Q&A with Heather Small: ‘I’m impatient with myself’

1. What is your earliest memory?
   When we — my sister, myself and our cousin — were little, my uncle Frederick had a gas fire, and he used to toast bread in front of it. I don’t know how he didn’t burn the house down. It was the most delicious thing, with lashings of butter. And he used to tell us stories.

2. Who was or still is your mentor?
   I admired my mother greatly as I grew up. She was quiet but determined. She taught me what it was to work hard and that, if you had a goal, you rolled up your sleeves and went for it. She was not a woman to bellyache or complain, and she didn’t hold a grudge. She was just goodness.

3. How fit are you?
   Very. I’ve been a vegan for 30 years. I’m 57 and I have the heart rate of somebody in their twenties. I’ve had to counteract being asthmatic by keeping fit and healthy. As a singer, you have to use your physical self. It takes a lot out of you. You can’t say to the audience “I was great last night.” They didn’t pay for last night; they paid for tonight!

4. Tell me about an animal you have loved.
   My toy poodle, Nina. I absolutely love my dog. She is so sweet, loving, always happy to see me, joyous. Who doesn’t love a tummy tickle now and then?

5. Risk or caution, which has defined your life more?
   Caution. It sounds very unmusicianly, but you know what they say: act in haste, repent at leisure.

6. What trait do you find most irritating in others?
   Rudeness.

7. What trait do you find most irritating in yourself?
   I’m impatient with myself. When I do something, I want to be the best I can be from day one. It doesn’t happen like that. You have to give yourself time. You can have it all, but not all at once.

8. What drives you on?
   I used to be a total perfectionist. You do something 99.99 per cent right, then the 0.01 per cent gives you a sleepless night. When people think they know you in a general sense, not as a person, they see you as a woman, as a colour, as a class, and think something is beyond you, or not for you. That’s always been a motivation for me. When I hear a no, I like to turn it into a yes.

9. Do you believe in an afterlife?
   I wouldn’t say there’s nothing afterwards, but what there is I don’t know. Could there be something? For sure.

10. Which is more puzzling, the existence of suffering or its frequent absence?
    The lack is more puzzling, because the majority of people do suffer in some way. It’s about what we make of ourselves from that suffering.

11. Name your favourite river.
    The Volta in Ghana. I like the community life along it. It’s beautiful, really peaceful — and respected.

12. What would you have done differently?
    When I was in M People, I was asked by a really, really magnificent performer to do a duet. We had this rule as a band that, if two people said no to something, we didn’t do it. I wish I had followed my gut instinct and done that duet.

‘Colour My Life’ by Heather Small is out now; heathersmall.lnk.to/CML

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