The big-voiced, big personality that is Adele may be one of the rising stars of British music, but she still lives at home with her mum. She ain’t too proud to admit that life’s easier this way – she can get away with sleeping in and not doing the cleaning. But, she says, she realises that no, the house is not a hotel, y’know, and that new houses will need to purchased. For both mum and her rapidly exploding star of a daughter.

“Hopefully in the next few months I’ll be out,” Adele says wistfully.

Ah, the joys of having a multi-platinum mega-success of a debut record at the tender age of 19!

“Yeah,” she says nonchalantly, before breaking into a cackle of gleeful laughter. Of course, having a successful debut album ain’t all it’s cracked up to be – in addition to a glut of early attention, it’s resulted in certain pressures being placed upon her shoulders. Before the album was even released she was hailed as the second coming of Amy Winehouse, and in December of 2007 walked away with a Brit Award. This was several months before 19 had even appeared on shelves.

“It sounds naïve and pathetic, but it’s been a lot harder and involved much more hard work than I thought it was going to be,” she admits. “It’s exciting, and fun, and I’d rather do this than anything else right now.”

But why Adele? What made her ‘the next big thing’?

“I think it’s right time right place,” Adele speculates, “and I think it’s luck, and a lot to do with good timing. People always say I’m ‘the new Amy Winehouse’, but of course that’s not the case.”

Well, for starters, Adele has gone a different route to the likes of Amy or Duffy – where both of those are part of the major label machine, Adele instead calls the über-hip indie label XL home, where she sits on a roster alongside the likes of The White Stripes, Dizzee Rascal, and Vampire Weekend. Signing to an independent label was a choice made through speculation – while she admits that she was a novice as to how the music industry worked, she knew enough to know that to go to an indie label where the managing director works in an office up a flight of stairs from everyone else was a safer bet than working with someone based in some far off land.

“I have a relationship with Richard Russell,” she says in reference to the XL head-honcho, “where if I need his help then he’ll answer the phone.”

Yet, for America, Adele has signed to a major – she calls Japanese conglomerate Sony home, where she’s part of the Columbia stable. “Luckily for me I have the same relationship with the head of Sony,” claims Adele, “so I’m very lucky. It’s fine in the UK [to be on an independent] but to go with a major in America made sense in terms of it being a bit monstrous.

“Right now,” she says sniffily, “I don’t think XL and Beggars Banquet are capable of releasing my record in America – I think in a couple of years they will be, but not no.”

There’s no doubt that Adele is ambitious. You can hear it in her speaking voice – she has the brash confidence of any 19 year old, but in her singing voice she has justifiable reason to sound so damn certain. She sings like a bruised blues singer with golden tonsils, rendering the teenaged love affairs that dot 19 a sense of gravitas that would be missing if it wasn’t for that truly amazing voice.

“I want to do well everywhere,” Adele asserts. “The world is my priority. I hope it does well, but I’m not so eager with this album [to really crack the big time], because I don’t know what sort of woman I want to be. I’m only 19, and I don’t really know what sort of musician I want to be. If this album sells, like, 3 copies then I’ll be ‘oh well, next one then!’.”

It’s so easy to forget how young she is. Her flippancy can sound completely tossed off, but there’s no doubt that she’s genuine about wanting to advance as an artist – plans are being laid for the future, and it’s all there in the sound of 19, which flits from acoustic singer-songwriter, to bombastic big band, to jazz, to vaguely trip-hop touches and all spots in-between. It’s a true ‘beginner’ record, allowing for greater artistic growth going forward; a scatterbrained approach that will allow Adele to hone in on a particular sound on future records.

“I think I can go anywhere with my second record because of my first record,” she agrees. “I think the album is quite varied, but I do seem to be known for ballads – which I don’t mind, because I love ballads. I’m not ready to write, yet, but I think it can go anywhere.”

One of the criticisms currently afflicting both Duffy and Adele is that they’re not REAL – too young to properly convey the sentiments of their songs, they’re instead mere poppets; pretty voices singing great songs that they merely co-wrote instead of delivered on their lonesome with a bruised soul. It’s an accusation that makes Adele bristle, as she says that working with other writers – such as Mark Ronson on “Cold Shoulder” or noted pop songsmith Eg White on the likes of “Chasing Pavements” and “Tired” helps her own writing.

“The song always becomes a lot better if you have someone else’s input,” she states. “Sometimes if you really love a song you can get really over-involved in it.”

In the last year, Adele has been swamped by her own hype. Such was the level of anticipation for the release of her debut album she, quite literally, had a Brit Award inaugurated in her own honour as the most promising new artist to not have released an album.

“It’s ridiculous really – I can’t help but laugh at it,” she yawns, saying that the industry got more excited about what was happening than she did. “They all got their knickers in a twist and thought I’d written Dark Side of the Moon or Thriller or something. I never said I’ve done that. I’m 19, and this is my debut record. I’d much rather have people want to hear my music – hype for me is industry, and buzz is the public, and I really don’t give a flying fuck what journalists or critics think.”

Adele’s debut album 19 is out now.