Natalie Imbruglia says having a baby while single via a sperm donor ‘wasn’t the plan’: ‘The desire to be a mother was so strong in me’

Natalie Imbruglia recorded her new album in a homemade studio during lockdown while pregnant (Picture: Getty/ Metro.co.uk)

Singer Natalie Imbruglia, 46, on building her own studio, parenting advice from Sophie Ellis-Bextor and having a baby on her own.

Where are you calling from?

Oxford. I think it’s my fourth year here. I should know that. Where are you? It’s so noisy!

Soho…

Oh, I wish I was in Soho.

Where have you been all these years? We have missed you…

I promise you I’ve been alive and kicking. I tend to disappear in between albums. I got busy songwriting after a long period of writer’s block and this new album is like the best work I feel I’ve done.

I also had a baby, so there’s been a lot going on. That’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

You had him via sperm donor and are raising him your own. That’s very powerful…

It certainly wasn’t the plan. It’s just more about what you do when you find yourself in a situation at a certain age, single, and I decided to take matters into my own hands.

It wasn’t instead of having a relationship but the desire to be a mother was so strong in me and I would think there would be a lot of women out there — and men! — who could relate to the yearning to be a parent.

Natalie revealed in July 2019 that she was expecting her first child after undergoing IVF (Picture: Natalie Imbruglia/Instagram)

Are there songs about this on the album?

A lot of the songs were written while I was pregnant.

I’d already overcome my writer’s block, thanks to going to work in Nashville, but the excitement of being pregnant and the unconditional love… it was very empowering.

The single is Build It Better. You must have been slightly thrown when Build Back Better was announced as a Conservative Party slogan…

I thought it was hysterically funny. I’d already changed the lyrics once because there was a lyric in Build It Better that was ‘when it all burns down’ and then there were the massive bushfires in Australia and I thought it would sound insensitive so I changed the lyrics.

And then, of course, that slogan came out and I thought it was quite funny but I wasn’t going to change them again.

Didn’t you have to build your own studio to do this album?

Yeah, I was in my barn — I live on a farm — and because we were recording during lockdown, we couldn’t be in the same room, so the boys [her producers] were telling me what equipment to buy and I was ordering stuff on Amazon Prime and they were showing me on Zoom how to plug it in and somehow we managed to record the whole album remotely.

It’s great to be in a comfy space…

It was a very calm way to do it and I got more time with my son.

But writing Firebird has been such a happy, creative time because for five years I couldn’t write anything. I totally lost my mojo.

What was it like having such instant mega-success back in 1997 with the hit Torn?

I always wanted to do this for a living but I think it was just the overnight thing. I didn’t expect it to go that big that quickly. Be careful what you wish for!

Sometimes you don’t really count on it bringing up insecurities or being hard to manage. I was young, you know.

Wasn’t your debut album the biggest-selling debut by an indie-pop woman ever?

Is it? I have no idea. I hope that’s true. You never know with Mr Google.

But if you start at the top there’s only one way to go…

[Laughs] Well, that’s a bit of a downer! I know what you’re saying and it was that experience in a sense. It was the pressure, the feeling of expectation. Writing a second album after a song as successful as Torn, I don’t think anything has been as hard, so it’s actually got easier and more fun.

But I never didn’t love the fact that my music was doing well or that I got to perform to people. I just love singing live.

So we can expect a tour?

100%. I’ve got a show coming up in London next month and lots of things in the pipeline for next year, all going well with the pandemic…

How are you going to juggle that with your son?

To be honest, I haven’t figured that out. I was talking to Sophie Ellis-Bextor about it when I did her podcast and I was asking her advice actually.

I think it’s a personal choice. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way. That’s the thing with parenting, you’ve got to make your own choices and stand by them.

You weren’t in Neighbours at the same time as Kylie and Jason, were you?

No, they were before, at least two years. I still remember being in my living room watching Kylie on TV and being a fan. I didn’t meet Kylie or Jason until years later, until after I’d started music.

There wasn’t a little ex-Neighbours alumni club?

Well, if there was, I wasn’t in it!

The album Firebird is released Sep 24. The show at Lafayette in London is on Sep 22, natalieimbruglia.com.

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