It has been a whirlwind. From pub singer to a transatlantic record deal, Claire Sproule is being hailed as the Irish Norah Jones. But, the young Donegal/Derry singer-songwriter tells Brian Boyd, she's her own woman, doing her own thing

IT says something about the cultural detritus around us that young musicians these days view Fame Academy as an entry route into the music business and not for the contrived light-entertainment vehicle that it is. Such was the appalling vista facing young Donegal/Derry singer-songwriter Claire Sproule when she was moments away from entering the televised parade of wannabe celeb freaks.

"I knew that there were popstars, but I didn't know what a record deal was," says the now 21-year-old Sproule. "I thought I already had a career in the music industry because I was singing Eva Cassidy songs in the local pub on a regular basis. I never realised just how much more there was to it. So yeah, I was considering applying to go on Fame Academy because I thought that was the only way available."

Sproule's story is one of those old-fashioned music biz success tales. After singing in local Co Donegal pubs, she made a rough demo tape that made its way onto the desk of the man who had signed Radiohead for Parlophone Records. It also ended up on the desk of the prestigious Blue Note label in the US (home to Norah Jones). After a quick 20-minute audition in her home in Burt, Co Donegal in front of some record company suits, she was offered a deal with Parlophone for Europe and Blue Note for the US.

"Since then it has been meetings with accountants and solicitors, recording the album in London and mixing it in Los Angeles," she says. "Contrary to what I heard, everyone in the business has been really, really nice to me."

It probably helps that Sproule's debut is a remarkably accomplished affair in the folk/jazz/blues vein. Attempts to gently goad her with references to the Irish Norah Jones merely elicit a smile as she patiently points out that the songs on her album were written well before Norah Jones released as much as a single. "Anyway," she says, "it's more of a comparison of genres rather than the songs themselves."

Growing up, Sproule spent periods on both sides of the Border. Her musical diet included Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, Fats Waller and Miles Davies. After learning only two chords on the guitar, she starting composing her own songs at the age of 14. "These songs were never intended for anyone else, they were only for myself," she says. "I did enter a local songwriting competition when I was 15 - I came second. I was, though, the only entrant under the age of 30. Just a few years ago I started singing once a week at the singer-songwriter's night at a place called Sandino's in Derry. It was cover versions at first, but then I started throwing in my own songs and they got a good reaction."

She knew a local sound engineer, Billy Robinson (now her manager), who had worked with Mary Black and got him to help her record a 10-track demo tape. "Billy rang a week later and asked if I'd ever thought about doing this as a career," she says. "I had never considered it for one moment. The demo got a bit of play, the BBC played a few songs off it, so that helped." The two of them sat down together to draw up a list of record companies that would be right for her sound. "It was very strange, because the first label we had on the list was Blue Note," she says. "We never, ever thought we would get our first choice. I was still really nervous about singing. At the time I could sort of understand why someone would go and see a band play, but I wondered would anyone come and watch a girl on her own? In between all of this, I got on to a course in acting and music at the Liverpool School Of Performing Arts, but that didn't suit me so I went to Queen's in Belfast, where I was studying to be a sound engineer until I got the record deal."

After being fast-tracked from the local pub to a major international deal, Sproule found the recording of her album a bit tense. "I had never been in a studio before and I had never worked with a producer before," she says. "The company had got together five of the best musicians in the country to work with me and I was just thinking to myself: 'What am I doing here?' I really thought I would be laughed out of the studio."

For all her record company innocence, there is a real maturity about her work. She sounds uncannily like mid-period Carole King and Carly Simon on her album. "People ask me how I approach songs lyrically in this way at my age, but I honestly don't know," she says. "I've never once thought I want to write a song like a certain person or sound like anyone else. I suppose the songs are like a diary of my life."

With a very minimalist production, Sproule's songs sound like confessionals - but not of the wounded-victim variety. Her voice suits the arrangements perfectly and she has managed to put a modern layer over her 1960s influences.

It's not often that Blue Note go hunting for new talent on the Derry/Donegal border, but obviously they hear something in Sproule's music, something that ties in with the current rash of adult-orientated soft rock.

Sproule herself is under no illusions about any expectations: "I just want to play my music and can only hope that people relate to it. I'm not one of those people who ever said I wanted to be famous. That's the least of my concerns."

Claire Sproule's eponymously-titled debut album goes on release in early September