“The culminating point of my entire musical upbringing” is how George Lewis Jr describes Forget, the debut album by his musical project Twin Shadow.

Largely recorded on his own, in hotel rooms using a friend’s G60 laptop, the album features layers of synths and drum machines, topped by Lewis’s own distinctive vocals.

“The sound was just what I had at my disposal,” he says from a damp flat in Hamburg, where he has stopped off during his first full European tour.

“It was a new thing to play with. The sound on the record is not as important as getting the songs out there.”

Forget’s lyrics see Lewis delve deep within, as best evidenced on songs such as the title track and opening track Tyrant Destroyed, which, coupled with his distinctive quiff, saw some bloggers describe him as “the black Morrissey”.

“The album was very quick,”

he says. “The songs came over three months. Some are about my past, others are more about my current relationships with different people.”

Born in the Dominican Republic, Lewis grew up in rural Florida.

“It’s like an anomaly in the US,” he says. “It’s not quite countryside, it’s not quite a beachtown, it’s not quite a city, it’s not quite anything. It’s a very strange place, and a lot of the memories I have from growing up there were very strange.”

His musical interests were limited to what he could find in the mall.

“Florida was full of nu metal,” he remembers. “I know now it is the worst music in the world, but then it didn’t matter. If there was a Tool record on the shelf I would just get it.”

His experiences as a musician in Florida were tough too.

“It was impossible for me to find a band to play with,” he says. “If you can’t live through music you end up just waiting tables, which is quite grim.”

He eventually left home at 15, moving first to Boston and then to New York City where he started work on the album. But he still eschewed being in a band.

“I gave up trying to have a community of people around me,” he says. “I seemed to find something which was much more personal and more what I wanted to do than I would with anyone else.

“There are a lot of compromises in bands. Sometimes I wouldn’t even call it compromise – more like giving up.”

He did gain one supporter though – Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear. Lewis sent him some music after befriending Taylor’s sister.

“He emailed me several months later saying he was starting a 7in label and wanted to put out a couple of my songs,” says Lewis. “That evolved into the album.”

Following the release of the album on Taylor’s Terrible Records, and on 4AD in the UK, Lewis has had to give over control of the songs to his four-piece band.

“The more you let the personal things go, the more open the songs are to something new,” he says.

“The live shows are more energetic than the record – it is going well!”

He is even developing a rock and roll lifestyle – a recent jaunt to California led to echoes of John Lennon’s Lost Weekend, following tales of being thrown out of hotel pools, being plied with drugs by creepy fans and passing out in the middle of a park during a festival.

“I don’t know if I would call it ‘lost’,” he laughs. “I’m working towards it though – we all are!”

Doors 7pm, £8, call Resident on 01273 606312 or Rounder Records on 01273 325440