We speak to her about dealing with fame, singing in the shower and acting alongside Paris Hilton in the forthcoming horror, rock-opera musical film 'Repo: The Genetic Opera'.

You started taking ballet lessons from the age of three. Realistically, did you ever foresee any future that didn’t involve performance?

I don’t think so, no. I think that the arts was a part of my life and what I was working towards. I seemed to be gifted in that area and comfortable in that arena, so that’s where I stayed, really.

You achieved fame quite young as part of Hot Gossip. How did you cope with the fame at that age?

The thing about fame is it’s quite an abstract idea, because when you’re working and things are going well for you in this type of career, there’s not a lot of time to think about anything because you’re having to work hard, you’re in studios, you’re in a car moving to somewhere else. So you don’t really experience what fame is meant to be.

I think the idea of fame is very much from the public’s perception — it creates an excitement about an artist. But the whole thing, I’m afraid, is very down to earth and physical. It’s not as people think it might be.

So there’s just a lot of hard work involved?

I think so, yes. I mean, there’s the artistic time where it’s beautiful to perform and you’re coming up with creative ideas — that’s the fun part of it. But the rest is the whole fame thing — and I’ve never really sought it out, I don’t really know what it is. I think it’s just a name for something glamorous or something that might be perceived as glamorous.

'Phantom of the Opera', could be considered the height of your fame, so what are your memories of that time — just working very hard?

When something you’re involved with works, the fun you get out of an audience enjoying something — be it in a theatre, be it in an arena, be it just the public enjoying your new album — is very satisfying. That's probably the best way of explaining it.

Was it a big change from performing in huge theatre productions to becoming a recording artist where the focus is on making albums and playing concerts?

No it actually sort of followed through for me. Although theatre is amazing, at a certain point I found it quite constricting, and I couldn’t create things in that space as such. I needed much more freedom, and I have to say the world tours that I've done have been very satisfying for me in that live way. I felt I haven’t needed the confinement of the theatre to be able to enjoy what I’m doing.

So you’re not foreseeing a return to the theatre at any point?

I may do plays. I love text and working with stories. But I can’t really see it in the immediate future or happening on the musicals side.

How about film? Is that something you'd like to do more of since acting in the upcoming 'Repo: The Genetic Opera'?

It’s a rock opera so I am singing through it and so is everybody else. I’ve done many plays in the theatre for many years so the acting side wasn’t an issue for me really.

I took on the film because the director when he explained it to me, it sounded interesting for me, and I liked the director and I wanted to work with him. We had a great time making it a very eclectic cast, we were playing characters almost like cartoon characters within the movie, but with heart and with soul. It has quite a dark story — it’s set 50 years in the future and I play an opera singer in it.

Not much of a stretch then?

*Laughs*. I was able to use what I‘d done beforehand in my own career and I put that into the part in the movie, just because of my experience. I suppose that’s why I was chosen.

But trying something different like film also fits in with what you've said in the past about your music: "being varied is something I do instinctively and naturally". But have you ever tried anything that hasn’t worked or has just been too out there?

I think there are things I’ve tried which I haven’t enjoyed as much as other parts of my career. I don’t think I've gone far enough out of my field for things not to work. I have a good idea of myself and what I can do and we all have our levels, we all understand ourselves in a certain way. I’ve never really gone outside of that too much because I enjoy what I’m doing and I’ve never had the need to suddenly be somebody else completely.

So you're not about to try country and western?

Well, actually, funnily enough I’ve just completed a song with Anne Murray ['Snowbird'] which was a big hit in Canada. It's sort of a classic piece which is country, which she asked me to duet with her. So I have actually gone into that direction without actually meaning to. *Laughs*.

Your new album seems to have a slightly more gothic feel. Was that a conscious decision or a natural development?

I’ve sort of touched on that area right through my career, I suppose. When I did ‘Phantom of the Opera’ — the original I did with Steve Harvey touched on that.

I did an album a few years later called ‘Dive’ that was definitely in that area and now I seem to have come back to it again.

It was my feeling I had for the album during the five years I was working on it — that came into my mind at that time and it was just the feeling I wanted to give some of the album, as well as there being that beautiful utopian classical side as well. I think the album has a bit more good and evil, light and dark in it, to make it a more interesting piece.

Is that what you mean when you say that you’re approaching your music more visually then before?

Well, with this one, the visuals that I sought for it sometimes dictated the kind of music that I was going to do, what I was going to interpret, what I was going to write. That’s actually the other way around to what a lot of people do. They’ll say: 'OK, I’ll do this song and that song' and create a songbook of songs and then place their face on the cover. And there's no visual reason for anything.

Bur for me because visuals are always so important, stories are important, I create a subtext for myself which helps me to create a mood for the album and I suppose that’s the way I work. A bit like making a movie, really. Coming from that direction.

That extends to the actual visuals on the cover — was that part of your original concept?

It came into place stronger as I went along. I originally had a feeling of old German artwork — more Wagner-ish in that I wanted something very golden and utopian, with fields and clouds. But there’s been some sort of dark hedge in there.

As I went along it became darker and darker and more gothic and I actually ended up working with a few well-known fantasy artists who are the best in their genre, who work on movies and also videogames. That was great fun because although I never met them, I was able to email and talk on the phone and create these fantasies out of my head which they were then able to paint for me and send back. And we’d go backwards and forwards until we got the feeling right. And I loved it.

At this stage of your career do you still do much voice training?

All the time. I pick my time for doing it — sometimes when you’re running around the world to actually practice when you’re tired is the wrong thing to do. I pick my times where I work with a vocal coach when I’m calm and well fed and well slept, and then I can have a very concentrated period of time on that.

It’s incredibly important to keep it up, especially when you get older because the vocal cords are a muscle after all. And it’s something I’ve always been interested in — the voice and working with it — so I do it all the time.

So do you sing in the shower, or in the car when you're driving?

No I never do that only because it can take the voice out of alignment. It’s such a strange thing to say, but it’s kind of like if you’re an athlete at the top of your field, you never decide: ‘Oh I’m just going to have a run around in any old way’. It could be damaging and you need to keep focused on what you’re doing.

And do you still dance?

No, I stopped in my early 30s

Is it something you miss?

No. *Laughs*. It was too painful for all those years.