A SWINDON singer is set to release her debut album after help from her partner and former XTC lead singer Andy Partridge.

Erica Wexler, who was born in New York, moved to the town after meeting Andy 17 years ago.

Her debut album, Sunlit Night, is set for release on March 18 and has been executively produced by Andy.

Erica is the daughter of screenwriter Norman Wexler, who wrote Saturday Night Fever, and also the ex-girlfriend of Pop Art pioneer Roy Lichtenstein, whose drawings and prints that Erica acquired from him over the years have helped finance her album.

She didn’t begin recording the album until 2005, due to the fact that Erica became debilitated after suffering with ME, which meant she had to default on her record deal with Warner.

Luckily, help was at hand in the shape of Andy, who Erica had briefly met in the early 90s and, by 1994, became her partner.

She said: “I wound up in Swindon with Andy, who because he’s always been something of a hermit, didn’t mind giving me the space to recover.

“I was, basically, a blob. Andy was very patient with me. He offered me respite from all the trauma.

“This album saved me from a life rotting away, a life without meaning or hope.

“I tried to make an album of sonic beauty that people can bathe in, that envelopes them and says everything will be ok.

“I didn’t want to make a trendy record. It’s for adults. For people who have lived a full life. It’s a celebration of the heroic journey everyone makes by surviving their own life.”

For more information about the album and Erica visit www.EricaWexler.com