As a music personality, Anna Calvi has a ferocious demeanor that screams dominance and intensity. In person? Anna Calvi is the opposite.

“When I’m, performing I am able to access a strong and fearless part of myself”, she says. “It comes out in a really exaggerated form in concert. I often get asked would I like to be able to bring those two elements of myself closer, for them to mingle. I don’t know about that.

"I like the fact that they are very separate. I can enjoy them in specific moments. It makes it more special. It seems to puzzle other people. To me it makes perfect sense.”

While her music is dominated by arguably familiar topics – love, heartbreak, etc, it is also peppered with an interesting darkness that stems from a deeper place then a failed relationship. A family bereavement, as well as her own health struggles as a child, all mean that Calvi connected to a deeper sentiment when producing her latest album One Breath, though she rubbishes popular claims that she suffers from depression.

“I suppose I was wrestling with this sense of not having control over your life and how you want to resist that and how, ultimately, you have to surrender to it”.

Reflecting on the control problems females in the music industry face these days, she insists she will never allow herself to be pressured or pushed around

“If I don’t want to do something I say I don’t want to do it. I’ve always been pretty good at that”

You can catch our full interview with Anna Calvi in the latest issue of Hot Press, out now!