TV star turned songstress Heather Peace explains to Katherine MacAlister that music is her first love

Who would have thought that Heather Peace, Waterloo Road’s favourite PE teacher, was actually an aspiring musician.

That throughout her career in big TV dramas such as London’s Burning, Ultimate Force, The Chase and Lip Service, all she wanted to do was get up on stage and sing, or that she would halt her successful acting career to do just that.

Coming to Oxford’s O2 Academy on Monday, Heather is currently touring her second independent album The Thin Line produced by James Lewis (Arctic Monkeys, Superfood).

But then with so many songs to get down on paper, record and tour, she felt she had no choice.

That was a year ago, meaning Heather skipped the last two series of Waterloo Road, but she says the compulsion was overwhelming and she hasn’t regretted her move for a second. “I don’t know why people find it so hard to grasp that someone can be a musician and an actor at the same time, but for me the music always came first.

“When I was a kid I didn’t hang around on street corners. I had too much to do and concentrated on getting into musical theatre. I just got on with it. So I didn’t get here because of pushy parents, although they were always supportive, but because it was in me, and my hobbies have now become my job.”

And while her acting career has always been successful, music was a long time coming. “I was signed actually when I was 25 and it didn’t work out, but if I’d known then that I’d be selling out 500-seater venues, singing my songs and doing what I love, I’d have felt much better.”

Don’t her two careers feed off each other though? “Without doubt, they help each other, and it means that I’ve got a really young audience coming to my gigs thanks to Waterloo Road, which is great, and always surprises the musicians.”

And what of sharing her intimate thoughts in her songs? “It is a bit like reading out your diary on stage every night,” she admits, “and I don’t always like being asked what my songs are about because I think they mean different things to different people. Robbie Williams’s Angels was about his mum and yet people thought it was about so many other things.

“I rarely sing about my sexuality either, except that I sing about ‘her’ rather than ‘him’ because otherwise it wouldn’t be truthful.”

Heather, who entered into a civil partnership last year, lives in Brighton, and says she drives her partner mad with her inability to keep still, constantly writing new songs, playing music, gigging around the country or disappearing on location. “We watch boxsets together. I can manage that,” she laughs.

Being famously prolific, even when filming Waterloo Road in Clyde, Heather was always on the piano in digs, crafting her new album The Thin Line, scribbling away on set between takes, compiling songs over an 18-month period with her soulful, organic, pop style and eclectic lyrics, covering everything from love to politics, heartbreak to news.

It got to a point however where Heather had to forfeit one career for the other. “I wrote my best material once I’d left because I could really focus. It just wasn’t possible to do both at once.”

So was it hard leaving the Waterloo Road cast to film the last two series without her? “Yes it was, because they are the best friends I’ve ever made, but us girls are still really close and we see each other at least once a month. And I did manage to squeeze in the three-parter Prey with John Simm as well which was cracking.”

Currently in script rehearsals for a new Sarah Waters play, it shouldn’t be long before Heather is back in the theatre, juggling her two careers as usual. “I’m also in the offing for a really big project at the moment and its a massive commitment so makes me slightly nervous,” she admits. But although her next album won’t be out for 18 months, she’s already writing songs for it and rewriting and revisiting old ones.

“The thing I miss about acting is the ensemble process because music is quite a solitary experience, so I miss being in the rehearsal room with other actors, because ultimately the success of my gigs is down to me, and that pressure does give me sleepless nights because there is no one else to blame, while in the theatre I can always blame my co-stars,” she laughs. “So doing a one woman show like Shirley Valentine is the last thing I would do.

“But I do love being a singer/songwriter. There’s nothing like being on stage and people singing along to your words. There’s no feeling like it. And I love venues where you can see people’s faces and eyes. So while it was a big gamble, it’s paid off, I’m’ doing all right. I’m in a really happy place.”

SEE IT
Heather Peace is appearing at the O2 Academy, Oxford, on Monday. Call the box office on 0844 477 2000 or see o2academyoxford.co.uk

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