AFTER scoring a number one album with her self-titled debut, Leeds-born Corinne Bailey Rae became somewhat of an overnight sensation.

Her soul single Put Your Records On could be heard on both Radio 1 and 2 at any hour, and she was nominated for three Grammy Awards in 2007. Following the death of her husband, fellow musician Jason Rae, she channelled her emotions into sophomore record The Sea.

Now, after a six-year hiatus, Rae is back with a new album – The Heart Speaks in Whispers – and a UK tour. She speaks to EDWIN GILSON about nature, reconstructing her life and performing for Barack Obama.

Hi Corinne, where are you?

We are in St Louis, just arrived yesterday. We’ve been away for seven weeks – the amount of dates is in the forties. It’s great being in America, I just go to sleep and wake up in a new state.

Your second album The Sea was received very well in America – has your support over there grown over time?

Yeah, definitely. What’s happened on this tour is there are loads of young people here, maybe 19 or 20. They couldn’t come out for my first record, but now there’s loads of people saying “I used to listen to you on the way to school” or “my mum got me really into you”. It’s nice to meet people from different generations.

You recorded some of the new album in LA. Given the nature theme that runs through it, did you get to see any of the Californian landscape?

We were meant to come out here for seven weeks and ended up staying for seven months. We got to spend a lot of time here, but mostly in Los Angeles, in the Hollywood Hills. We rented this big house with a pool and it was great to be able to go to shows in Hollywood.

If you get up to the hills, off the beaten track, LA starts to look like the South of France or something. You see deer, massive birds of prey, and once our car got sprayed by a skunk. We woke up in the night to the smell of it. I love being out in the nature, under layers of layers of stars with no light pollution. The transformative aspect of nature was a really big influence on me.

Is this nature love a relatively modern progression or have you always been infatuated with the wilderness?

I think it’s something I’ve got into as I’ve got older. When I was younger I was far more into cities and people and interaction, being in clubs and bars and all of that. Now, though, I really appreciate a sense of silence and being around things that will outlive me. Yesterday in Oklahoma we saw this massive oak tree that Native Americans used to gather around and still do. That tree is going to last longer than me.

Is that not quite dread inducing, that reminder of your own mortality?

I’ve been through that process, being a widow when I was 29. That was a big change in my life and I’ve thought a lot about mortality and death and what happens after that. Human life is not permanent. I find it comforting to be around ancient things, to know that it all keeps going on regardless. I like to feel like part of a line of people.

On the album’s name, you’ve said “we have to listen to our hearts”. There seems to be a certain amount of Zen on show here – are humans too busy to get in touch with our souls?

I think we’re really busy and bombarded all the time with advertising. There was an advert here for a luxury car on the other day and it starts with a young person telling their parents they’ve been in a car crash. It’s a parent’s worst fear but it was all OK because they were in this luxury car. I just thought, “this is so poisonous” and playing on people’s fears.

If you buy this car, your child will never die. If we don’t wear this outfit people won’t notice us and if we don’t wear make-up people will feel we are old and irrelevant. It’s just a standard thing now to be around these constant messages. All of this helps to drown out this inner voice we all have, which is ancient. We should rely on our instincts, which is really powerful.

Surely acting on instinct is not the most advisable option every time, is it?

I personally think that when I don’t listen to that voice, things go wrong. It helps me to find inner peace. We’re definitely schooled to be super rational creatures. I’m not saying forget everything you learn but the heart and the head are intertwined.

Was instinct behind the decision to record a third album? There were six years in between the release of your second and third albums.

I had an instinct to do it in an independent way, like building my own studio and working as a producer with Steve Brown. I felt like I was giving myself time to experiment. I was rebuilding a lot of my life after losing Jason.

It was great doing The Sea but after I finished that I had to think what I wanted to do. I don’t feel like I’m chasing anything in particular.

For obvious reasons, you said doing interviews around the release of The Sea was very hard – was there any trepidation about getting back on the promotional mill again?

Not really, because I feel like I was looking forward to talking about it. Because it has a strong theme, I felt like I could go on about it for ages. I made podcasts about the lyrical themes and it all linked in really well. I ended up interviewing people on these themes like nature, intuition, the human heart and more.

Is President Obama picking one of your songs (Green Aphrodisiac) on a summer playlist one of the most surreal occurrences of your life?

Definitely. Obama’s so cool in the way he thinks about arts and media. He’s invited a lot of musicians into the White House – I got to play there a few years ago. He was honouring Paul McCartney and I played there with Jack White and Stevie Wonder among others. It was a mega show for just 200 guests.

It was really cool because it felt like we were part of this relationship and it’s great to know that I’ve been remembered enough to feature on the playlist.

Corinne Bailey Rae, The Brighton Dome, Church Street, Thursday, November 3, 8pm, £22.50, 01273 709709