Alabama Shakes singer Brittany Howard based her singing on Pink Floyd.

The 'Hold On' band's singer discovered the British psychedelic rockers when she was a teenager, and decided she wanted to sing like the band's bass player Roger Waters.

She said: ''Hearing Roger Waters and the way he would sing, I felt that was the most comfortable way, the only way of doing things.''

Brittany soon had to raise her voice however and start working on her trademark bellowing vocals, as she couldn't hear herself at practice over bandmates Steve Johnson, Zac Cockrell and Heath Fogg.

She added: ''We didn't have a good PA system when we were practicing, so the only way to sing over anyone playing their instruments was to go for it.''

The band may be one of the most hotly tipped in the world, but they have only just quit their day jobs at the end of 2011, with Brittany previously working as a postwoman and Steve working at a nuclear power plant; and narrowly averting disaster.

He said to NME magazine: ''we had the tornado come through last year and it went right by the power plant and threw everything off. It could be scary at times definitely.''