AS a teenager, Oscar Scheller would suffer from heavy bouts of anxiety.

A self-proclaimed “deep thinker,” the now pop singer was often to be found contemplating life’s weightier themes.

“I think being scared of dying was probably the main worry at that point,” says the Londoner, who released his debut album Cut and Paste earlier this year. “It was just about mortality in general. Some of the lyrics on the album refer back to those worries and that time.”

He’s talking about the words for Gone Forever, one of the songs that critics have lauded most from Cut and Paste. “Nothing’s as it seems/there’s a land where hopes don’t meet with dreams”, goes one line, soon followed by “I feel scared of all the things to come”.

Is Scheller, who goes by his first name only as a musician, more relaxed now, in his mid twenties?

“I think so. A lot of that stuff was hormones and working life out. I still get anxious about things but they’re more logical now, I suppose. I still remember that feeling, though.”

He could be forgiven for worrying about some of his current success ebbing away, given how dispos able the pop world can be. Scheller, who read all of the reviews for Cut and Paste – most of which were positive about his laid-back, chorus-driven indie rock – says there is little point in being concerned over things he cannot control, though.

“In all creative industries there are things you won’t be able to do anything about,” he ponders in his strikingly deep drawl. “You just have to ride the waves. There are little disappointments on a daily basis but you’ve got to stop worrying about them.”

That Scheller is indeed riding a wave at the moment is undeniable. From writing his early songs on a laptop during a mixed time at Central Saint Martins art school, the singer now finds himself being thought of as an “indie pin-up” or at least an artist who has the potential to grow into one.

With his good looks and tunes that some have compared to that of Britpop icons Blur, the tag is understandable. And yet many previous “pin-ups” have fallen by the wayside – Jack Penate, for instance. Scheller is open to the label.

“I think it’s flattering. Personally I think my aspirations transcend any, let’s say... well, I have an indie side, there is that to me, and what I thought when I started out was having that kind of impact. As I’ve grown as an artist, though, I think there has become a wider scope.”

And is there pressure that comes with that hype?

“You can’t control what people say, I just leave that to them. Indie pin-up is all right by me.”

Various journalists have picked up on Scheller’s experience at art school to form a background to his work and life. This would seem a slightly shal - low way of framing an artist if his time at Central Saint Martins (which his mother also attended) hadn’t played such a part in his artistic awaken - ing. Not that this had much to do with the actual art, though.

If anything, Scheller’s music comes out of a reaction against art school, which he considered “too conceptual, too scientific for me."

“I felt there was no substance and I got really frustrated. I decided to create my own substance by making my own songs. It was born out of that frustration, that hunger for something real.”

Scheller’s mother knows a thing or two about raw, “real” music. A musician herself, she frequented the Mudd Club in New York in the late 70s and early 80s, a venue designed for underground and countercultural art. Until recently, she has acted as Scheller’s musical “arranger”.

“I’d have a melody and she’d say, ‘that’s amazing but it needs to go there.’ She’s been amazing, really involved and supportive.”

Whether he ultimately lives up the hype or not, Scheller is apparently revelling in his moment.

Those childhood fears must feel a lifetime ago.

Oscar, Patterns, Marine Parade, Brighton, Monday, October 3, 7pm, £6.60, 01273 894777