Already praised (or criticised) as the new Lilly Allen, Kate Nash may have much to do to make an individual name for her in our ears.

With her debut album not due out until September, Kate has plenty of time to do this. As far as she’s concerned, she could do no better than to be herself.

Matt Byard catches up with the street-smart Londoner by phone to discuss Lilly Allen, acting and the Internet.

Having seen Kate Nash in concert twice, I already know of her musical capabilities and her onstage presence gives an un-intimidating, innocent, yet intelligent view of her. This doesn’t change when she puts that guitar down. Already nervous about asking her the fundamental question, I decide to go for it…

Do you think it’s going to be hard to shake the image of being labelled the ‘new Lilly Allen’?
     “I think it’ll be different when I release my own stuff and my album and people get to hear everything I’ve written, but I haven’t really released anything yet so people haven’t had the chance to listen to all my music”.

Does Lilly Allen influence you at all?
     “Maybe. I’m influenced by so much though not just by one person. I remember when I first heard her music and thinking ‘yea, I like that’ at the time. But we’re not that far apart though. She only came about a year or so before I started so I’m more influenced by older people.

What was it like touring with Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly and appearing onstage with him?
     “That was so scary! Up to that point that was the biggest audience I’d played in front of and it was really intimidating to stand and play in front of all these people”.

Within the past months your fan base has grown with your popularity. Is it easier to make a name for yourself in the music world now compared to previous years?
     “Yea definitely. The Internet nowadays is so helpful in getting yourself established. So many people have MySpace now and that’s a big help because people can hear your music well in advance of you releasing anything.
     “Without the Internet it could be months before you release anything or before it gets played on the radio, so it would’ve taken a lot longer for people to hear your music”.

Before you were a musician you were interested in acting. Do you think your acting skills transform into your music in any way?
     “Yea definitely, when I was doing acting I was reading a lot of plays, as well as writing a lot of my own plays and writing music. Acting is just another form of communication really and a way to communicate with people, in the same way that music is a way of communicating with people. So when I started writing music, a lot of the ways I would tell a story through acting just conversed with my music”.

You’ve said that one of your biggest influences is London. Do your surroundings affect the way you write your music?
     “They can do. Some people do write songs based on how and where they’ve lived. That place for me just happens to be London. My whole life’s there; my friends and my family. I’ve just got so much history there so it is gunna influence my writing in some ways. It’s always important to reflect on where you came from”

One final question Kate. If you could do a duet with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
      “(Pause)…Johnny Cash”.

Maybe Kate Nash does have a hard time ahead of her as she convinces the British music scene that she isn’t just another Lilly Allen second time around.