Rumer the late bloomer

'It's quite important that I do give an authentic performance because other people need to experience that song in that way.' - Rumer

Forgive me for speaking so quietly. It's really early. It's just I did a show last night," Rumer whispers down the phone from London.

The singer, born plain old Sarah Joyce, is still coming to terms with her sudden British fame, following the release of her debut album Seasons of My Soul late last year and her voice is recovering from back-to-back shows.

"I wasn't expecting it to be so full-on, to be honest."

As if it wasn't enough of a surprise to be discovered at an open-mic night after a decade of trying to crack the music industry, Rumer found herself in an intense, rather alien world.

"The music business is a very unique business, it's very male-dominated, unbelievably so. I never thought I would be surrounded by so many men all the time, I'm more of a girly girl you know. That was a surprise. And the interviews and the travelling, I never expected the schedules."

She was somewhat prepared to hit the ground running after a full-on upbringing, which moved her and her six siblings from Pakistan to Britain only for her parents to split, and to reveal the man she called Dad was not her birth father. She lost her mother to breast cancer seven years ago.

"I'm pretty robust and, actually, the name Rumer means gypsy," she says.

The stage name was inspired by the author Rumer Godden, who wrote one of the books her mother left her when she died.

"It just resonated. She's an English writer who was born in India - all the books that my mother left me to read were about India and Pakistan."

Rumer/Sarah grew up in an international community in Pakistan where her father was a chief engineer of the Tarbela dam. She listened to the records the other kids had brought over from America and Canada - John Denver, Cat Stevens, Barbara Streisand, James Taylor and The Carpenters - her own singing has met with many Karen Carpenter comparisons. And,of course, Aretha Franklin, who inspired the song Aretha on Rumer's album.

"Her voice is like a primary colour," she gushes.

And Rumer's is like a blend of all the primary colours that influenced her.

"I don't paint but I think of music in colours, like blending, you know. Aretha has a primary colour, so does Dusty [Springfield]."

Seasons of My Soul is also a blend of lessons Rumer has learned in life, and document her most heart-wrenching moments.

"They convey a lot of truth. Healer is a song conveys the bewilderment you feel when someone dies," she explains.

And yes, she does struggle to reproduce such emotionally-draining songs night after night.

"I have to be very careful about how I spend my time and my energy. Because it's quite important that I do relive it for other people, and it's quite important that I do give an authentic performance because other people need to experience that song in that way," she says.

"I liken it to playing Hamlet every night, it takes its toll."

Considering this album is the product of 10 years, a second is a daunting thought, she says, so that's why she has started cooking it on the sly, between recording with Bacharach, putting on fundraisers for Pakistan and setting the wheels in motion to tour the States this year.

Her croaky voice is testament to how much she is throwing herself at this opportunity - Rumer believes she is finally living her destiny.

"I cringe when I see it on X Factor, when they say it was my destiny. I say that, I think that. I always thought that I absolutely had to do it, I had no choice."

And yes, her dream came a little later than most female singer-songwriters, but Rumer is pleased she had 32 years' growth behind her to prepare her for it.

"It's a shame in some ways, because I could have had the past 10 years performing when I was young and slimmer and more energetic. But at the same time, I don't think I would have as much to say," she says.

LOWDOWN
Who: Rumer, Britain's new MOR big thing.
What: Debut Seasons of My Soul out now

-TimeOut