It's not every day you get to interview someone you looked up to as a tween... and even exaggerating the small age difference between us, still won't put to measure the endless respect that I have for the capabilities and talent of such an artist and such a beautiful person as... BROOKE FRASER.

A cold-blooded drought was in order after her exhausted heavy heart from touring her last album 'Albertine'. Picking up where she left off, Fraser's new album 'FLAGS' has an adventurous, youthful and kinetic feeling to it. Slapping your thigh, clapping your hands, and belting out the catchy lyrics amongst friends are all in order with this record. 

As we progress, confessions are made about how she wants to make 'cool' music, with some of her influences being Mumford & Sons, The Middle East, and Paul Simon. Cheesy and awesome as it may sound, 'Sailboats' is a song that Brooke firmly believes is the wedding song on her album - informing me that a stand-out wedding song is a must on every album!

Whilst chatting about the use we've both gotten out of our Stolen Girlfriends Club NZ fashion show freebie tote bags, Brooke starts drawing herself as a dinosaur, as she also mentions her recent watch of 'Toy Story 3' on the plane... two minutes in, and I already want to be her BFF.

COUP DE MAIN: Congratulations on the release of your new album 'Flags', you must be pleased it's finally out there!
BROOKE FRASER: Yes, yes I am!

CDM: How long has it been in the works for?
BROOKE: Probably Coachella sparked it - Coachella Music Festival last year - I got little pieces of ideas through there, but for whatever reason [I was] not able to finish any songs. In February, my husband and I went to L.A. to try and get some head-space and focus. In three months I had all the material and was going into the studio, later after that we were all finished, so since then I've kind of just been talking about it. Which has been weird, so it's kind of been a long time, but actually quite a quick process.

CDM: Why did Los Angeles appeal to you as a place of escape?
BROOKE: I don't know. It's kind of funny because you don't normally think of Los Angeles as a place to go to get away from it all. For me, I knew that I wanted to make the record in America, in LA. I knew the musicians I wanted to work with, and the engineer. So I always knew I wanted to make it there and we just figured why not just go over early and stay over as long as it takes to get it written. We found as well, cause we were living in Bondi in a one bedroom apartment - Sydney is one of the most expensive places to live in the world - so it would be cheaper for us to get a bigger place in LA. So we got to have an extra room which was my music room. Life in Sydney is really busy, we're really close to all of our friends and it's awesome, it was kind of good to go somewhere where we had a few friends, but not too many. Honestly it was just amazing to go somewhere where I could go: "I can stay home tonight and watch TV if I want!" - I probably watched far too much TV in the first month or so that I was there. It just really worked. 

CDM: I read that touring 'Albertine' was challenging, due to the nature of the record. What did you learn from that experience?
BROOKE: I think I learnt that I need to look after myself a little bit better and I learnt to say "no" - which is important. I learnt that music cost something, and that's a good thing. Also, that I should exercise, because I didn't and I got very sick. 

CDM: Do you feel like you grew up too fast, because the first two albums were filled with heavy, heart-filled songs?
BROOKE: I don't think so. I think I was always an old soul, even as a teenager. At sixteen I was like: "I need to get an album out now!" - even though I was only sixteen. I was always in a little bit of a rush to be an adult. Now that I am an adult, I'm very comfortable in my own skin. I'm a lot more settled down and I learnt to just be comfortable with where I'm at, rather than always wanting to be somewhere ahead of where I am. 

CDM: I feel like I have grown up with you in a way, with many memories of when I use to hum your songs on family vacations. What is it like to mature in front of a nation, and to become a role model?
BROOKE: It's been really cool. I recognise my responsibility, and it's funny when I read people who say they never asked to be a role model, and I understand that, but as soon as you have influence over people, you have a responsibility with what you do with that influence. For me, I've always recognised that I have influence, whether I like it or not, and that I can use it to do something good. I suppose I want to use it for something good always, and I think young women in New Zealand are really precious and I think it's important that they know that, and I hope if there are other woman in the spotlight they are saying positive things to the younger generation. 

CDM: 'Flags' has such a different and unique sound to it. Did you know from the beginning it was going to take such a turn?
BROOKE: I think so - the music that I make isn't really like any of the music that I listen to. I think I listen to cool music, but I know that I don't make cool music - so it's kind of funny! I like Mumford & Sons, The Middle East and Delta Spirit. I saw The Middle East and Mumford & Sons play on one night in L.A. and it is the best show I've ever been to. I love all kind of bands like that, and it's different to what I do. Since it's been four years since my last record, in that four years and over the process of making my two other albums as well, I've really found my musical voice and learnt a little bit more about how I can express that and articulate that. But at the same time during the process of making the album, some days I had to go: "You're not making an Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros album Brooke!" I know my sound, and I have to be true to who I am as an artist, even though I want be real cool, and make really cool music. <laughs> I have a particular style of writing and my voice sounds a particular way, which lends itself to a certain style. I think in this album it's still me, it's still my sound, but you can hear maybe a little bit more of the other influences.

CDM: You had creative reign, producing the album as well. What were the challenging aspects of that?
BROOKE: It was challenging because I knew there was a chance that I could completely screw it up. If it was completely awful there would be no-one to blame, except myself. At the same time that was really exhilarating. Producing the album - I'm really fond of the album, even aside from the songs and the way it sounds - because I feel like with this album I've given myself permission to take risks, to be creative, to do things that might not work and not make safe decisions all the time. It was a huge challenge and there would be days when something would be going completely wrong and I'd be like: "Argh, I don't know how this is going to be fixed." But I enjoyed finding the solutions around those problems, cracking a difficult arrangement, or discovering a great part. 

CDM: Tell me about 'Sailboats' - the song dedicated to your husband!
BROOKE: 'Sailboats'! <laughs> That was the first song that was finished for the album, that was one of the three that I had at the end of 2009. To be honest, I wrote it as a joke, because my husband would always say: "When are you going to write me a song?" - and I thought he was joking. Then one day he was going out to the supermarket and was like: "Are you going to write me a song while I'm away?" And I was like: "Do you really mean that?" And then he got all shy and was like: "Yeah, maybe..." So he went to the supermarket and I wrote him that song. As well, I wasn't going to put it on the album, but I feel like I always have to have a song on my album that people can use in their weddings - so I was like: "This can be the wedding song!" <laughs>

CDM: Is there a story behind the 'Jack Kerouac' song?
BROOKE: I'm a bit of a book worm, so a lot of the songs I write are inspired by books. I'll look back on a song once I finished writing it and be like: "Ahhh, I think that chapter of that book that I read made me think of that, which led me to think about that, or whatever." 'Jack Kerouac' - I wanted to write a song that was just a really pure musical moment, and I had been reading 'On The Road' by Jack Kerouac. Also driving through this remote part of California with all these fields and farmland and ocean, whilst pumping Paul Simons' 'Graceland', so I just remember driving on the highway, I remember stopping off at a general store to get petrol or firewood. So it's kind of a song about roadtripping and the people that you meet along the way. 

CDM: How did the collaboration with Switchfoot's Jon Foreman come about?
BROOKE: It's so funny actually, when I was on the road in 2008 I was getting really exhausted, one of the musical collections that got me through the tour were Jon's solo EP's he did: 'Spring', 'Summer', 'Winter', 'Fall'. I would listen to them every day and it was like a breath of fresh air. Towards the end of the tour, our tour manager had to go and do something else, so we got a substitute in and he was one of the Switchfoot crew and so I was saying how I love Jon Foreman's stuff, and he said: "Well you've got a gap between these two shows, in about a month they're playing a show there, why don't you guys hook up?" I went to a small show that Jon played in Santa Barbara, he asked me to jump on the stage and sing a song with him, so I did and I was so starstruck. <laughs> That's where I also met Aaron the drummer, the drummer on Jon's solo stuff is the drummer on my record. So we [Jon Foreman and I] exchanged e-mails and kept in touch, then we decided to write together and now we're friends. 

CDM: 'Flags' feels more energetic, youthful and fun. Especially your music video for 'Something In The Water', was that your idea?
BROOKE: No, the music video was actually Special Problems' idea, who've done Jonathan Boulet and The Naked And Famous. It's funny, for the last two albums I've been a bit more moldable, I didn't know how to visually represent my music, so I kind of took people's suggestions. I knew for this album we had to have definite and strong imagery on themes and a bit cooler. Special Problems came to us and pitched the idea, I loved the idea of having animation in my video, I'd never had that before! I looked at their videos and loved what they did. 

CDM: In one of your photo-shoot vignettes you said that you had a strong idea of what you wanted the flag to look like on the back-drop of the album cover - where did you get that idea from?
BROOKE: I think I decided I wanted the album to be called 'Flags', and the cover didn't turn out exactly how I wanted... close-ish. I knew that I wanted to stand in front of a big flag, like a gallery space. I knew that I didn't want it to be a country flag, but I wanted the flag to represent the land of it. My husband got a few swatches of material, I cut them out and made a mini one, and he went and got it made into a big 16ft by 10ft one!

CDM: I love your album artwork, Nirrimi is such a young talented photographer! How did that come about?
BROOKE: Through Twitter funnily enough! This is so random, about a year and a half ago I randomly found myself looking at Jack Osbourne's Twitter - you know how sometimes you go on the Internet and an hour later you're like: "Why am I looking at the mating habits of squirrels in Nebraska?" - like how did I get here? So he was talking about his friend who had started an online magazine for young women, I was looking at that and I came across this photograph which blew me away. I googled the photographer and I expected it to be some kind of young hip Japanese photographer or something, then her website came up and it was like: "Hi, I'm Nirrimi. I'm sixteen from Townsville, Queensland" - and I was like "WHAT!" I got in touch with her and asked her if she would consider shooting my album artwork. I feel like I got her just on the cusp, because straight after my shoot Diesel flew her to New York to shoot their campaign and she's just been blowing up, so I feel like I got her just in time! 

CDM: Lastly, did you know you're on Taylor Swift's iPod?
BROOKE: Yesssssss...
CDM: What is it like when you hear things like that?
BROOKE: I think it's really cool. I'm like: how do they even know who I am? I love it, I think it's really exciting! 

Brooke Fraser returns to New Zealand later this month to tour the nation:

Oct 26 - Dunedin

Oct 27 - Christchurch

Oct 29 - Wellington

Oct 30 - Auckland

To buy tickets click HERE.

www.brookefraser.com

Brooke Fraser's new album 'Flags' is available on iTunes and in stores now!