Carly Binding making it personal

Carly Binding is pondering her next move.

When a corporate takeover put the brakes on the release of her second album So Radiate, Carly Binding found herself at a loose end.

With time on her hands and little to do but wait, Binding did what many 20-somethings would. She hung out with friends - in strip clubs.

Well, former strip clubs, to be honest. She's been hanging out at Pony [formerly Showboys], where her mates Jimmy and Dion from the D4 started an electro-vinyl evening, The Blackluck Club.

I tell Binding I'm going to leave this detail out, but she just laughs and adds: "I only stripped twice."

Although Binding can laugh now, she says it's been a frustrating year. "We made the record in three weeks at York St last June. Done, sealed, ready to go. I was ready to get out there."

Unfortunately for Binding, Warner Music had just bought her label FMR, putting a hold on the release of more records.

"You have no control over that. You've got to learn to focus and harness your inspiration."

A year on Binding was given the go-ahead to release So Radiate, the follow-up to her gold-selling debut album Passenger.

She began writing the music 18 months ago - at the end of her Australian tour - with United States songwriter Josh Kelley.

"At the end of the tour, a lot of things were coming to an end for me. It was the end of a long relationship - four and a half years - with one of the guys who made my first record. It was an extremely difficult time of letting go of something important to you, in all respects. So a lot of the new record is about him and that time."

So Radiate , like its predecessor Passenger, continues Binding's tendency to write overtly personal songs.

In her publicity bio she says about the track Come Round Again: "The lyrics speak for themselves. For the first and only time in my life I was willing to forfeit all control and take the fall for everything if only I could have just one more moment with him."

Asked whether this is a concerted effort not to make meaningless pop, Binding throws up her hands in exasperation and laughs.

"No, it's just me. God, I've tried to sit down and write clever pop that doesn't actually have any personal meaning but it doesn't work. I'm really emotive. I'm either detached from everybody and everything or I'm so emotionally engaged that it overtakes me. That's the time when I write."

During her time in Oz, Binding took the opportunity to collaborate with Australian outfit Eskimo Joe, who co-wrote four songs on the new album, including the first single, I See the World.

Binding enjoyed the group experience so much she's considering forming a band for her third album.

"I have some friends in Sweden who are really interested in the three of us making the next record as a band. Making a great kind of progressive, more interesting type of pop."

Whether she gets round to this, remains to be seen. Binding is tossing up between touring Australia, writing a third album, or taking up some offers to write songs internationally.

"I'm thinking maybe I should pursue that and soak up writing for other people, with other people."

One thing's for sure, you won't be seeing her as a future NZ Idol judge like fellow former TrueBliss member Megan Alatini. Binding's eyes twinkle with devilish glee: "Nobody has the balls to ask me to do anything like that because they know what I'm going to say to them."

LOWDOWN

Who : Carly Binding
What : Made-for-TV pop star turned solo singer/songwriter
Born : Feb 2, 1978, Tauranga
Releases : Dream (with TrueBliss), Passenger
Latest : New album So Radiate, out now
On tour (with Donald Reid): Home Bar, Tauranga, July 11; Boiler Room, Whakatane, Jul 12; Sessions, Gisborne, Jul 13; Shed 2, Napier, Jul 14; Stellar, Masterton, Jul 15; The Bathhouse, Palmerston North, Jul 27; San Fran Bath House, Wellington, Jul 28; Deluge Restaurant & Bar, Whangarei, August 3; The Classic, Auckland, Aug 4; Masonic Tavern, Auckland, Aug 5.