"I'm not going to wish my time away" (From The Bolton News)

"I'm not going to wish my time away"

10:25am Thursday 2nd February 2012

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SHE might be just 20 years old, but folk singer Rachel Sermanni is already carving a name out for herself on the folk scene.

The young singer started writing songs at the tender age of 14, and after leaving school decided to try and forge a career.

“I wanted to see what happened if I tried it on a more serious basis — not that it’s ever really serious, even though it’s my job,” she says. “It’s a bit of a charmed existence.”

The teenager who listened to the radio religiously to keep up with the latest trends has grown up into an adult who has no idea what is in the charts, and Sermanni believes that her music is all the better for it.

“If my iPod is on shuffle, it will go through Tom Waits, Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Sufjan Stevens,” she says. “At the moment I’m listening to quite a lot of jazz as well. And I think it’s inevitable that what you are listening to has an influence.”

With a gig at The Met, in Bury, on February 10, Rachel’s year is “filling up nicely.”

“I’ve got a trip to Canada, non stop touring, then I’m hoping the album will be ready,” she says.

Already the young singer has had some great experiences, including supporting Ron Sexsmith, Elvis Costello and Mumford and Sons, and she is charmingly grateful for all of them.

“Fresh in my mind right now is when I went to London over Christmas to do some collaborations — that was an incredible experience on many levels and just an example of the amazing opportunities that arise as part of this job,” she says.

It’s a long way from her home in Carrbridge, a small village in the Highlands, but Rachel says she still feels her roots strongly.

“I think it does have an effect,” she says. “My base most of the time is Glasgow, but I feel very connected with the landscape of the Highlands — I like the space.”

Despite being oft-described as an “up-and-coming star”, Rachel is reluctant to imagine where she could be in the next 12 months.

“The current situation is pretty sweet,” she says, “I’m not going to wish my time away!”

• Rachel Sermanni plays The Met, in Market Street, Bury, on Friday, February 10. Tickets are £7, £5 concessions. To book ring 0161 761 2216 visit themet.biz.