“You just said a swear word!”

With nearly two-thirds of the interview completed, Ruarri’s sudden interjection has thrown the whole flow of the conversation into mild confusion. It’s not like there’s been a tirade of Gordon Ramsay style swearing by yours truly, but a double-barrelled word has caused offence, even when it is said with a tongue-in-cheek jest.

The word? Singer-songwriter. When reading other articles that centred on Ruarri Joseph (pronounced like ‘brewery’), it becomes evident that the Newquay-based artist isn’t fond of the word, due to its connotations:

    “I think the thing is, is that there is a confusion over the term singer-songwriter”, explains Ruarri. “Obviously I sing and I write songs, which makes me a singer-songwriter, but when you say singer-songwriter it doesn’t conjure up the image of someone who sings and writes songs, it conjures up a genre of music, which is introspective and melancholic and dreary.

“I mean what’s the point? You can do it, but do it with some dignity for gods sake!”

For all his protestations, the cruellest irony comes from a quick Wikipedia search, as his page clearly states his occupation as a singer-songwriter. You can’t pin the blame on Joseph for that, but it seems that no matter how loudly he shouts for now, people are only going to label him by one thing:

    “I’m battling the stigma at the moment, but I’m enjoying it because I like a challenge,” he says, with more than a sense of eagerness.

Since joining Atlantic Records in early 2007 after facing the initial record industry bidding war, Ruarri has seen his debut album, Tales of Grime and Grit released in July, as well as making an appearance at Glastonbury and bagging a support slot for David Gray’s autumn gigs – he also supported one of his favourite groups from his teens, Cake, at the indig02.

It’s been a steady ascendancy so far, as his record label is happy for the man to be found by new fans, rather than plastered across the front of magazines, and it’s something that suits Ruarri just fine. As he talks on his phone from the North Circular by a row of curry houses and behind a parked Ford Mondeo, you couldn’t ask for a more ordinary setting:

    “I said this to someone the other day, that the idea of fame and celebrity is utterly meaningless. You don’t have to be good at anything to be famous; you can be a criminal and be famous!” states Joseph. “Essentially all I want to do is for people to buy the records because they like the music, not because I was photographed walking my dog or something.”

This clamouring for information on artists has also left him feeling a bit weirded out. After mentioning that he lived for a few months in Bridlington, he was due to talk to their local radio station the following day who wanted to speak with a local talent, even though there’s nearly 400 miles between his home in Cornwall and the Yorkshire town. Ruarri moved to Callestick in Cornwall at the age of 4 from Edinburgh, before moving on to Newquay seven years later.

You’ve talked before about how you like to ‘make a dick out of yourself’ when you’re onstage. What does that entail? 
    “It’s not so much doing things its more saying things - one of the things I’ve always done is talk about the songs and talk to the audience because I don’t like the idea of musicians being on stage and thinking they are above the audience because they’re on stage.
    “I mean sometimes I’ll start talking and start waffling on about a story and I’ll just stop and go ‘I’m really sorry!’ It’s not so much about making a dick out of myself, it’s more just opening up and relaxing and trying not to be pretentious.
    “If you tell the audience what a song is about then they’ve got a much better chance of connecting to it or getting into a song.”

Your website biography talks about a jazz cabaret act that you used to appear in called The Rhythm Doctors…
    “[Laughs] This was a jazz band that had been going for fifteen years. I met the drummer because I was working with him in a bar, but they were in their 30s-40s. They were thinking of getting back together and doing a few shows here and there, and I said I would be up for playing double bass just for fun.
    “We didn’t have any rehearsals – they gave me a video to watch, and they pretty much said ‘learn this’. It was of this show they did in Germany that was about three hours long - they had all these cabaret things like sawing the double bass in half and setting the guitarist on fire.
    “The first gig we did was at Glastonbury, with no rehearsals so I was absolutely terrified but it was awesome, the most fun I’ve ever had in a band!

Instrument-wise, you played all of them on your debut album. Were there any that were really difficult to get to grips with?
    “It’s so much fun trying to play the drums and bass and accordion and stuff, it’s cool. I mean I’m pretty - what’s the word - cocky might be the right word! I see an instrument and say, ‘yeah I can play that no problem’ so I mean I’ll give anything a go and fortunately it’s turned out alright.

Are there any you still want to learn?
    “I dream about learning how to play the clarinet at some point. There’s a song called All The World Is Green by Tom Waits, and the clarinet solo is just the most stunning thing you’ve ever heard. I’ve made a song where I’ve thought ‘I could use a clarinet in that’ – I reckon I’m going to take up the clarinet pretty soon.”

Will you use it as much as you can after you’ve sussed it?
    “I’ll play just one note, [makes noise of a clarinet] MARRRRRRHHHH! all the way through the song - that’ll be fine!
    “I just want to be playing more instruments, it’s one of my favourite things in life to learn instruments, I think learning musical instruments is one of the best things you can you, it’s wicked.”

It all sounds like plain sailing for Ruarri, who has a seriously laid-back attitude and an upbeat personality, but the twenty-six year old has had to work incredibly hard to get to where he’s going.

His parents split up around the same time as the move to Newquay, and by the time summer came in 2000, he was a father at the tender age of nineteen. A slew of unappealing jobs, including working in a nursing home were then taken on to try and support his young family, which almost saw him give up on music.

But it was his child that gave him the inspiration to pick up the guitar once more. In October 2005, he was performing again, and within a year was offered a contract by Atlantic Records, before working on his debut album with Paul Reeve, of Muse’s Absolution/Showbiz fame.

With this in mind, it’s easy to see where his humble self-depreciation comes from, but it’s not like you’ll hear him complaining. He knows he is doing something he loves, and has done the time to appreciate it.

Your Tales of Grime and Grit video looks rather knackering…
    “Don’t you think it looks like I need the toilet? It’s kind of like I’m going ‘Oh God I need a piss!’
    “It was a cheap idea, it cost nothing to make and we thought ‘we need to make something really quickly’. We had one day and because of the restrictions of that and with me having to stand exactly the same length away from the camera, keep my feet in the right place and stand exactly the same, I couldn’t move!
    “We couldn’t do anything flash with my movement so I just had to stamp my feet. There were 250 locations, and we did it all in one day, so it was pretty tiring.”

Another video of yours makes for good viewing – your ‘how to pack a sleeping bag’ video on YouTube…
    “I mean that’s not making a dick out of yourself, that’s just being unpretentious - Johnny Borrell wouldn’t put himself in fast motion, trying to wrestle a sleeping bag, he’s far too pretentious. I just hate pretention. The record company saw it and they went, ‘we want more of those!’ so I’ve kinda shot myself in the foot now…”