Paloma: I’m the Monster

SINGER PENS ANTHEM OF SELF-HATRED

SHE’S enjoyed four Top 10 albums, won countless accolades including a BRIT – and now Paloma Faith fears it’s turned her into a monster.

The pregnant star is back with new album Infinite Things this week, and the highlight is an anthem of “self-loathing” called Monster.

She explained: “It’s about my experience having been in the music industry for some time now.

“[Early on] I had resigned myself to being an art school student not earning money. I wasn’t into material things, I just enjoyed going out for a night on a tenner. Then suddenly you start experiencing a quality of life I’d never had growing up, that’s why I called myself a monster.

“It’s unsettling – you once survived on the bare minimum, then I really loved avocado and poached eggs and started to hate myself.”

Monster features on the album’s first half, which is a non-stop dance party – not that Paloma is comfortable admitting it. She said: “I’m never sure if I’m allowed to dance to my own music or not. I heard this rumour that

Craig David went on tour and would d only lh have his album on loop to dance to.”

Sounds about right!

Despite her success, Paloma, 39, has tried to stay true to her roots and writes about it on current single Gold. She said: “It’s about being born and raised an east Londoner and the response to gentrification in my area.

“I went to school there and it’s a very different place [now] to what I experienced. A lot of people have seen Hackney as an investment estment opportunity rather than being there.” ” Paloma recorded the new album at home in lockdown own and became even closer to her community.

She added: “I had a food delivery slot and I was doing four people’s sh shopping – old people an and NHS workers around und the co corner. Everyone was panicking nicking and I said, id ‘I will ill do d it’. We even did a Covid d jigsaw where once you complete it you give it to your our neighbour – it went down the whole street.

“I feel like that will always be the real me before the public-facing stuff I’ve done.”