It is amazing what record label backing can do for a country blues singer-songwriter as Kent-born Pete Molinari is finding out. Chris Price got the details on his forthcoming album.

As he goes to make a cup of tea at his London home, Pete Molinari approaches his turntables and puts on a Billie Holiday record.

This in itself is not unusual except the Chatham-born singer-songwriter has a different reason to get lost in the music of the 1940s and 1950s.

In the run up to recording his as yet untitled fourth studio album in January, the country blues singer, who spent his childhood listening to John Coltrane, Leadbelly and Bob Dylan, has shifted his listening habits. Instead of hearing the singer, he now absorbs how the record has been put together.

“I listen to music even if I don’t like the artist because I’m listening to their production and instrumentation,” said Pete in his loud Medway accent.

“Half the time I don’t know about the artist but just listening to them opens up your mind. It kind of gives you a whole different aspect and viewpoint to listening to a record.”

There is more to Pete’s obsession with building a record this year. For the first time ever he has the backing of a corporate label, having signed to FOD Records – perhaps spurred by the profile boost he got when Bruce Springsteen mentioned him in an interview a couple of years back.

He hurtles through details, explaining he is planning to record his fourth album with Dan Auerbach, the frontman of American rock duo the Black Keys. He may record it at a studio he saw in Brussels last week, or in London, or he may yet return to Nashville, where he recorded his third record, A Train Bound For Glory, in 2009. He may do all three.

“I have things more to hand now I’m signed to FOD,” said Pete, whose album is due for release in the spring. “I would like to work with brass and strings more, as well as keeping the rock and roll feel. Before, there have been certain songs I’ve written and in my head they have a brass and strings section, but I think 'I will never be able to pay for that’. I have never been on a corporate label before so now I will be able to explore those areas.

“I was listening to a Billie Holiday record the other day, which I got on vinyl, and if you listen to it extensively – putting it on when your making a cup of tea or something – it seeps into you. It’s amazing if you do that rather than listening to your favourite songs. If you have an album on all the time it does something to you. You find the arrangements on it if you play it to death. It becomes part of you.”

One of the biggest influences on his career is the prolific Chatham-born-and-bred artist, musician and poet Billy Childish. He recorded his debut album, Walking Off the Map, in Billy’s kitchen in a day in 2006 and his name crops up several times during our 45-minute conversation.

He enthused: “Billy meant a lot to me as a kid at school. It was amazing to work with him on a record.”

Indeed, it has been a year for hometown nostalgia with Pete performing his first show at Chatham’s Central Theatre earlier this year.

“I tend to find as much romance in Medway as I find it dark and dreary,” said Pete, 29. “When I was young there was definitely a yearning to get away from Medway as soon as I could. But if you are away long enough you miss your home.

“It was really good to step out on stage at Chatham. I like theatres and it was special but I was a bit more nervy because I was walking out in front of people I knew more than when I walk out at Manchester or in America.

“It turned out to be a great night. The crowd were really good. I expected them to be rowdy but I’m not sure the Central Theatre expected it to be like that. They were a bit rushed off their feet. But that’s Medway.

Pete Molinari performs at Dartford’s Mick Jagger Centre on Friday, November 18. Doors 8pm. Tickets £12. Box office 01322 291100.