Shining bright - Naimee Coleman

Best known for last summer's updating of Duran Duran's 'Ordinary World' (with English dance duo, Aurora), Coleman is determined to show what she can do by herself on 'Bring Down the Moon'. A collection of pretty pop tunes that will appeal to fans of the Corrs, Natalie Imbruglia and Dido, 'Bring Down the Moon' is pure summer sugar. Naimee took some time out to talk to ACE about her new album.

Naimee on the gap between her first album, 'Silver Wrists' and 'Bring Down The Moon': With my first album, as with everybody's first album, the songs you put on it are the songs you've written for your whole life. You have an infinite amount of time almost to come up with the songs so when I finished my first album I needed to write loads more songs for my second album and that was something I took my time doing. I did a lot of work on my last album. After it was released here, it was released in Japan and I spent a lot of time touring there and touring Europe, which took up a good chunk of time as well. I came back to write and then I did some writing with other people - which I'd never done before. I did some co-writing in the States and with bands in the UK. Then I took my time finding the right producer and the album was finished in December 1999. It has taken its time since it was recorded to finally get out - but it's out now!

Naimee on working with other people, including songwriters in Nashville: Before I went to Nashville I always thought country music was pants, just terrible, and a lot of it is but there were actually some good country music writers down there. It was very surreal in a way looking at how people write in Nashville. I worked with people who nearly clock in at nine and leave at five and they write all day long whereas I'm the kind of songwriter who has to be going through some huge emotional disaster in my life before I can sit down and write a song. I collaborated with Aurora on the 'Ordinary World' track and that was the first time I'd ever done that. I had the time of my life doing it. The only down side for me with my recording is that I get a bit lonely travelling around all the time on my own. I'm a real people type of person so that just wears on me a bit. Getting to collaborate with people in that regard is great because you have company and people around and it is great fun.

Naimee on the songs on 'Bring Down the Moon': I wrote a lot of them on my own, I wrote a lot of them with people. There are a fair few that were written one hundred percent by me and then there are others that I did write with other people. I wrote hundreds and hundreds of songs for the second album and I just decided to pick my favourite songs and pay no attention to whether I'd written them with somebody or written them on my own. That was how I ended up with some co-writes on the album. Doing the co-writing I've gotten songs I've written for other people on their albums as well which is great. A band called The Gathering Fields in America are using a song that I wrote.

Naimee on planning her career from a young age: I always knew I wanted to do this. I was really lucky that my parents and my teachers, in primary school, especially, were just really supportive to my music and my singing. I was never told I couldn't so I did it and it was just always my thing. I did speech and drama as well. I loved acting when I was little. I loved being a tree and things like that! It was always going to be something like that for me, music or acting or both. I was sixteen when I played my first gig and seventeen when I joined the Wylde Oscars. I sang with them for the best part of a year and toured with them. It was great. My teachers in school used to come to the gigs - it was a novelty for everybody. I just knew it was my time to move on when I left school. I moved out of home, got my priorities in order and thought, "Right. I want to go try and get that record deal back that I turned down when I was in school!" Thankfully EMI hadn't filled the space and they've stuck with me ever since.

Naimee Coleman was in conversation with Caroline Hennessy

'Bring Down the Moon' is released on 22 June. The first single, 'My Star', is out now.