be healthy to do that. It's like a snapshot and you live by those snapshots."
Although tracks like Lovestruck boast a distinctive soundtrack-esque quality, Duffy also doesn't draw much inspiration from films. "I don't dabble in many other mediums," she reveals. "I occasionally like the odd classic film like A Day to Remember, Breathless or Cinema Paradiso. I indulge in cinematic beauty but other than that, I'm not a big telly watcher or radio listener and I don't spend my time reading the paper. I honestly don't know where the songs come from.
"Of course, personal experience comes into it, as how else would I be able to connect? I don't know how great my observation skills are but I'm far too introverted to excel at that. All I know is that for this record, I wanted to make people dance. There's nothing more exciting than when you're standing on stage and you see people move."
Often described as a Welsh Dusty Springfield, Duffy hopes her songs live as long in the memory as the late Londoner's perennial favourites. "It was never an intentional thing but I've been compared so heavily to her that I've become intrigued by this blue-eyed beauty, who contributed so hugely not just to British music but to soul music," she says.
"I've been wondering what was it like for her. Did she die before she appreciated how legendary she was? Did Pavarotti really know what he would leave behind? Did James Brown know when he recorded It's a Man's Man's World that we'd still be dancing to it in 40 years' time? I don't think so and it's a shame, isn't it?
"You might get lucky and be appreciated while you're still alive. God forbid, I hope it happens to me. I'm not going to be some appreciated dead person. I know I've had a fantastic welcome but we need to wait 30 to 50 years to really know."
Duffy has enjoyed her visits to New Zealand, where Rockferry was her record company Universal Music's biggest seller of 2008. "We're constantly connected through our national pride and, of course, rugby," she laughs, surprised that Endlessly is released two days after the Welsh face the All Blacks in Cardiff.
"We're kind of like kindred spirits. There's lots of Kiwis in Wales. It's amazing how similar we are even though we're thousands of miles apart. I wish I could go down there more often but it's so far away."
She hopes Kiwis will enjoy the views of her homeland seen in the Welsh-language film Patagonia, in which she makes her acting debut as Sissy, a young student who becomes involved with a holidaying Argentinian.
"New Zealanders will be intrigued to see it because it shoots Wales so beautifully," she says. "It depicts the relationship between Wales and Patagonia, evoking a sense of agelessness. It was interesting to be in a movie, to step away from yourself and be someone else for a day."
Duffy's new album, Endlessly, is out now.
