“It’s quite mixed round here actually,” says a relaxed looking Vonnie DeBrett, sipping coffee in her favourite Shepherd’s Bush café. “You get these two very distinct ends of society.

“I’ve got a fairy God-daughter who’s just 12 and she’s got a real mix of friends from lots of different groups. I think that’s why I like Shepherd’s Bush so much. It’s a real melting pot and it really works in a way that it doesn’t in a lot of other areas. It’s something that can cause conflict, but not here for some reason. I don’t really understand why, but it feels very safe?”

Casually reflecting on the social make-up of her west London ‘hood’, Debrett is quite a different prospect from the un-hinged vamp I was expecting. The iconic band she fronts, London post-punk four-piece The DeBretts, are fast gaining a reputation as one of the most intense, infectious and down right mental live acts around – and it’s largely down to the on-stage theatrics of one Vonnie DeBrett.

Not today though. Off stage, DeBrett couldn’t be sweeter. Softly spoken, polite and all together charming. Frankly, she’s lovely… And it’s a million miles away from the mad gothic witch of the live show.

“I’ve never really watched anyone else on stage and thought ‘that’s how I wanna be,’” she tells me. “It’s only since we played and comparisons were made that I went back and looked at artists like Siouxsie Sioux and Debbie Harry that I’ve been compared to.

“I didn’t even know who Siouxsie Sioux was before. Now I’ve watched videos of her and I can see what people were saying but for me it was just natural. I’m not in control of what goes on with the arms and the legs on stage. It just happens.

“It’s like my way of being able to make sense of everything that goes on in my life that I don’t feel I can make sense of anywhere else. Being on stage for me is like being at home. It’s where the talking stops and it’s great.”

It’s not just the stage show that sets DeBrett apart though. There’s an anger and a darkness in her lyrics and vocals that feels quite real. And it’s this, combined with the war paint and feathers, that makes her such an imposing force on stage.

“I think if you are listening to the tracks there’s a certain vagueness about them so you could read them to be anything at all,” she tells me. “Some of them are about pretty harsh topics but it’s up to the person listening to interpret it to the way they feel themselves emotionally.
“For me I know what it means and I know what it’s about when I’m singing it but I don’t necessarily want to force that on other people. I want them to bring their own interpretation to it.

“It’s always personal. I couldn’t write otherwise. I think lyrically they are quite dark but when you first listen to the songs you might not get that impression. I didn’t grow up with my parents. I grew up away from them having quite a tough time, which has definitely had an impact on how I am on stage and how I am with people.”

DeBrett tells me that her band’s journey to where they are now was not ideal. Playing their very first gigs to 350 people at the sold-out Bush Hall, then going straight off on a major UK tour with The Noisettes, she feels like The DeBretts have never had the time they’ve really needed to develop as a band.

“Because we did such big gigs right from the very beginning,” she says, “we had never had the chance to play the smaller venues and develop that tightness. The pressure – right from the very beginning – was immense. The expectations were very big.

“People knew us. They knew me as a person and they knew the guitar player (Aiden DeBrett) was great so right from the very beginning the expectations were very high. So we never had that chance to practice and develop slowly in little pubs. Everything was sold out from the very beginning. So after that we had to go back and try to learn how to play live. We didn’t even really know what we were doing to begin with.”

From the start, Vonnie DeBrett was thrown in at the deep end. Having been spotted doing a solo gig (“just me and a guitar”) by the other band members, she was suddenly playing with huge PAs, and “not being able to hear jack shit”.

“It was good though because we learnt a lot,” she tells me, “and had to get better quite quickly. I learned how not to drink alcohol on that tour. I remember in Cardiff – I had lots of friends in Cardiff that came to see us play – I had had like 14 double JD and Cokes before the gig. I didn’t realise that for a singer, Coke really dries the vocal chords so by the end of the tour I had laryngitis.”

Two years later, The DeBretts have just finished recording a collection of songs that may or may not be released as an album in the near future. Having worked with several different people, including Gordon Raphael (best known for working with The Strokes), DeBrett is pleased the band waited a couple of years before working on material for an album.

And despite much label interest in the past couple of years, the singer now feels like the band is ready to seriously look for a deal.

“I don’t think we were in the right place before but now I think we are,” she says. “I’m more in control now on stage. I’ve definitely learnt how I want to be portrayed and how I don’t want to be portrayed.

“It used to be just one whole volcanic eruption that would just go off, and that hasn’t changed with our live shows but I am definitely a better live singer that I was before. It takes a long time to develop vocally. I wouldn’t even say that I’m half way there though… I’m like a quarter way there now.”

2008 has seen the emergence of The DeBretts as an impending force on the London unsigned live scene; and with Vonnie at only a quarter of her potential power, they look set to rule in 2009…

The DeBretts play The Enterprise on 11 September 2008.