When did Beth Orton begin singing?

M: You experimented with a lot of musical styles. What’s next?
W: It’s hard to say where I’m going next, because my next record isn’t finished.
M: You used to go to acting classes before you got into music. Did you ever consider becoming an actress?
W: That’s what I wanted to do initially. I left school and joined a traveling theater company. We didn’t have money for hotels. So we used to camp in parks. It was brilliant. Then I met William. He liked my voice and decided I should be a singer. It was queer because singing was something I never had in mind.
M: Is it true that the best time of a woman’s life is in her thirties?
W: Well. Someone’s been telling me that it really starts at forty. She is a wonderful woman. And she says the 30s are just as hard as the 20s, hut in a different way. They are just confusing. But when you get to forty, it’ s just extraordinary. Apparently, the whole world opens up.
M: What would you like to achieve before you’re... say.., sixty?
W: I’d love to learn how to play the violin but not before I’m sixty. I’d like to do it in the next year or so. One of the first instruments I learned was the drums. And I am quite good at that coordination in a strange way.