Nadine Shah plays the Roundhouse, London on February 2. In The Round runs from January 31 to February 10

The album saw her team up with producer Ben Hillier (Depeche Mode, U2, Blur, Elbow, Suede) for the third time and Nadine is deadly serious as she calls it a “partnership for life”.

“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” she says.

“It’s really difficult to find somebody you can spend that amount of concentrated time with in one small room. He’s a collaborator, it’s all 50/50. I just put my name on it and take most of the credit ... cos I’m a cow,” she cackles.

Born in the coastal town of Whitburn in the north east of England to a Pakistani father and a Norwegian-British mother, Nadine’s world view was informed from a young age by her older brother, a journalist who spends a lot of time covering conflict.

“I’ve been very, very aware of right-wing nationalists from a very young age,” she says. “I don’t know if that’s because I’m half-Pakistani, I just think my eyes have always been open.”

Although it took until her third album for those ideas to creep into her music, Nadine has been protesting against the far-right for a lot longer. She was arrested around 12 years ago after crashing an English Defence League rally.

“I was dating a political activist and he used to take me to demonstrations with him, and we were at this EDL march and obviously were opposing it. There was about 100 of them and 2,000 of us,” she says.

“We got kettled and I ended up getting arrested, it was really mad. Billy Bragg nearly had to bail me out, it was very funny,” she says. “I was in Lewisham prison for seven hours. The police said they took us in for our own safety.”

Her politicisation has come from a strong sense of solidarity with Palestine from a young age. It remains a dream of hers to perform there.

She’s also intrigued about the debate surrounding artists performing in Israel which has seen the likes of Nick Cave, Lorde and Radiohead come under pressure from groups lobbying for a cultural embargo.

“Loads of artists I know won’t play Tel Aviv and I’ve said for me it’s different.

“I wouldn’t want to, but if someone with a Muslim surname was invited to play Tel Aviv that would be quite significant,” she says thoughtfully.

“But it’s a dream of mine to play Palestine. I speak to musicians about where their dream placesaretoplayandthey’llsay Carnegie Hall or Royal Festival Hall or Olympic Stadium in Berlin, but genuinely, mine is Palestine.

“It would be very difficult for me to go but, hopefully, one day I will.”

She moved to London at 17 and has spent almost half her life in the capital, first arriving in Camden where she will return next month for a show as part of the Roundhouse festival, In The Round.

“Whenever I go back to play gigs in Camden, it’s really exciting, especially when it’s the Roundhouse. It’s pretty cool. I’m like, ‘I made it’.”

But it’s not all smooth sailing. It took a long time to find herself a space to feel safe in the music industry and she admits it is a continuing struggle.

“It took me six years of doing this to learn how to exist within the music industry in a healthy way,” she says, smiling but serious.

“It’s a really unhealthy environment. It can be amazing and there’s bits I love, but it’s also f ****** awful, and I hate it, I really hate it.”