Kate Walsh

Consciously or otherwise, this gifted 23-year old knows that, in a world teeming with distractions, it's best to give the music some elbowroom in which to work. "A lot of time I just like to sit", says Kate, "or I'll go for a walk along the beach. The songs tend to come when I have time alone to think." If forgoing the telly is one marker of her individuality, another, more significant one is kate's debut album proper. A soothing, richly sensual work, Tim's House is an admirable contribution to the quiet revolution. Packing heart-stoppingly beautiful songs - if "Your Song" and "Tonight" don't move you we respectively suggest you check your pulse - the album has maturity and finesse way beyond Kate's year. Put simply, it's a corker, and to understand how and why she came to write it, we need to backtrack a little. Kate was born in a tiny fishing village of Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex. "A pretty little place with lots of farms around it." She loved growing up by the river (which probably explains her current place of residence, Brighton. But not everything about Burnham was quite so magical. "People could be tough there", she recalls. "If you're doing something different and you don't quite fit in, they let you know".