Angela McCluskey: the world may not know her yet, but just ask R.E.M., Winona Ryder, and other insiders who they love and they'll be singing her praises. Friend—and fan—Lisa Marie Presley finds out what makes this saucy Scottish torch singer simply irresistible

LISA MARIE PRESLEY: Let's start with how long I've known you. I'd say about 12 years. You were in a band called the Wild Colonials, and an ex-boyfriend of mine was your drummer. You were actually one of the first people I ever wrote songs with. Now your first solo album has just come out, and you've titled it The Things We Do [Manhattan], and it's amazingly brilliant. You gave me the CD when I was on tour. I was in a bad mood, and you said, "Well, listen to this CD."

ANGELA McCLUSKEY: It is a fairly melancholy record. A couple of songs on it make it the perfect album if you're feeling a wee bit depressed. The first song you kept going on about was "Sleep on It," which was the hardest song, the least accessible, but the most relatable if you were going through a hard time. And then you got happier and you said you were listening to "This Night," which I wasn't even going to put on the record, but you insisted.

LMP: Yes, I remember you were telling me that you weren't going to put that song on the album. I said, "Are you out of your fucking mind? If you don't put that song on, I'll kill you."

AM: Yes, you did. That was so nice of you.

LMP: Well, it's my favorite song. To quote a line from it, "This life, this holy life/we take our beatings from the rainbows/And God's not cutting back/she still can shield us from the pain./Feel that you've gone astray/the righteous on a one-way train?"

AM: It's "trail" not "train."

LMP: Yeah, well, it's the same kind of thing--it's a directional.

AM: Thanks, honey. It's actually one of the hardest songs on the album to sing. We recorded it in Sweden at three o'clock in the morning, and I'd had a couple of shots of rum. There's a place that you have to go to sing like that, and if you miss it, it can be embarrassing. But that you like it is encouraging because most people don't get it.

LMP: No, it wouldn't be on any normal radar, which makes me like it. My daughter Riley's favorite song is the last one. What the hell is it called?

AM: "Long Live I." Can you believe that Riley, who's now 15, lies about in her bedroom listening to these heavy songs? Did we listen to that kind of music when we were their age?

LMP: I did, but, I mean ...

AM: [laughs] I was listening to Marvin Gaye and stuff like that.

LMP: Well, one lyric from the song that she likes is "Momma would you miss me/would you hover and caress me/would you hang me from the Christmas tree?"

AM: WOW. That's about the kind of fantasy that you have if you were to disappear or die--would people miss you? It's not just about a mother. It's about people you love, but obviously, if you have that issue, which you know I did ... My mother died when she was 44, which is really young. I used to be like, "What are you doing wearing a miniskirt and platforms to my school?" Then you realize later on that she was just a girl, really. She used to say, "Angela, lighten up." In fact, I should call my next album Angela, Lighten Up. [laughs] I think that'd be brilliant.

IMP: You wrote this record really quickly.

AM: Yeah, we wrote it in four days, actually. I was in Paris, and Nathan [Larson, who produced the album with McCluskey] rang me and was like, "Come over." So I napped on the train to Maimo in Sweden, where he was living. He's actually a New Yorker, but he's married to Nina [Persson] from the Cardigans, which explains him living in Malmo. Anyhow, we go to this little studio by the train tracks, and we thought we'd just do some songs and then take them to a label and make a real record. But I played what he'd done for about 10 people, and everybody liked different songs. So we just added some backing vocals and strings, and that was it. We never re-recorded anything. I think I added two songs, the cover "Love Is Stronger Than Death," which I did in New York, and "Know It All," the kind of poppy one, because I was expecting the people at a label to say, "We need more pop songs."

LMP: And now you're opening for R.E.M.

AM: Can you believe it? This won't come over in print, but my voice just went really high when I said "believe."

LMP: She's excited.

AM: Yeah, I am. Peter Buck and Mike Mills actually played with me in Texas, and it was one of the highlights of my life. Opening for them is just like heaven.

LMP: Let's just talk for one second about the whole sexy-image thing. It seems like you can't win in the music industry if you don't look a certain way.

AM: What is the point of me trying to be 100 pounds? It's not gonna sell my music. Maybe if I were 15 and I were appealing to 15-year-olds, then that's what they want as an image. But even 15-year-olds are discerning. Look at your own daughter--she's not going to buy a record because of the way somebody looks. We all know about Britney Spears's breasts. If you like her songs, then great. But I'm not going to get up there in a miniskirt and have my tits done and my face done and what have you. I'm singing--that's enough.