CALGARY - "Oh, there's my husband!" blurts out Chantal Kreviazuk during an interview in The Whiskey night club yesterday.

Swivelling around the only person in sight was a befuddled looking bartender who was readying things for Kreviazuk's intimate performance last night for local contest winners.

Turns out it was actually a video screen which was showing a new video of hubby Raine Maida's rock band Our Lady Peace.

But that the Canadian singer-songwriter's beau should be looming in the background at the Calgary club wouldn't have been so surprising -- in her life and in her career, the mister is ever present.

"He's definitely my inspiration," says Kreviazuk.

On her stylish and heartfelt new CD What If It All Means Something, he was also her collaborator for several tracks and sounding board for many more.

Maida was actually with her in New York for the entire recording of the album -- she was also with him when OLP recorded its latest in Hawaii -- which for her made the process of being away from one of the couple's two homes in T.O. and California bearable.

"We're soulmates and best friends," she says. "And we play well and work well together ... Any time I'm with him I feel like I'm at home -- it's cheesy but it's true."

UNDER THE GLARE
Other than her relationship with Maida, there are a couple of common themes running through the Juno-winning artist's third full-length -- freedom and celebrity.

They're two things that seem to run counter to each other especially considering the album's track Julia, which was written after Kreviazuk spotted Julia Roberts eating in a restaurant and wondered what it was like to be in Roberts' constantly-scrutinized shoes.

When it's pointed out to her that as a popular Canadian musician who's twice gone double-platinum here, she should be well able to understand, Kreviazuk scoffs.

"That sheds some light on how silly it is because I'm really the most absolutely completely average normal person ... ," she says.

"There's nothing going on here that's not going on anywhere else."

And Kreviazuk says even being one-half of a celebrity couple doesn't change that.

"We don't really permit any hype and attitude and ego -- we're just really not about that," she says.

"We're honest people and I don't think you can be an honest person with integrity and take that stuff into your real, natural relationships.

"Maybe that's why a lot of the relationships don't work out."

As for the freedom that Kreviazuk is feeling and writing about these days, part of that shows up in the content of the songs, such as Weight of the World, which contains a line she now calls her mantra: "I used to carry the weight of the world/And now all I wanna do is spread my wings and fly."

But it's also on display in the somewhat less serious and, at times, more upbeat tone the album takes compared to previous outings.

Kreviazuk says that sense of freedom stems from the comfort level she's now at as an established musician. It's lightened her up and she says it's done the same thing for her music.

"I feel like I've already done the 'artist' thing," she says noting that she's still far from a pop princess.

"But I wanted it to be a little simpler, a little more graspable."

By: Mike Bell