Three years ago, in between day shifts as a customer service drone in his then hometown of Coventry, Obaro Ejimiwe was DJing in nightclubs and recording his own music on an old iMac.

"One of the originals," he adds, although whether this is out of a sense of pride or embarassment it is hard to say. What is certain is that when the songs came to the attention of BBC Radio 6 Music stalwart Gilles Peterson, he offered to release them on his Brownswood Recordings imprint. As lucky breaks go, this one was dramatic: Ejimiwe was sacked from his insurance company job on the same day he heard about the deal.

The resulting album was Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam, a brooding, late-night confection which recalled the work of Tricky and UK rap veteran Roots Manuva, and which introduced the world to Ejimiwe's musical alter ego – Ghostpoet. Released in early 2011, it was acclaimed as a bold fusion of beats and literate narratives about struggle and urban paranoia, and gained its creator a 2011 Mercury Prize nomination alongside Adele, Elbow, Tinie Tempah and PJ Harvey, the eventual winner.

"It was great but I knew that I had to move on from it as quickly as possible," says the 30-year-old when I mention the Mercury nod. "I already had my first UK tour in place at that time and I didn't want to be defined then – and don't want to be now – by that award. It's a great accolade and I'm in the history books forever, but I know I need to be defined for my artistry rather than for an award nomination."

Two years on, the successor to Peanut Butter Blues ... has been completed. It's called Some Say I So I Say Light and it's released next month on eclectic independent label Play It Again Sam, home to I Am Kloot, dEUS and filmmaker David Lynch.

Now Ejimiwe has relocated from Coventry, where he had lived since studying media at the city's university, and back in his hometown of London – in a house in Dalston, in fact, where an unintended boon was the upright piano a previous tenant had left behind. It was on this instrument that Ejimiwe started to sketch out the beginnings of Some Say I So I Say Light. Predictably, the new album is a very different proposition from its predecessor.

Eager for what he calls "exposure to the analogue world", Ejimiwe also ditched his iMac and entered the London studio of former Stereolab drummer, Andy Ramsay, and for the first time enlisted the help of a producer, Richard Formby, whose previous credits include Wild Beasts's 2010 Mercury-nominated album Two Dancers. "I wanted the new album to be more musical," he explains. "I wanted there to be more of an evolution, musically and creatively."

Enter a roster of collaborators which ranges from young folkie Lucy Rose to multi-instrumentalist Woodpecker Wooliams and Charles Hayward, mainstay of experimental 1970s' punk band This Heat. But prime among the helpmates Ejimiwe has recruited is legendary drummer Tony Allen, a member of Fela Kuti's classic Africa 70 line-up between 1968 and 1979 and now based in Paris. He plays on two songs: an as-yet-unreleased bonus track and the Afrobeat-tinged Plastic Bag Brain.

"Richard heard the demo of that track and said 'You should get Tony Allen on this'," says Ejimiwe, laughing at the memory.

"I didn't feel that was going to be possible although I'm a massive fan. But we made some enquiries and he was up for it. It was amazing seeing him in the studio doing his thing, and I'm really happy and proud that he's on the album."

So besides Allen's undisputed skill with the sticks, what else did the 72-year-old have to offer? "It was just great to see somebody of his age still so energetic. Not in a physical sense but just wanting to create music and push the envelope.

"And he's a very humble guy. He's been drumming for more than 50 years but there were no airs and graces to him. I learned that it's important to be creative and not be afraid of constant change."

One thing that hasn't changed, however, is Ejimiwe's laconic vocal delivery, which makes his words sound more like verse than song, and his approach to lyrics. He laughs when I tell him I picture him sitting in a late-night cafe, eavesdropping on conversations and scribbling lines into a well-thumbed notebook.

"If only," he says. "I always create the music first so it's very much about moulding the lyrics to the compositions - I'm very much about making sure they marry together very well, so they become one thing."

He's equally confounding when it comes to pinning down his influences. "Everything," he says simply. "Life is a major influence. It's the only real influence when it comes to me being creative. Everything else is secondary. It's me just living, waking up each day, and trying to better my life in one way or another."

Some Say I So I Say Light is released on May 6. Ghostpoet plays Broadcast, Glasgow, on May 24 and Electric Circus, Edinburgh. on May 25. Visit www.ghostpoet.co.uk