"Hammer."

"Chocolate, in any colour."

"Rain. Absolutely." (This one slightly obvious for the guy who scored a Top Ten hit in 1997 with "Black Cloud Rain".)

"Lennon. N-n-o-n, not n-i-n."

"Michael Jackson." (Score a point for the sense of humour.)

"Sunrise."

"Love."

"Mmm. . . they both kind of bug me, actually. How about Uma Thurman?"

"Neither. I hate drinking."

"Can you explain the rules of the game again?"

Did Corey Hart know as a kid that this is what he wanted to be when he grew up? "Do we ever grow up? Yeah, I knew. Architect, acrobat, hockey goalie? No. Singer-songwriter? Yes... it's a form of learning to fly. Creating music and a family brood of my own has been my life's purpose since I can remember. I love writing songs -- all at once cathartic, consuming, frustrating, life affirming, humbling. Dreaming about love, searching for truth and happiness, these supreme forces have always resonated through my songs." The new album's title track, "Jade", speaks to those forces both simply and evocatively, and it works well as the centrepiece in both theme and style of the new record. "It's a very romantic song," Hart offers, "not in the sense of chocolates and a candlelit dinner, but just in terms of where you would go to for someone. It feels like the heartbeat of this album. The other songs work as tributaries, flowing to this song as the centre, the underpinning of the record." Interestingly, it wasn't the first song that took shape when Hart sat down at the piano to begin writing new material on October 31, 1997. "I was sitting around and I wasn't sure I had anything to say, so I looked at the calendar. The first words I wrote were, 'I think it's Hallowe'en night, tonight. Monsters climb my wall. Chimera in sight, no fright, revelations after all.' That thought became the first lines of the song, 'You and I'." Hart wrote Jade's songs in his Bahamas home, at the piano of his little living room, "in between Barney and Little Bear episodes on the television," he recalls. Writing at home with his family around was a uniquely domestic experience. "When I'm writing, I definitely need to be left alone," he admits with a chuckle, "but sometimes, I'd be sitting there at the piano working something out, and I'd sneak a look over my shoulder to see if Julie was enjoying what I was creating. She'd be cooking something over at the stove, completely ignoring me, and I'd be like, 'c'mon! Say something!!'" Hart laughs like a true Gemini guy, clearly comfortable with his own dualities. And, Quebec singer Masse's stove-top analysis notwithstanding, her vocal contributions are warm and welcome on the album, most noticeably on the stunning duet, "Lą-Bas". All twelve tracks were recorded from February to July of 1998 at Compass Point Studios in Nassau. It's an historic studio that has hosted recording sessions by such stars as the Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz, the B52s and Roxy Music. For the first time in his career, Corey chose to produce the entire album himself, and I suggest to him that the production values, the pushing of the voice -- that signature voice -- to the front of each song, make this feel like an intensely personal album. "I've done some thinking," he says quietly. "Remembering . . . Found myself hanging out with Tom Jones and Paul Anka, jetting to Las Vegas, recording his songs in a studio. My initiation rite of passage. I had just turned twelve. Then, summer of 1983, recording my first album in rainy Manchester. Got my ear pierced. Worked with Eric Clapton. Heard 'Every Breath You Take' on Radio One. A perfect pop song. EMI released ŒSunglasses at Night' worldwide -- my first single ever. I was 21. It was a big hit. More hits to follow. Big misses too . . . I've had my share. I much prefer the hits, but I'm at peace with it and very proud of our work. Still writing songs, still singing, still fascinated by the alchemy."