Interview: Singer Amy Macdonald, an accidental heroine

When Amy Macdonald met Elton John for the first time earlier this year, backstage at his show in Glasgow, it was the veteran superstar who made all the running. "Hello beautiful," he yelled, jumping out of his seat and giving her a big hug and a kiss. "I thought, 'You're kidding me'," recalls Macdonald. "It was really bizarre."

"Bizarre" is one of the 19-year-old Macdonald's favourite words, and one that she finds herself using with increasing frequency to sum up recent events in a life that sees her poised between still being an unashamed pop fan and becoming a pop star herself. She talks, in astonishment, of finally getting to sit and talk with the idol of her adolescent years, Fran Healy of Travis, after their gig at London's Koko in March. "We're just talking normally, and part of me is thinking: 'If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing'," she says.

No less startling was the experience of waiting outside her local supermarket in Glasgow while her friends went in to buy a copy of her debut album, This is the Life. That same debut album duly entered the chart this week at No 2. A carefully crafted but youthfully exuberant collection of songs, This is the Life is an upbeat take on the thoughts and feelings of a fairly typical suburban teenager, which has demonstrated an uncanny knack of reaching out across the generations.

The song "Youth of Today" was chosen by the social networking site Bebo to launch their Free Single Saturday promotion. At the same time, the single "Mr Rock & Roll", a wistful folk-pop number about the regrets that catch up with lovers later in life, was playlisted on Radio 2. "I think the things I write about can appeal to any age group," Macdonald says. "Anybody can relate to a song like 'Mr Rock & Roll'. It's nothing too extravagant. They are naturally simple songs, stories about things that could happen to anyone."

These homespun thoughts and catchy melodies have already brought Macdonald success on a scale that has changed the course of her life. "It's something I've thought about for years and I can't imagine that it's actually happened to me," she says. "I don't know if I'll ever get used to it. I suppose I will. But there will always be something in the back of my mind that's saying 'This is so weird; this is just... bizarre!'"

What is unusual – if not all that bizarre – about Macdonald's swift rise is the route that she has taken to get there. In these days of DIY bands and internet heroes, Macdonald is the unapologetic product of a traditional production company deal and a full-on major label marketing campaign.

Her story in music began at the age of 12 when, inspired by her love of the second Travis album, The Man Who, she taught herself to play the songs from it on one of her father's old acoustic guitars. Soon afterwards she began writing songs of her own, and, by the time she hit her mid-teens, music had became a consuming passion. She went to see the Libertines, Oasis, Razorlight, Richard Ashcroft and many others, although her taste in music was not especially reflected in the music she wrote herself.

"All the music I've listened to doesn't sound anything like me," she says. "Well, maybe Travis, a bit. But I've never tried to be anything that I'm not. It is more my lyrics that are influenced by the kind of indie-rock music that inspired me."

Although not a regular reader of the NME, she was leafing through a copy one day when she spotted an ad: "Production company seeks artists." She replied without a great deal of thought or optimism, sending what she describes as "a really rubbish demo, done on an eight-track in my bedroom."

The production company turned out to be a fledgling operation run by Pete Wilkinson and his wife Sarah Erasmus. The couple had previously enjoyed success as jobbing songwriters, garnering a lucrative credit on the title track of Paolo Nutini's double-platinum album, These Streets. Although they had no track record of developing or managing acts, they were quick to spot Macdonald's potential and signed her, aged 17. She spent six months working with Wilkinson on her demos. These were sent out to various music publishers, and Macdonald immediately got an offer from Warner Chappell (among others), with whom she signed. The songs were then sent to the major record labels, every one of which offered her a deal. She was still only 18.

"I was just basically in the right place at the right time," she says now. "Throughout my life I always loved music and playing guitar and singing, but I never really thought about having a career in music, so I think if that opportunity hadn't come up, I wouldn't have bothered anyway."

If that all sounds a bit casual, it is not a reflection of Macdonald's commitment or work ethic, both of which have been thoroughly tested throughout the two-and-a-half years leading up to the release of the album. "I've kind of been thrown in at the deep end," Macdonald says. "It's all: 'Do this, you're doing that tomorrow, and this on Friday.' Before the album came out there were times when I was like, 'Why am I doing this?' Every little gig, every little interview – it felt like I was doing it all for no reason. I was quite unhappy. But now that the album is out and it's doing well, you suddenly understand what it was all for."

On stage, Macdonald started out as a solo performer in the folk troubadour tradition, her rich, resonant voice accompanied only by her own acoustic guitar. But as the budgets have increased she has recruited a lean three-man backing group, more in keeping with her tastes as an indie-rock fan. The album itself is slickly produced, with lots of strings and horns, and a light, mainstream, pop-rock gloss that is pitched perfectly at that all-important supermarket demographic.

And Macdonald seems happy to forgo the rock'*'roll trappings: she has just bought a small semi in Bishopbriggs, Glasgow, the area she has lived in all her life; her boyfriend, Gregor, 24, has a job at Norwich Union; she's planning a small housewarming for her 20th birthday later this month. So does she envisage being in the music business in the long term? "I'm not sure. I absolutely love what I'm doing just now. If things were successful enough that I could continue for years to come, I'd be ecstatic. But I'd still like to go to university. I was accepted to read social sciences at Strathclyde University, but I didn't start the course. I put as much work into making this album as getting a degree."

'This is the Life' is out on Melodramatic/Vertigo

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