SHE has dreamed of a career in music since she was a small child.

Now Katrina Monis has fulfilled her ambition by releasing her first EP.

Katrina, who is based in Totton, composed her first song when she was 12, later performing her own songs at open mic nights while at The Brit School in Croydon, even appearing in the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2011.

To further her musical ambitions, she took a music degree at Goldsmiths University in London and a Masters in music at the University of Southampton.

Since then she has been a freelance musician with a “strong belief” in her songs.

Katrina says Sunny Day took more than a year to complete and she hopes to perform it in Southampton in the near future.

A neo-soul singer songwriter – think a blend of soul, jazz and hip-hop – Katrina, now 28, is keen to praise others who have helped make her dream come true.

Mike Taylor of Mutant Lab Studios in Southampton city centre, and 14 other musician friends helped to record her songs for the EP.

Katrina said: “My plan from here is to release the EP online and to gig with it, and just to share it as far as possible.”

• Sunny Day is released online at katrinamonis.bandcamp.com tomorrow.