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Someone once said that behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes. Well, even if that’s the case, behind every electro-pop maiden is a bloke fiddling with his sound board. The gentleman in question goes by the name of Starsmith (well, Fin Dow-Smith to his Mum), and if his stage name means nothing to you now, it soon will.

For the past 18 months Starsmith has been deservedly gathering praise behind the music scenes, remixing everyone from the British chart favourites Little Boots, and Marina & The Diamonds, as well as tackling stateside heavyweights like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Timbaland. If you then add to this the incredibly fruitful production work he’s completed for Kylie Minogue, the fact he produced and co-wrote five tracks for long-term friend Ellie Goulding, and finally note that even the nation’s favorite Geordie is pursuing his expertise- you begin to get the picture that the 22-year-old is doing pretty well for himself.

This October Starsmith is taking the next logical step in chart domination, he’s going solo. Interestingly though, the release of his solo EP doesn’t feel like the contrived plot of a musical puppeteer, or indeed the half-hearted; solitary effort, of someone not quite ready to step out from behind the skirts of his previous colleagues. Excitingly, Starsmith’s solo work appears to be a completely natural step forward for a young talent who deserves to be recognized as a performer in his own right.

Which is exactly what he demonstrated when Gigwise caught up with him as the launch of his debut single approached...

Your debut EP is coming out in a matter of weeks, what’s the general feeling in the Starsmith camp right now?

I’m actually quite excited. I mean everyone’s heard the tracks that are on it. Annie Mac had the play of it on the radio; we also gave her the download of it as well, so stuffs been out and about. It’s nice to give people the first part of everything; it’s like handing out the first chapter, so that’s been really cool. I’ve got my launch party coming up as well in London, got some friends coming to do some free DJing too, so that’s going to be fun.

Has the transition from producer / DJ, to singer / songwriter been smooth?

Well I’ve always been doing the song writing and never just producing. I wrote with Ellie (Goulding), and other people, so it was just a case of thinking: ‘Right, I’m not writing for these other people now; I’ve got to do this for myself.’ You just have to adapt what you’re writing about. With me, musically, I try to take a few more risks. With other artists they have certain things that they want to achieve with their music and the label has certain things that they want them to do. With me, because it’s my own record, I can do what I want; which is nice. I can just go in any direction and say ‘look, I thought id try this,’ and do it.

So, would you say it’s easier creating songs for yourself than it is for other artists?

I’d say so, yeah. At the moment I’m feeling like that because I’ve got complete freedom to do what I want. I haven’t got any guidelines, because there’s no one saying: ‘oh you should try something like this,’ or ‘we want it to sound like this song.’

The video for ‘Give me a break’ is graphically amazing... and your life-size cut out is in it a lot as well. Is that supposed to demonstrate your step up in the ranks, from incognito producer to popular performer?

To be honest, I really don’t think there was that behind it. Its cool going from the producer thing, but we didn’t want to make it too obvious in the video. So to do this whole cut out thing, we originally wanted it to be more like me featuring in the video, rather than it being all about me... And then it kind of ended up a bit like, ‘oh actually, it’s me in absolutely everywhere,’ which isn’t really how we described it in the beginning. It was good, but it ended up with me plastered everywhere.

But that’s still good, it’s all publicity and they say that’s never a bad thing...

Yeah. I’m really happy with the result. It’s really aesthetically pleasing; it’s different and quite fun.

Starsmith - 'Give Me A Break'

I can’t talk to you and not mention your back catalogue I’m afraid. Is it true you’ve been jetting off to LA to work with a certain X Factor judge? What was that like?

That was about a month ago. Yeah that was great, it was amazing. I’d met Cheryl before because we’d worked together in about March or April, on some preliminary ideas for her new album. So it was nice that I wasn’t just going out there and meeting her straight away without knowing her...and she remembered who I was, which I was really worried about! I was thinking: ‘oh is she going to remember who I am?!’ But she did, and she was really, really friendly and really nice. It was great, we nailed it really. I was only out in LA for two days but it was crazy, I had the most rammed two days because I was like: ‘Right, I’m only here for this long, I need to do absolutely everything possible.’

Let’s be honest, you’re probably one of the luckiest 22-year-old blokes in the world. You’ve been working with Cheryl Cole, Kylie and letting Ellie Goulding hang out in your bedroom. Has there been a moment in the past year where you’ve taken stock and thought, ‘this is mental, I’m ridiculously cool.’?

Erm, (Laughs) there’s been quite a lot of moments like that, it’s a weird feeling but I do get it quite often. I really try not to let things get ahead of me, I don’t want to look back and be like ‘well I’ve worked with this person and this person, so I’m THIS’. I really try not to let it get like that. It is weird to think what’s happened in the last year, but I thought exactly the same a year ago, I think that’s just the way it works. In this business that’s just the way it is, everything is so fast paced and a hell of a lot does happen in a year. I think I’m just getting used to that really. I try to keep my feet on the ground and I’m very appreciative of what’s happened.

Your little black book must be bulging though, have you called in on any favours for some collaborations on your own album?

(Laughs) I’m trying to steer clear from all the massive ‘featuring’ stuff. I know that when a lot of artists want to have a ‘featuring’ on their album, they go for a full on mainstream popstar, but I’ve always tried to stay away from that. I want it to be more like a discovery thing on the album, I don’t want people to have a preconceived idea of the tracks, where they start thinking: ‘its gonna sound like this, coz it’s got this person on it.’ Id rather they just experienced it with no idea of what it will be like. Ellie is probably the only person on the album that I’ve worked with before really, and I think Ellie is quite an obvious one, because we’ve had such a long connection that I think people would be quite disappointed if she wasn’t on my album. It’s going be cool to get her involved because she’s got a very distinct style now, but with my album, as I was saying before, there’s no holes bared, I can do whatever I want. So I can now try Ellie on a track on my album and it sounds a million miles from her album, which is cool.

How is the album shaping up? Any ideas as to when it will be available to purchase?

Yeah well we’re all hoping it’s going be available for people April next year, with a couple more singles beforehand. I think I’m in the final third now, I’ve got all the tracks but I need to start going back over everything, wrapping the tracks up and making tweaks. That’s the hardest part for me. Writing tracks I could do everyday, it’s hard for me not to create new songs; I have to force myself not to write a new track because I haven’t got time and I need to be finishing other tracks off. That’s the hardest bit, its tough going back to something after maybe 6 months of leaving it, and returning to it with a fresh head. It’s like if you left an essay and went back to it 6 months later; you have no idea what you were on about, you have no recollection of what you were thinking about at the time, so how do you continue? But yeah, it’s exciting and everything is coming together.

You’ve got some live dates coming up, particularly your single’s launch party on the 23rd. What can ticket holders expect and why should latecomers part with their hard-earned cash for a ticket?

(In a part-camp, part-pretentious tone) Well, my single launch is going to be one of the nights of the
year, if I say so myself. (Laughs) Well, it’s going be one of THE nights of the year in my book anyway. Because: one, my single is coming out, and that’s quite an exciting thing for any artist and two, I’ve managed to get my mates to play for very little money; and that’s quite an achievement in itself.

So it’s a bit of a budgeted recession geared gig as well?

It is a budgeted recession gig! (Laughs) Well we’re doing it in a small venue and we’re just trying to keep it intimate. Alan Braxe is playing, so’s In Flagranti and I’ve got Clock Opera. It’s a really exciting line-up, and it’s a thing that a lot of Londoners don’t get to see in tiny venues anymore, which is exciting. The live shows are what I’m really excited for, I can’t wait to get on the road with those. The live shows are really going to be the final piece in the puzzle for me, I’ve done the djing, the writing, the producing and the remixing, and the live performing is the last thing left that I really want to start doing.

According to your twitter you’ve dodged the Glastonbury ticket buying fracas in the hope you’ll be playing next year, is that one of you biggest aspirations?

(Laughs) Oh no! Errr yeah... I knew someone would pick up on that! Well yeah I have. You know what? Everyone just wouldn’t shut up about it; everywhere I looked everyone was like ‘have you registered?’ And then I was like: ‘screw this right, my albums out next year; I’m hoping that I’m playing, if I’m not playing then there’s something wrong,’ it was that kind of mentality. Even if I’m on a tiny stage or like the first act on, I don’t care, just as long as I go! I went last year as a guest of Ellie’s, and I just had the best time. It was my first time to Glasto and it was awesome. I’m really hoping I can do it again next year, it’s such a brilliant festival, even if I’m not playing I think I’ll just turn up with a keyboard and plug it in somewhere.

Finally, what do you hope 2011 holds for Starsmith?

Argh, Christ. At the moment I don’t even want to think about it! I’m really hoping people enjoy the album and I hope that they like what I’m about. I think the albums going to be the first chance for people to really see what I try and do, and what it’s really been about. See, with the producing and the remixing, I think people have been able to get a good idea of what I do and what styles I like and things, but I think obviously when you create your own solo album, that’s really when you’re like: ‘this is me.’ So I’m just really excited to get that out and to hopefully inspire some people. It’s exciting at the moment, but I don’t want to think too much about next year... if you plan too much it will fall on its face and you’ll be disappointed, that’s very much my mentality in a lot of things. If you don’t get yourself worked up about it and then it doesn’t happen, it won’t matter. I just try not to worry really and take it all as it comes.

Starsmith's debut single 'Give Me A Break/Knuckleduster' is released on October 18 through Neon Gold/Island Records.