One of the most promising female singer / songwriters we’ve head in some time, Ana Silvera is destined to be talked about in all the right places come the end of the year. Currently promoting a host of live dates in London and New York, catch her if you can. We caught up with her recently to pose our 20 Questions, not really expecting answers about Ibiza, the moon goddess Diana and Bobbi Brown Cream Blusher…

1. Describe your sound in 3 words.
Waltzy. Chansonsish. Goulash.
2. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?
I bought a cassette tape of Neneh Cherry’s ‘Raw Like Sushi’ in Our Price, Muswell Hill.
3. What’s the best cure for a hangover?
Vomiting usually does the trick.
4. What’s on your rider?
Tawny port and a Chippendale.
5. How do you get ready for a live show?
Boil kettle. Inhale lots of steam. Sing scales. Panic. Inhale steam with olbas oil. Attempt meditation. Panic. Resign myself to failure. White wine spritzer. Enter stage left.
6. What’s your favourite song to play live?
Probably ‘Notes from an Opera’ or ‘Salome’.
7. What’s your guilty pleasure?
Fajhitas.
8. Who would win in a fight, a stoat or a goat and why?
I’m inclined to say a stoat. Being a city dweller, my opinion is entirely based upon the evil stoat in Watership Down.
9. What was the last album you bought?
Rufus Wainwright’s ‘Want One’.
10. If you could rid the world of one song - what would it be?
‘Dilemma’ featuring Nelly and Kelly Rowland. It tormented me throughout my time in Berlin - MTV was my only respite from bad German TV, and this was permanently playing. Never has a vocal sample been so overused.
11. Who would play you in a film based upon your life?
Macaulay Culkin in drag.
12. Dead or alive. What 5 acts would you have play with you at a festival?
Charles Aznavour. Silvio Rodriguez. Gillian Welch. The Mae Shi. Yasmin Levy.
13. If push comes to shove, what is your all-time favourite album?
Hejira by Joni Mitchell.
14. What’s your most memorable on the road story?
Yet to hit the road…
15. If your life flashed before your eyes, what would be the highlights?
Hearing the (very hackneyed, but to me at 14, the very amazing) Rachmaninov Concerto No.2; moving to the mountains in Ibiza at 19, adopting a moped and living the beach life.
16. What’s the best piece of advice someone has ever given you and did you take notice?
“He’s not worth it”. Advice unheeded.
17. If you had to leave a body part to science, what would it be?
My shoulder blades, as they are truly curious. I can impersonate a fledgling bird with them.
18. What’s the best book you’ve read and film you’ve seen in the last 6 months?
Best book: The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst. Best film: Dekalog by Kieslowski.
19. What three things could you not live without?
Macchiatos. Mervyn the Monkey. Bobbi Brown Cream Blusher.
20. Tell us a fact about yourself we probably don’t already know.
I was once taken to a remote cave by a French sex cult who told me I was an incarnation of the moon goddess Diana, and suggested they cover me in white paint and join them in an orgy. I politely declined, they drove me home in stony silence. The end.

Links
Ana Silvera [myspace]