 | | Fiona Renshaw |
Born in Australia and raised in London, she always sang for herself, but it wasn’t until she landed in Manchester that she really found her voice, in the open mic nights around town. As a result, she says she owes the city everything. "I absolutely love Manchester. Manchester is where my heart is. It’s massively important to my music. The thing about the place is that it’s very cosmopolitan and there’s lots of stuff going on, but it’s small enough to be able to get around. "But it’s the people that make it. Everyone’s really up for it. I used to run clubs and everyone would go to everyone else’s clubs. We’d all be dancing, there’d be so many different sorts of music, and there’d be cross-pollination, a real eclectic mix of things going on.†There’s no doubt that Fiona’s felt that eclecticism. In her time, she’s DJed at Dry Bar, worked the door at both Sankeys Soap and the Paradise Factory, and provided vocals for Mr Scruff. It’s those experiences that now feed her music, a music she describes as "rock and soul". That and a desire not to have to start all over again. Music in a bubble After all, this isn’t the first time Fiona’s come close to success. She was originally spotted by no less than Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records and the man who discovered Oasis. However, the assimilation of Creation into Sony led to Fiona being dropped.
 | | Fiona Renshaw |
Undeterred, she decided to build her own studio, write an armful of new songs and record an album. The results, Love In A Bubble, garnered praise and comparisons with such a diverse selection of artists as Joan Armatrading, Gil Scott-Heron and Amy Winehouse. Rather than getting carried away, Fiona simply tucked the achievement under her belt and pushed on, taking the lessons of the journey to Love… had taught her with her, lessons that she put into practice for her new album, which shows its first buds in the deep soul of the Blood, Sweat And Tears EP. "I concentrate on the music. We did well critically with the last album, but I don’t get my hopes up, because I can’t cope with them being floored again. It’s a case of doing the work, doing the thing you love to do the way you want to do it. "Everyone will have an opinion about what I ought to be doing and the way I ought to do it, and the only thing I really can be is me. That’s really the major thing I took from the last album. | "I’ve no desire whatsoever of being an auteur. If I think I know it all and I can do it all myself, I’ve stopped learning." | | Fiona Renshaw on why she works with other musicians |
"I’ve brought the lessons of songwriting with me too. Hopefully, my songs have improved over time. They’re a little bit less textual, a little more simplistic and there’s more strength to the songs." Helping hands That songwriting has been helped by the people she’s worked with. Ever a collaborator, she freely admits that she prefers to work with other people, rather than on her own. "I think when you write with other people, you bring your thing, they bring theirs and it becomes so much more than either of you could have envisaged it as being. Music is a conversation, be that between me and my instrument or me and other people, and I love that. "The best thing is just meeting other creative people to bounce ideas off. Also, you learn new things. It’s great for picking hints and tips. I’ve no desire whatsoever of being an auteur. If I think I know it all and I can do it all myself, I’ve stopped learning, and learning is what I really enjoy. Finding new ways of writing and singing."
 | | Fiona Renshaw |
Given the list of her collaborators, there’s little surprise she enjoys it so much. Not only has she worked with Lisa Stansfield and the aforementioned Mr Scruff, in her new sessions, she’s had Trevor Horn and Lol Creme involved. Thankfully, she doesn’t get star struck easily. "Sometimes you walk into the room and you’re like ‘oh my god! How do I…’ But it’s just for a few moments, because people are people. They’re fantastic people, but they are just people. "If I met Janis Joplin or Billie Holliday or John Martyn, then I’d be floored, because they’re my real idols. I’d be totally tongue-tied. "That said, walking into the big shiny studios does make me feel neurotic. It’s all glass and chrome and very expensive, and I always think ‘don’t touch anything, you might break it!’ But it’s ok." With success on the horizon and a voice and songs like hers, she might just have to get used to that particular neurosis. Blood, Sweat and Tears EP is out on Virago Records on Monday 4 June. | 
