Lisa Crawley looks tired as she sits down for our mid-morning chat. She was up until 2am shooting a video for her new EP, and then had to drag herself up for an early-morning appearance on breakfast TV.
She won't be getting to bed early tonight either. She's booked to play a three-hour set at SkyCity, which will go towards paying her make up artist for the shoot, and then she's off to Parnell to play piano wars up at Ivory Lounge for four hours. That will pay for the food for the two-day shoot.
"I spent every last dollar I have," she says with a small laugh. "I extended my overdraft just so I could get a video out, because to get on the hit disk you have to have a video."
Crawley is ambitious and desperately determined. No job is beneath her if it gets her closer to her goal - to write and record her own music.
At 22, she has already released two EPs independently, without any grants or financial support. Shoot the Night was recorded in 2007, three weeks before she moved to London. And this month, she released Hello, Goodbye and Everything Inbetween.
"I was going to London so I wanted something to take over there," she says of her first EP. "I put it in shops myself but I got way too many printed! I got 2000 printed and sold some.
"But I'm much happier with the new one. I had 500 printed two weeks ago and I've sold all of them so I've got to get some more done."
To fund the recordings, Crawley has a series of lounge residencies playing jazz covers, and recently appeared on Stars in their Eyes as Norah Jones.
"I don't like doing covers, it's just to pay the bills. But it's worked out to be a good way to get my own stuff out there."
It can be the source of some confusion, however, when people expect a sultry jazz chanteuse and instead discover her special brand of playful folk pop, full of percussion, trombones and even the odd recorder.
"It's a double life. When I sell my own CDs, they see it's not, like, a black dress lying on a piano, and they go 'oh, you're not doing yourself justice, love!'
"They just don't understand that I'd rather be doing my own stuff," she laughs.
Crawley laughs a lot. She radiates hope and good humour - when, frankly, she has plenty to be bitter about.
Her time in London was spent singing "cheesy lounge music" in swanky hotel lobbies - including the Ritz.
"It was all a bit sleazy. There were always businessmen writing their room numbers down and putting them in your tip jar. You'd see a lot of things. There'd be a lot of prostitutes who'd come in and married men would leave with them. It was really depressing at times. I felt like they looked at me in the same way. I didn't really want them to tip me if that was why."
But the gigs made ends meet and allowed Crawley to pursue her own music at small gigs around the city.
Her days were spent more solemnly, looking after her boyfriend who had been diagnosed with cancer just weeks after their arrival in London.
"It was pretty hard ... the daytimes were in hospital with him doing chemo or whatever. And then I'd go and play these lounge gigs where you're singing about how wonderful everything is."
The couple returned home last year for more treatment. Sadly, it was unsuccessful and her boyfriend died over New Year.
It's a hard topic to talk about and Crawley says she has yet to really write about the experience in her music. Although, one song on the EP, Lost, was written for his funeral.
The situation would have got the better of many people. But Crawley's determination and tenacity remain intact. Her next goal is to write a full album - she says it's the right time - but she has to raise the funds before she can start recording.
"I want to do an album and get a bit more established here. I would love to travel again but I want to travel with music.
"I don't want to have to go over there and play any more horrible hotel lobbies until one in the morning."
Lowdown
Who: Lisa Crawley - singer, songwriter and Stars in their Eyes contestant
What: Hello, Goodbye and Everything Inbetween is out now.
When: Crawley appears as Norah Jones on the Stars in their Eyes final, June 30.
Also: Crawley is one of 18 female songwriters featuring on the compilation Birds of Paradise, in stores June 29.
Rising talent keeps those stars in her eyes
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