Brooke breezes back into the charts

Brooke Fraser. Photo / Supplied.

It is hard to imagine Brooke Fraser freaking out about anything. She is only 26 but has been making music since she was just a child and on the surface the softly-spoken singer appears as cool, calm and collected as can be.

But over coffee, chatting about her third album Flags, she confesses to being a little anxious about releasing the record and says she's in the middle of a "minor freak-out" about the upcoming live shows.

"I don't think people will be completely passionate about it the moment they put it on," Fraser says of the 11-track album, which is inspired largely by her time in the United States. "It's the kind of album people will have to spend time with. I'm keeping my expectations very low."

She needn't worry, however. The first single from Flags, the country-esque knees-up, Something in the Water, is already on high-rotate at major radio stations.

It marks Fraser's triumphant return from what could have easily been her self-chosen slump into obscurity; the singer admits that after touring her last record Albertine, she was desperately in need of time out.

"When you're making something from your heart, there's that difficulty of being out there for everybody to comment on and critique ...

"So I just had a year where I didn't have a bar of it. I just wanted to be with my friends and people that love me for who I am. And to be normal and cook dinner and clean the toilet."

The comments reveal the private side of the singer, the oldest daughter of All Black legend Bernie Fraser, who started writing songs when she was 12. Having been signed to Sony when she was still in her teens, she has practically grown up under the steady gaze of New Zealand's public eye.

Fraser married Scott Ligertwood in 2008 and they're both looking forward to having children - although it is going to take some strategising when the pair decide the time is right.

"We love children and all of our friends are procreating at a rabbit-like rate at the moment. And I'm really excited about the prospect of being a mum - [although] I suppose because of my work, to take a year off would take some planning."

Of course, right now Flags is Fraser's focus. She says she feels an "extraordinary amount of gratitude and relief" at the response she's had to Something in the Water, which she co-wrote with Ligterwood.

"Coming out of my last album, where the material was quite heavy, I wanted to write a song that felt really buoyant and didn't particularly mean anything. You know, a song that was fun and that was a good time."

She is amused that it is continually likened to a Dolly Parton number, because to her it sounds nothing like the Queen of Country. But she acknowledges the inspiration for the album comes not only from her love of the American landscape, but her admiration for several great US singer-songwriters.

"In this album, you can probably hear a bit more of my Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell influence ... There's a song called Jack Kerouac on the album; when I think of that song, I think of driving through Bodega Bay in California with the ocean and hills.

"I was pumping Graceland at that time. So there's all these memories of the songs and where they began."

Although Fraser decamped to Los Angeles to make the record, she's now given up her apartment there and is transient as she prepares to tour New Zealand, the US and Canada next month and in December. There will also be a London gig squeezed in between.

It's likely Sydney will be the place she and Ligertwood eventually set up home. "It's not because I think it's better for my career and it's not because I think Australia is a better country, because everyone knows it's not," she says, flashing a cheeky grin.

"It's because that's where my private life is, and where the relationships that are really precious to me are. It's where I feel like I'm at home and where I feel nourished."

Flags is out now. Brooke Fraser's tour kicks off in Dunedin's Town Hall on October 26, followed by Christchurch's James Hay Theatre on October 27, Wellington's Opera House on October 29, Auckland's Civic Theatre on October 30 and Hamilton's Clarence Street Theatre on October 31.

-Herald On Sunday / View