Hear me roar

Hayley Mary is now well versed in the way these kinds of interviews go. What people want to know, what anyone who has listened to her band The Jezabels has to know, is where exactly did that voice come from?

The Australian four-piece have for the past few years been carving their way across the globe with a sound that is designed - intended - to be experienced live. Their music is driven hard by Nik Kaloper (drums), Samuel Lockwood (guitar) and Heather Shannon (piano/keyboard), but swirling out of the centre of the storm comes Mary's voice, a stunning force of nature in its own right.

Listening is never less than an intense experience.

And that's why Mary knows the question is coming. 'Yes, well,' she laughs. 'I have been asked that before. I've always been a bit of a singer, but it wasn't until we started performing regularly that I actually improved. I think it has to do with the nature of the band, too, as we are quite loud - particularly Nik the drummer.

'I was a much softer singer when we started and it just became apparent that I needed a more powerful voice. On a small stage I was right in front of the drummer and he plays really loudly, so I just needed to learn to project.'

The 24-year-old is speaking from London where she has been spending the morning packing up for the flight home to Australia, bringing to an end another successful tour of Britain to back up similar recent journeys through the US and Canada that have left crowds and critics raving. The Jezabels will be back in Hong Kong on June 19, following their visit in January and coming off a year that has left them flushed with the success of their debut album Prisoner - chosen by Rolling Stone as Australia's album of 2011 - and the Australian Music Prize they lifted in March.