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It's not every day a rising indie star finds herself splashed across the front cover of Vogue before she's even made it.

Kate Nash is one of the few. Other than that it's the usual fashion suspects - Beyonce, Eva Longoria, Scarlett Johansson.

So when 25-year-old VV Brown boarded a flight to New York, the last thing she expected as she stepped into JFK airport was a calling card from the world's biggest style mag.

"I couldn't believe it," gushes the 50s inspired doo-wop singer.

"I just got chatting to this lady sat next to me and she happened to be the head photographer for Select Model Management."

Before long, she was strutting the catwalk with Naomi Campbell, landing vintage clothing range deals and mixing with the stars at London Fashion Week.

"To be on the cover of Vogue was just incredible," she continues.

"Meeting Naomi Campbell was cool too. I love her because she has left a long legacy in fashion.

"People are really hard on her. She was nothing like the person the press portray. She's just really nice."

As if that wasn't enough, wind the clock back a couple of months and VV found herself aboard the Africa Express train with Blur branchild Damon Albarn, Reverend And The Makers and The Magic Numbers.

"I think that was probably one of the highlights of my career," she confesses.

"I loved it because it was just about playing music with a load of mad musicians from one in the afternoon until midnight across little towns in Lagos.

"Damon is a really lovely guy too and he's really into music. So when we met it was like gaining a new friend."

VV's experiences in Africa, jamming up close with the son of afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti had a major impact on her own work, inspiring the singer to pen the track Game Over with Ladyhawke producer Kids Glove.

"That was one of the last songs I wrote for my debut [Travelling Like The Light]," she reveals.

"I was really getting in Fela Kuti at the time so I decided to put some African samples on there and started playing the melodica."

Hit single Shark In The Water came next, placing the final piece in her debut jigsaw.

"That has been the most well received song so far and yet that was the easiest to write I guess because I was nearing the end of the recording process," explained the flat-topped singer.

"I guess that's how it is sometimes. Crazy In Love by Beyonce was the last track she wrote on Dangerously In Love and that was her best song."

VV wrote the remainder of her album in her auntie's London attic on a one string guitar she picked up from a charity store six years after she jetted over to Hollywood to try and kickstart her career.

During her time in LA, she managed to score backing vocals for Madonna, the Pussycat Dolls and Westlife.

But the singer soon found herself alone, disillusioned and broke.

Three years later, a bitter romantic break up with an American booking agent, pushed her back to Britain.

Today she's finds herself lumped in with 2009's 'most likely to' [La Roux, Florence And The Machine and Little Boots] in a scene dominated by pop songstresses.

"There's always been female singers," she argues. "Last year the biggest stars were Duffy, Amy Winehouse and Adele.

"The stuff that is coming out now is very cool though. I really love Florence. Her voice really gives me goosebumps."

Despite all the hype though, VV is cautious about her future after a difficult past.

"I never believe in all that stuff," she concludes. "I just get on with the music.

"It's really flattering but I've always said from the beginning, this is an evolving process and its going to be hard work."

Travelling Like The Light is out now