This was quickly followed by ‘We Know All About U’, which picked up regular plays on Zane Lowe’s shows on BBC Radio 1. It began to get this South Londoner noticed.

The bedroom production seemed to be working, so when it came time to make an album, Ebony did what she knew best and sat down to create a long player, ‘Bone Of My Bones’, from scratch, and on her own. Something she is justifiably proud of. “I did collaborate with a couple of friends of mine - one from Brazil, one from Canada - but I feel really proud that I was able to produce the album myself: write it and play the instruments and kind of just put myself into a collection of songs,” she says.

If it seems like careful planning is the Ebony Bones way, think again, everything she does, she does her own way. “I kind of lied to my label and pretended that I had the album written before I went into the studio when in fact I didn’t. But on the first day I had written ‘Warrior’ and recorded it and by the second day it was up on MTV US’ website for everyone to hear. It was really phenomenal how everything unfolded from a week earlier having nothing.” Something similar happened with the video for her first single proper, ‘The Muzik’. Again, an idea conceived by Ebony alone and presented in a way that reflects what it is she’s trying to get across. “The label had no money and I was like, ‘Well how do we make a video then?’ so I reached out to my Myspace fans and online community and asked them to make it for me by just dancing in their cities. It’s about culture clash, the whole album, so that’s what the video’s about.’

A former actor, Ebony uses music as the vehicle to get let true self out. “It’s the real me. It’s one thing to portray a character concocted by script writers and a completely different thing to put yourself there on stage with your own material that you’ve written… it’s your true personality.” Spend some time with Ebony and that personality comes across in spades – something that spills over to her infectious, fun live shows. “It’s more of a celebration than an actual gig,” she offers. “You can expect whistles, horns, possibly puke, it’s all in there. There’s a lot of energy involved as well and it really is all about celebration.”

Her homemade approach spills over to her band too. “They’re all good mates of mine, very good friends. They’d never been on stage before, bedroom musicians. They’d never sung before and that’s exactly what I was looking for.”

Rather bizarrely, just a few months after assembling the band, Ebony and co were invited to the US as the only UK act to play at the series of parties celebrating Barack Obama’s inauguration. “It was so much fun. They flew myself and my band out. There was a huge audience in New York, it had been going on for a week and I was just very excited to be doing it as one of my first shows in America. The US has been really supportive towards the music and I’ve kind of gravitated to it at a very early stage, same with a number of other places so I’m really excited to get it out in my hometown and see what the UK thinks.’

Doing some research for this interview, I came across a rather odd quote attributed to Ebony, describing her music as “like Harry Potter with a vagina”. Do explain! “I never said that! I had that as a headline on my Myspace and some journo knob lied and completely took it out of context and really upset my mum. I’d like to put it on record that I have never said that my music sounds like Harry Potter with a vagina.”

We speak about her influences and – after a brief Vanilla Ice interlude – she comes clean. “I love so many different types of music from The Clash to Talking Heads and Earth Wind and Fire. I think growing up in the UK, because it’s such a cosmopolitan country, you come across so many different diversities, races and genres, you hear so much of it growing up and an artist is just really a reflection of what’s around them.’

“I didn’t even plan for anyone to hear what I was doing - it was just for my friends and peers who couldn’t stand what was on the radio. I was just feeling that there was just a real lack of strong females in music in terms of not leaning on wearing bikinis in videos and whatnot and talking crap. Those were the girls that I grew up listening to, they were really strong females - Annie Lennox, Kate Bush, Bjork and Grace Jones. They were just women who redefined music and femininity in their own way and I sort of felt that inner strength, particularly in female artists, seemed kind of lost in this day and age.”

‘The Music’ is out on May 11 on Sunday Best.

www.myspace.com/ebonybones