Nineteen months ago Guiseley singer Peter Grant returned to his home town for two gigs in support of Help For Heroes. His first album New Vintage reached No 8 in the charts and the follow-up, Traditional, had just been released.

The T&A reported that the protege of jazz singer Clare Teal was on his way to Los Angeles to work on another album.

After that there was no more news. Peter, with sales of more than 200,000 for his debut album, appeared to vanish.

Recently he surfaced, visiting his old primary school in Yeadon and talking about his latest self-titled compilation of songs, released this week. He had a lot of revealing things to say about the 19-month interval between the Traditional album and his latest.

He said: “I wasn’t given the chance to be properly involved with the second album and I didn’t like the way it was styled. The record company was trying to make me something I wasn’t comfortable with. I think it showed, as my heart wasn’t in it.”

Come the time for Peter to record his third album, he had lost even more faith in the deal. With nothing happening, a covers album was suggested as a way of filling in. At that point he realised change had to come.

“It was a nightmare. I spent the next six months in a legal battle which left me broke. I found myself at 21 at a total loss as to what i was going to do next. I was literally watching everything fall apart in front of my face,” he added.

But he seems to have turned a negative into a positive. After taking time out to consider his next move, he began working with a producer friend called Andy Wright, who had worked with Simply Red and Imelda May, at Sphere Studios in Battersea, south of the river Thames.

He said: “Sphere Studios became my home – literally. I was so skint I ended up living in a spare room there. I had a rail for my clothes, my music equipment and a bed on the floor. It was ridiculous, but also the best place I’ve ever lived.

“I had no money, but the local gym let me go there for free, and an amazing guy called Shane Mani owned a restaurant round the corner and would feed me for free every night.

“For 18 months I got wrecked, made great music and slept in a room with no windows. I learned an incredible amount and got to play with all of the big boy toys. I started writing songs and making tracks again, and although it was the poorest time of my life, it was the best.”

Eighteen months ago Peter moved into his own flat, complete with windows, and continued working at the studios with Peter Vitesse, Roachy, Gavin Goldberg and Andy Wright. Then along came a break he’d been hoping for.

“I had been creating my own tracks, but I had no money to put them out. Then through my manager Claire McDonald I got an investor. That money allowed me to make the album. I went to The Doghouse studio in Henley to do some sessions with Mark Hudson, who has worked with Aerosmith, Ringo Starr and Hudson.

“We came away with 70 songs, from which we selected 12. I got a band together and we recorded at Sphere, The Doghouse and Abbey Road.”

Peter, who has been making records since the age of 18, describes the album as pop and contemporary, with “big dramatic sounds”.

“There are Arabic influences on there, hip-hop grooves, orchestral sounds – it’s a real mish-mash. I spent a lot of time travelling around India and Egypt, and those experiences definitely shaped the album too. I finally feel I’ve made the album I’ve always wanted to.”

Although only 24, the journey to finding himself musically seems to have been a long one for Peter. At 17, he could have gone the X Factor route, having performed for Simon Cowell and company. But he did not like the idea of being a corporate item and declined to sign the contract.

He wasn’t in limbo for long. Within two weeks of signing for Universal Music he was recording in Abbey Road studios.

“It was mad. I was there with a full orchestra making my first album, which was released when I was 18. I was overwhelmed by all the attention I was getting.

“Three weeks before I’d been driving 300 miles to go to a gig and sleeping in my car because I couldn’t afford a hotel room, and here I was being put up at the Hilton.”