I am sat in the pretentious Soho House. Far too pretentious for the likes of Corinne Bailey Rae, who joins me, (a day short of her 31st birthday), at a table in the restaurant.

Looking naturally stunning with not a scrap of make-up, her long afro hair instantly draws you in, and once up close, you can see how young she is. Yet, she has a wise head on her shoulders.

This is something of a comeback for Corinne, after the sad and tragic death of her husband, Jason Rae in 2008, found dead from an accidental overdose.

She tells me how it felt to do her first major show again, at Shepherd's Bush Empire the night before.
"It was great" she smiles. "I've actually been doing quite a few gigs with my band all over Europe, but mainly to industry people, journalists and stuff, so to perform in front of people that actually knew the album and genuinely already liked the songs was fantastic."

Her career is back in full swing now, with press junkets happening here, there and everywhere. Did she feel it was the right time to enter back into the chaotic world of music?
"I didn't really think about it. My life hasn't had that much routine, it was unusual to be back and strange to jump back into that fast pace, but it's alright, I've got my head around it now" she smiles confidently.

After receiving Mobo and Brit Awards, how did this down to earth lass from Leeds deal with performing at the Grammy Awards as well as being nominated?
"It was really scary," she says as she gently pours her green tea.
"I did kind of think why are we on here? I'm not a professional'" she laughs. "We got introduced by Stevie Wonder!" she enthuses, shaking her head in disbelief. "It was amazing. I would look into the audience and there were people like, Mary J Blige, Beyonce, Quincy Jones and The White Stripes."

Corinne doesn't come across as a nervous person, despite her timid look. But looks can be deceiving. "I get nervous and excited and find it really hard to tell the difference between the two emotions in life in general," she explains. "But once I'm on the stage I'm fine."

Given what Corinne has already been through at such a young age, does this album mean that little bit more to her?

"Yeah definitely" she nods. "I wanted this album to be heavier and more aggressive" She counts on her fingers one by one... "I wanted to write all the songs myself, I wanted to produce it, I wanted to co-produce it, I wanted it to be noisier and have more layers, I wanted to pull in the influences I have from my band playing a lot of guitar music as well as jazz and soul. This album feels whole and a lot broader."

She has worked with various different artists from Al Green to Herbie Hancock and speaks highly of R&B singer, John Legend with whom she has previously toured. "He's very clever. He has a business major so has a good business head. He is very private though. Even though we toured with him for seven weeks, I don't feel like I got to know him but I think he's a great performer and piano player.

She is close friends with Questlove (Ahmir Thompson) from hip hop band, The Roots and seems to light up when talking about him. "Hopefully we're going to get a chance to play with Ahmir. We played at The Roots Jam, which was before the Grammies and I'd love to do that again" she says casually.

Her love for New York has grown with constant visits to the States, hence the single on her album, Paris Nights, New York Mornings. "I love New York. It's one of my favourite cities in the world. It's so exciting and there are so many musicians there and it's got such a rich musical history. It's full of people with ambition so I feel like the whole atmosphere is charged with this expectation and people come there with this excitement."

Corinne has overcome effortlessly the difficulty of a UK artist breaking America. Her album currently lies in the top ten over there, which leaves her beaming with pride.
"I don't really know how I've managed to crack through" she shrugs sweetly. "When I was growing up, I didn't really think of myself as a singer. I knew I had an unusual voice but thought it was in a bad way. All the singers that were in the charts at that time, like the Whitney Houston's and Mariah Carey's had really polished soulful voices and I didn't feel like I could relate to that."

America appears to have offered Corinne a breath of fresh air. "I felt like I got to show a broader range of myself in America. They tend to play more from your album instead of just focusing on one particular track at a time."

Many people may now listen to Corinne's new album, The Sea, assuming every song is about her late husband. This has become visibly frustrating for the 31- year- old.

"A lot of the songs on the album I had already written and I guess people are just going to interpret that they are all about that, which they're not."

Although, I'm sure part of her album has been written with her husband in her thoughts, I ask her if it was hard to get back into writing.
"There was definitely a time where I just couldn't write anything and didn't try to because it was too big of an emotion. It just sort of happened, so I didn't feel like it was harder or easier. It just came."

The title track, 'The Sea' is a perfect example of this. "The Sea was one of the first tracks I wrote for the album. I wrote it with an autoharp which I found in a folk shop," she fondly recalls. "It was amazing the way you just press down on it and it leaves other notes ringing over it" she explains, showing me how with her fingers. "So that was the instrument I ended up writing 'The Sea' on." The song was written about her grandfather who she tells me died in a car accident before she was born. "I wanted to write about the affect it had on his children, specifically my aunt and how she felt."

It is difficult to put Corinne in any specific genre of music. "I really struggle with labels. Everything depends on the song and how it turns out and is recorded".

She is and should remain as one of UK's music treasures.