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The old saying 'If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,' should be re-written for Seth Lakeman to 'If you CAN stand the heat, get out of the kitchen'...because that's exactly what he's done.

The Devon folk singer-songwriter has, until now, recorded his albums in the kitchen at his brother's house on the edge of Dartmoor.

Seth's second CD, Kitty Jay, cost just £300 to record in brother Sean's house, but it didn't stop it being nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize last year.

It didn't win, but it did catapult Seth into the limelight and now, he's been signed up Relentless Records, a part of the huge EMI label.

His first album for the label is actually a re-recorded, re-mastered version of his 2006 CD, Freedom Fields.

Seth at home in the kitchen

The new CD is out on 21st August 2006. The first single taken from it, Lady of the Sea, has received air play on Radio 1, and Seth is now appealing to new audiences.

To help publicise the single, a video was made featuring Seth, 29, being hosed down for the wet look.

"It was in a warehouse in London," said Seth. "My violin got very wet. It's my mum's violin, so it was very naughty."

His record company is clearly trying to re-package Seth as something of a pin-up, but he's determined to keep his 'boy next door' look: "The schedule is busy. There's a stylist - they give me clothes - and there's also a hair stylist. But I wear T-shirt, jeans and trainers!".

And what about swapping the kitchen for a recording studio? Well, that's been a bit of a culture shock for Seth and his band.

"It was a luxury to go into some serious studios - it was where they did the big scores for Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.

Seth now has a stylist!

"It's a little bit different from my brother's kitchen. Bizarrely, I still think we get a better sound in the kitchen - the stone walls, the ponies in the background.

"It was re-mastered and re-recorded and there's an extra track (Send Yourself Away), so there are 13 songs on the album now."

Seth - who's now on the same record label as fellow Devon star Joss Stone and KT Tunstall - is off on a mini-tour of Canada in the autumn and he also hopes to make a breakthrough in America.

"We are going to go to Canada at the end of September and then introduce the records to America at the same time. It'll be nice to take the records to America."

And, although Freedom Fields has been re-recorded to make the songs more 'radio-friendly,' as Seth puts it, he says he's not about to sell his soul.

"I don't think we're going to go poppy. Things are looking brighter for me, so maybe I could write some happier songs, less dark.

"It's important we don't lose sight of our trademarks - the violin, the acoustic sound. It's what we do; it's what we want to be doing in 15 years' time."