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" Last night, we went to see VV Brown perform a batch of new (and one old) songs at a secret, unnamed venue somewhere in East London. For those in need of a recap, Brown released her debut album Travelling Like The Light in 2009 and is responsible for this incredible pop gem:       After an extended break from music which saw her branch into modelling, fashion (she runs her own VVVintage clothing line) and TV, she announced details of her follow-up Lollipops &amp;amp; Politics; an album that she decided to shelve at the very last minute.  &amp;quot;I think it was one of the scariest moments in my life,&amp;quot; she told us just before the show.  &amp;quot;I went ahead and made a second album. I went to LA and New York and worked with some amazing songwriters, but when I sat down and listened to it I just felt it wasn&amp;#039;t right. I decided I couldn&amp;#039;t go ahead with it and I was so nervous to tell the label - it was essentially career suicide.&amp;quot;  She immediately parted ways with Island Records, but maintains it was on friendly terms. &amp;quot;The beautiful thing about it,&amp;quot; she said, &amp;quot;was that the departure was the most diplomatic and lovely goodbye. I&amp;#039;m still friends with the guys at the label - they&amp;#039;ve encouraged me to do my own thing and completely supported the decision.&amp;quot;   Since then, she&amp;#039;s set up her own label YOY Records and used money from her endorsements and syncs to self-fund her proper second album Samson &amp;amp; Delilah, which is due out in September. Explaining her decision to set up independently, she said: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve seen a lot of artists that I really love and look up to doing their own thing and I already have my VVVintage line, so I&amp;#039;m quite disciplined when it comes to spreadsheets and budgets.&amp;quot; Her new electronic sound, she says, is inspired by the likes of Bjork and James Blake. &amp;quot;My tastes really changed and matured since my first album - it&amp;#039;s a lot darker. Bjork is basically everything I aspire to be. She is, to me, the queen. The thing I love about her is that she still releases records on her own label and curates these exhibition-style concerts, which is exactly what I want to do. I even have a picture of her on my studio wall.&amp;quot;  Two of her new tracks that she&amp;#039;s particularly proud of are &amp;#039;Nothing Really Matters&amp;#039; - produced by Invisibles singer Dave Okumu who recently worked with Jessie Ware - and &amp;#039;Like Fire&amp;#039;, a song that she produced herself that she calls her &amp;quot;baby&amp;quot;, adding: &amp;quot;I basically cradle it when I sing it!&amp;quot;  The currently unnamed album is due out later this year and trailed by lead single &amp;#039;Samson&amp;#039; in July; a song that heads up the record&amp;#039;s concept based around the biblical tale of Samson and Delilah. She explains: &amp;quot;Every music video we put out will be from this short film we&amp;#039;ve made, and then when the album comes out we&amp;#039;ll be premiering the full short film in either the ICA or BFI. There are scorpions and snakes in the first video, which says it all really.&amp;quot;   Asked whether she is nervous about returning with a completely new sound, she confessed: &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s always a sense of nervousness as you don&amp;#039;t want to be presumptuous about your music. You get sensitive about your art. I appreciate the industry a lot more now and the hard work that goes into it and what makes an album successful.  &amp;quot;We had a planning meeting this morning and it was amazing - you get to have complete creative control. A lot of my team have come from corporate backgrounds so we&amp;#039;re all getting used to laying our ideas - no matter how crazy - on the table. The priority here is art.&amp;quot;  VV Brown&amp;#039;s new single &amp;#039;Samson&amp;#039; is out on July 14. Listen to her collaboration with All About She on &amp;#039;Bullet&amp;#039;, which is available to download from April 28, below:       "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/interviews/a474300/vv-brown-returns-with-darker-sound/>