Valerie Francis is a singer and songwriter from Dublin. She has recently released her first album, Slow Dynamo, described as ‘warming, intimate and just a little alien’ (see page 58). Francis also works as a sound engineer, notably with Crash Ensemble, where she works with the album’s producer, Jimmy Eadie. The video for her song ‘Punches’, directed by Eoghan Kidney, was singled out by Kanye West on his blog earlier this year. myspace.com/valeriefrancis 

I was seven years of age. It was a little red keyboard. We didn’t do Santa in our house so I knew what I was getting. I had even picked it out. That keyboard came everywhere with me. Even to school. One day it was crushed by a passing car in front of our caravan in Donabate. I was inconsolable. Not even a big bag of coins for the arcade could mend me.

Angela Dorgan set up an organisation called First Music Contact to help and advise musicians. I can’t imagine putting my album out independently without her. She can decipher any form-filling gobbledygook, guide you through a ‘what you need to do next’ session panic free and generally break the impossible dream down into tiny bite-size pieces small enough to chew.

It was quite late. I was walking home from a friend’s house in Crumlin. It was a weirdly foggy night and I could see something coming towards me on the road. It was just a shape from that distance but I knew it wasn’t human or a car. As it got closer I could see it was a big white horse. I followed it until it stopped and sat with it for a while. Just me and a horse in the fog.

I arrived on Valentine’s night. My friend Marigny picked me up from the airport and we drove into the French Quarter in New Orleans, windows down to the soundtrack of Xanadu. Then straight to a bar called The Shim Sham to see a burlesque show. It was a strange introduction but it started as it meant to continue. I loved my time there. I was on my way back there in 2005 from New York when our flights were cancelled due to an impending storm. We all know what happened next.

Recently, I went to fetch my bike from where I’d locked it earlier that day. Only to find it gone. I couldn’t believe it. Had I locked it to itself by mistake or had someone in broad daylight broken the lock? Then it hit me. I hadn’t left it there. I couldn’t remember for at least an hour. I can see my future: I will be leaving the house without my pants!