What's your favourite vacation spot and why?
Ooh, my favourite vacation spot would be ... that's a tie because of winter and summer. So it would probably be Hayman Island actually — on the Australian coast — and it would be Whistler for winter. Whistler, Canada, 'cos I like snowboarding.
What's your number-one travel tip?
Number-one travel tip: iPod and a good book, I guess, so there's two! I like reading and I'm a music girl, obviously, so as long as I have that then I'm good.
What do you never leave home without?
I'd never leave home without a book because I'm on a lot of planes and I travel a lot so I'm in cars and trains and everything. So as long as I have a book or something to keep me awake throughout the day then I'm good.
What's your ultimate travel destination?
South America! I've never been so I really want to go. I think it would be cool and I hear a lot of great things; a lot of my band has been there, so I'm pretty excited to go there.
You mentioned Hayman Island before, what other Australian travel experiences have you had?
Around
Australia, I've really just been to the main cities, you know. I've been to
Brisbane and
Adelaide and
Melbourne and
Sydney, all the main places you go,
Perth. Hayman Island is really the only place ... that I've really had time to go and spend vacation time. Other than that, I'm usually touring so we usually go hit big cities, where people are going to come to a show so I haven't had like an outback experience, so I would love to!
Have you had any interesting experiences here?
You know what I find interesting about
Australia, is it's like the one place I can feel as if I'm travelling. It's so far from home — you know, Texas, where I'm from — but it's very similar, you know, the people. Just how you talk as well, like everything's drawn out and you try to get things as short as possible — like words you'll shorten are the same as ones we will. People are real friendly and everything so I guess I feel at home when I'm in
Australia.
What was the best thing about making your latest album, All I Ever Wanted?
The best thing for me was I made it with a manager who makes it so incredibly easy for me to do my job. He takes on the business side of it and I get to do the fun stuff. Most of the time, on the previous three albums, I felt like everything was on my shoulders and Narvel [Blackstock] and Trisha [McClanahan] are really good at releasing that kind of business burden, to where I just get to create, so it's fun!
This clip you've just done, 'My Life Would Suck Without You', where did you film that?
It was filmed in LA and it was kind of a video where we did a cute little story with it, 'cos the whole song is about relationships. It's about how they are sometimes so dysfunctional but you can't picture yourself without that person. So we were, like, throwing each other stuff out the window, constantly fighting in the car, you're bickering. But at the end of the day, we're both on the couch cuddling because we you can't live without that person, so it's kind of a cute video.
Do you choose the locations for most of your clips?
I don't ever choose locations. I leave that up to the directors because most of the time they know the city better than I do. I don't really know a lot about LA. I'm not from there but I do the concepts most of the time, so, the whole ideas are usually from my head.
What's the best meal you've had travelling?
Ooh, ah ... in Japan, no doubt, it's called Steak House Hama. Ooh, so good! I mean really good.
What's the most prized possession you've bought on a trip?
Now I have to think. I was in Spain once and my favourite thing I've gotten overseas is probably a giant tapestry. It covers an entire large wall in my house in Texas and I got it in Spain but it's French. It's this beautiful, like, old kind of picturesque thing of old musicians and singers and they're all in their complete attire and everything and it's very, very beautiful.
What's your favourite city in the world?
Ah, my favourite city in the world? You know, for the first time we went to
Hong Kong. I'd never been to
Hong Kong before and, honestly, I thought it would just be another place I'd work in. I didn't know if I'd really like it or not and I loved it! I thought it was really nice. All the people in
Hong Kong were super accommodating, nice and made everything super-easy and they're very relaxed — so probably
Hong Kong was my favourite place.
Where would you most like to live in the world?
I'd most like to live, if it weren't Texas, probably
Australia. It's kind of, like, very laidback like Texas but at the same time you have the beautiful ocean surrounding it. I don't know ... that would be kind of cool, to live up high and to have a beautiful view.
