Laura Mvula - New Faces Mvula was born in Birmingham to parents of West Indian heritage. She took up piano and violin at primary school, and started singing with her aunt's a cappella quintet, Black Voices, in her teens. While studying composition at Birmingham Conservatoire, Mvula toured with the group in Italy. "These women had these powerful soul diva voices, and I loved the music so much," she says. Singing with them developed my confidence drastically. Did success come easily? Not exactly - after university, Mvula worked as a supply teacher and a receptionist for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, something she found "so frustrating, to hear all this amazing music and have nothing to do with it." She began to write songs and upload them on to the internet. I drew on the soul icons I loved when growing up - Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill. I'm not a wordsmith, so I tried to be expressive with my unashamed first love, harmony. How did she get her break? Mvula was signed to RCA Records last May after sending demos to contacts a friend had made at a university seminar. She's been working on her debut album, due next spring, with members of the teams behind Adele and Rumer. I feel like a kid in a candy store, using live musicians to make an orchestral sound instead of rubbishy samples. What was the iTunes gig like? "It was incredible," she says, laughing, "but I was just relieved to make it through without collapsing on stage with sheer excitement and disbelief." Laura Mvula's debut EP 'She" is out now. She plays at George IV, London W4, on Dec 12 Laura Mvula - Like The Morning Dew on MUZU.TV.