Manx singer/songwriter Annabel Curphey has released her first single, inspired by her mum’s cauliflower cheese.

Annabel, who recently graduated with a BA Hons in Music Production and Songwriting from BIMM Music Institute in Brighton, wrote the song before she left home for the first time to study.

She told Isle of Man Today: ‘The specific thing that inspired me to write it was exactly what the first line of the second verse says; it was a Saturday night and I wanted to stay in instead of hanging out with my friends because it was January and it was cold and my mum had made some leftover cauliflower cheese from our Christmas dinner.

‘I had never moved away from home in my life, and I am a bit of a homebird, so I had a lot of thoughts and feelings going on about all the different aspects of moving away.

‘This song is specifically about moving away from friends and my worries and hopes with that.’

It took Annabel just over three years to get the song out. Struggling to get her songs so they sounded finished, she nearly gave up on her dream - but instead reached out to the university’s artist development team who set her up with a producer to help her finish the tracks. For the past couple of months she has been working to promote the single.

Annabel said: ‘At the start of this process and for a good two years into it I thought I could do it all by myself and I almost felt like I wanted to prove something by finishing it on my own.

‘The most important lesson I’ve learned from this is that it’s completely okay to ask people for help if things are getting tough.’

Asked if she has more songs in the pipeline, she said: ‘Yes! But that’s a secret.

‘A very poorly kept secret because I tell everyone, I just haven’t officially announced anything yet.’

Annabel was a regular performer in the Guild as a child, singing solo and with a choir.

And she was the guitarist in Spaghetti and the Hoops from 2014 until she left the island to go to university.

She said she has been writing songs for as long as she can remember. ‘My dad was and still is a big encourager of my music and he helped me write my first proper song at about eight years old called “I Love Food”,’ she said.

‘My dad bought me my first guitar and my brother paid for my first singing lesson, which my mum then had to continue to pay for, thanks mum, so my family have always been very supportive of me.’

Annabel credits youth music charity Soundcheck with inspiring her to pursue music as a career, including the late Paul Cooper, who recognised her talent and secured her first gig.

‘Since that first gig at the age of 12 I’ve wanted to do nothing more than make music for a living,’ she said.

Through Soundcheck she recorded her first song when she was about 13 and fell in love with the process of creating and recording.

Cauliflower Cheese is available on all streaming services.