Hounslow’s Charlie Costin, 22, is performing his swing and jazz show, Unmasked, at the Waterman’s Arts Centre next week and the singer and former St Paul’s pupil tells Will Gore why it is going to be a night to remember.

What is the idea behind Unmasked?

Rather than doing a traditional swing concert where people go away from it with the thought that it was Frank Sinatra who sang this and Bobby Darin who sang that imprinted on their minds, we are going to put a twist on it. We have got a Michael Jackson-esque performance visually, so I’ve been learning to dance and I’ve got some backing dancers too. There will be also be audience participation so people are not just sitting their listening but get involved and leave the show thinking it was a completely different experience to what they expected.

How have the dance lessons been going?

My mum told me to get the WD40 out but it has been coming along quite nicely and when no one has been around I’ve been practicing. The trickiest part has been to sing and dance at the same time and being a male I can’t reallly multi-task!

What can we expect to hear?

Most of the songs will be swing and jazz classics so you’ve got Fly Me To The Moon, Beyond the Sea abnd the typical end of gig tunes, My Way and New York, New York. We don’t want to take it completely away from the swing sound and people will be expecting to hear the songs they know.

But will you sing any Michael Jackson songs?

There is going to be one, I’ll Be There, that I’ll dedicate to my brothers and sisters, all of seven of them. I’m the oldest out all of them and I’m very family orientated - two of them are coming up to sing a song with me.

How did you first get into swing music?

I grew up listening to the music with my grandparents on both sides. We listened to Al Jolson and Sinatra and I really got into the singing when my nan got cancer. She asked me to do a CD for her so I recorded a couple of tracks and she encouraged me to send it out. I started off doing pub gigs in the Hounslow area and now two-and-a-half years later I’m preparing to do this show which is the biggest things I’ve done so far.

Unmasked, Watermans Arts Centre, Brentford, October 2, 7.30pm, £10 (in advance)/£12 (on the door)/£7 (concessions), watermans.org.uk