Imelda May’s stunning new album, Life. Love. Flesh. Blood, is strongly informed by her 2015 break-up with ex-husband and band member, Darrel Higham. In a remarkably revealing interview, she discusses working through personal pain on the record, reinventing her look and sound, collaborating with legendary producer T Bone Burnett in LA, and how advice from her friend Bono helped shaped the material. “I put my whole heart and soul into this album,” she tells Olaf Tyaransen.

“Oh my god, my bleedin’ top is undone!” shrieks Imelda May at the very end of this interview, frantically pulling at her black silk blouse. “How long has it been open like that?”

There’s a slightly awkward silence before your blushing Hot Press correspondent is forced to confess, “Well… um… ever since you arrived.”