SINGER-songwriter Alex Valentine sees his debut album released on August 5.

"All the songs are about some kind of carnage," says Alex, which is evident from the first track, Spinning Wheel - inspired by his own gambling past.

It's been crafted to be as catchy and addictive as its subject matter, a characteristic shared by all 12 tracks on Local History.

Born and brought up in Camden, Alex moved to Glasbury last year to be near wife Jenny's family.

"We've met some lovely people and last year we got to know Hereford well when our daughter had her appendix out in Hereford County Hospital - the staff were brilliant."

Alex has spent the past 12 months doing up the house and is now looking to work on his second album.

Having spent October on a shopping centre tour of Britain, he is glad to be away from it all.

As a passionate and sensitive adolescent, Alex was expelled from school twice and turned to music to understand his emotions.

"I knew when I heard Simon & Garfunkel that that was what I wanted to do," says Alex. In 1996 he recorded his first, self-financed, mini-album, delivering it to shops on his Vespa.

Local History is a beautiful album about loss and Valentine's belief that everyone is flawed.

With its powerful songs and heroic string arrangements, it has something of The Verve about it. Alex's gritty, emotive vocal approach has also been compared to Damian Rice, Tracey Chapman, Stephen Fretwell and Joni Mitchell. "I've been very flattered by that," he says.

He's also been enjoying the 'liberating feeling' of airplay on Radio 2.

"My thing is trying to convey emotions in songs that pinpoint situations in people's lives, rather than trying to show off my song-writing skills.

"I'm quite an emotional guy, and it's a matter of turning all those emotions into something worthwhile."

Local History will be released on Struck Dumb Records on August 5. The single Sunshine is out on this week.