Nelly Furtado Performs Live at AOL Music Sessions, Talks Motherhood, Africa and Hometown Pride

Nelly Furtado sits across from our Los Angeles AOL Sessions crew on a high stool, making bird noises.

The Victoria, British Columbia-born mother of two has just performed several songs from her her forthcoming fifth album, The Spirit Indestructible, and now she's waiting for our interview to begin, looking inordinately relaxed, dangling a heeled foot.

Though the studio sometimes intimidates artists, Furtado's poise powers us through the typically vibe-killing pre-interview moments before "camera speeds" is finally announced, sticks clack and the talent's exhausted scowl shifts to an immoderate Vaseline-toothed smile.

This time, there's no tension. Nelly's just making bird noises, wagging a foot as I shuffle through my questions, holding back a grin. Great. She's like a bird.



Furtado released her platinum-selling debut Whoa, Nelly! in 2000, a wildly different time for music, and has managed to reinvent herself several times since, sexing things up with her lusty, Timabaland-helmed 2006 smash Loose, then turning a perseverant about-face with Spanish language ode to amor, Mi Plan, in 2009.

"When I walked in Timbaland's studio doors in Miami back in 2005, I hadn't seen him in five years," she explains. "It was just an epic day. We got right down to it and wrote a song that set the speaker on fire. That's a magical moment. I was in this great state of mind where I was really carefree and just up for anything, so I think that was a good, free place to be in. It was a late night album -- most of the records we cut between the hours of midnight and 7AM."

Since then, she has given birth to her second child and shifted her studio habits accordingly, sharing with The Spirit Indestructible producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins a studio chemistry best described as "two kids throwing sand around in a sandbox."

"That was a very nocturnal album, Loose, so fast-forward to meeting Rodney Jerkins at his studio; completely different. We wrote most of these records in the middle of the day," " she continues. "Rodney's vibe in the studio is totally different. He just sits there and creates these beats completely on his own, but he's got this crazy, crazy, crazy positive vibration, and he and I, we meet at this very childlike place. I feel like we're two kids throwing sand around in a sandbox. I feel completely liberated making music with Rodney, and he's very open. He lets me go crazy, and I let him go crazy, and we try out different ideas, and it's magical."

Through the course of our interview, she never once appears bored, insincere, media-trained or cross. But when we discuss certain issues, motherhood, philanthropy or her city of residence, Toronto, she lights up.

"I love being a mother; I'm a really hands-on mom, and I just enjoy that so much," she says, describing a recent trip to Kenya with her Free the Children charity. "I grew up in a home where all the mamas worked, so when we went to Africa it was amazing. I met all these amazing moms, and a lot of them worked and raised their children at the same time too."

Inspired, she continues to explain how her philanthropic work has helped improve her artistry, albeit at her own pace.

"In the past, it always felt like I was kind of missing something as an artist. I always felt like I wanted something to attach myself to that was actually going to make a difference in the world," she says frankly. "Not that I don't think music makes a difference. I think music helps people, but I just wanted to maximize my opportunity to share positivity, so when I met Free the Children, I just felt like 'that's why it's taken so long!' I was just waiting to meet them. and for it to feel right, so I guess I take time with things; albums, everything [laughs]."

When our discussion shifts to the topic of Toronto, where she moved to live with her sister in 1996, she is just as impassioned.

"Toronto's been really good to me as a musician, ever since I first set foot on Queen Street as a 17-year-old in a trip-hop band called Nelstar, going late at night and cutting these records with every spare penny I had," she says. "Just feeling the energy of Toronto and the artist community, it's been great working with different artists from that scene, and also observing it, watching it grow. There's great new bands coming out. Azari & III is amazing, and new bands come out every day."

"It's a good scene, because it's a real community, still," she concludes. "There's not really that shark mentality in Toronto; people just hang, make music and it's all very interconnected. Everybody's really in it for the sense of community, and I think that's what makes it unique."

With that, our conversation draws to a close. We talk a bit more about Toronto; my best friend has opened a restaurant in the city's Little Portugal neighborhood, which her assistant frequents. Still smiling, Nelly inquires whether I'm Canadian. Coming from her, it's the best compliment I can imagine.