As she launches her 12-year labour of love, Freedom’s Daughter, at a sold-out gig the Hove-based artist Rolling Stone once called Britain’s best-kept songwriting secret talks about its painful birth.

“I recorded the album in December 2010 in the vintage Eastcote Studios in West London. I funded and produced it myself, which is partly why it took so long to release. You also have to stand back from what you’re making and allow it to speak.

“The album is a collection of songs I had written between the late 1990s and 2006. They were ballads I kept from other albums [Freedom’s Daughter is Allain’s eighth]. I always wanted to record them in my own time, with the players I chose, and have full artistic control over the material.

“The backbone of the album is live. I performed all 13 songs four times each and selected the best. On 12 of them the first take was the best. I wanted that warmth and clarity of sound you get with analogue tape.

“Shortly before I went into the recording studio my dear mum died. I didn’t know if I would be able to perform, but Philip Bagenal from the studio encouraged me to go ahead with the project. I needed time to grieve afterwards and deal with my own feelings. The meaning of the songs had changed a lot.

“I lived in Brighton in the 1980s. I moved from Islington and trained as an art teacher. But I realised the thing I loved most was writing songs, so I went back to London to begin the magical mystery journey which has lasted all my life.

“I moved to Germany as I had a loyal fan base there. I stayed from 2000 until 2007 [including a brief period with the Cooking Vinyl label], but I needed to get back to the UK and my own words and language.”

l Find out more... Jan Allain launches Freedom’s Daughter at The Brunswick, in Holland Road, Hove, on Sunday, November 2, from 7.30pm.