In person, Natalie Imbruglia is everything her music is not. As a performer she seems pitched perpetually between hysteria and despair, as though afflicted by a hypochondria of the heart.
Yet she talks about her career – an eight-year quest for the perfect slice of FM guitar pop – tersely, almost with disinterest. It isn’t that Imbruglia is bored (well, not that bored); rather she seems to find it difficult to discuss song writing as if it were anything other than a job.
Something in the Australian’s clipped, precise manner suggests the soul of an accountant. You are tempted to seek her opinion on pension retirement funds or the crummy new Star Wars movie in the hope that she perks up.
For anyone who ever fell mildly in love with Imbruglia and her impossibly sad and vast eyes, the pang of disappointment bites hard. Am I torn? Maybe just a little. In fact, the only topic that really animates Imbruglia, whose new Counting Down The Days album has brought the former soap star to the brink of genuine credibility, is the recently diagnosed illness of Kylie Minogue.
Like Minogue, 30-year-old Imbruglia is a graduate of the Australian TV institution Neighbours who was drawn to London by dreams of pop stardom. Clearly Kylie’s announcement that she is suffering from breast cancer has moved and unsettled her.
“To any Australian who has been successful overseas, Kylie is the one you grew up looking to emulate. She was definitely a huge influence on me. Because we both came from Neighbours and wanted a career in music, I did feel I was emulating her to a degree. Kylie certainly made it possible for people in my situation to achieve what I have. She opened doors, no question.”
One difference between Imbruglia and Kylie is that the latter has long renounced her quest for critical approval (gaining a weird, iron-clad, cachet in the process). Imbruglia, in contrast, would rather you took her seriously – very seriously indeed, if it isn’t too much trouble.
This is particularly apparent in the marketing of Counting Down The Days. While Imbruglia is blessed with an elfin, otherworldly beauty, she – or rather the people charged with shaping her image – would rather not dwell on the point.
Their logic, presumably, is that music fans are as sexist as anyone and won’t swallow a dose of coffee-table angst from a glistening baby-doll with too-perfect skin. Particularly if she’s cooing about how rubbish life can be when you’re a loser.
For this reason, Counting Down The Days presents Imbruglia as a solemn, rheumy-eyed chanteuse who, if not recently decamped from the crack-house, has certainly been staying up past midnight a fair bit. She doesn’t look otherworldly; she looks knackered.
“It’s important to draw a distinction between the different things I do and to present different sides of myself. We wanted to get across the point that this record isn’t a package – it’s the real me,” says Imbruglia.
All of which may be taken as a veiled reference to her other job – as a ‘face’ of the cosmetics giant L’Oreal.
Nonetheless, Imbruglia insists that she isn’t bothered if her gig as an international model detracts from her credibility as a musician.
“It’s not something that troubles me to be honest. I’m satisfied that my work with L’Oreal doesn’t impinge on my music. And I don’t really care what other people think. What I want is for my music to be taken at face value – if people aren’t able to do that, well that’s obviously a problem for them.”
Besides, limiting herself to a particular career would be immensely dreary, explains Imbruglia.
“It’s great to be able to dabble in different things. It keeps you hungry and it keeps you interested. I couldn’t just do the one thing. I’d get bored.”
The singer’s sole screen role since Neighbours has been in the Richard Curtis espionage skit Johnny English, where she helped meet the totty quotient. In view of her stint as a soap star, it is ironic that acting should remain an avenue Imbruglia feels she has yet to properly explore.
“People always describe me as an actress, but they don’t seem to realise that I’ve only done the one movie ­– and that wasn’t an especially demanding role,” she adds. “The reason I did Johnny English was that I wanted a safe part as it was my first film project."
Imbruglia says a director of stature – no names are forthcoming – has pencilled her in for his next project. However, she will take the role only if it leaves her time to record her fourth album. She may talk about music as though it were no more exciting than junk bonds but Imbruglia is determined to achieve something often denied the young and unfeasibly beautiful – a career of longevity.
“From the start, I made it clear to the record company that I was going to be my own boss and that I wouldn’t be pressured into making the sort of album I didn’t want to make. That holds just as true today. I’m nobody’s pawn. And I’m going to be around for the long haul.”