"My brain is a little scrambled, but you have to expect that after a while."
That's how Lene Lovich explains the way she answered the phone like I was a plumber who she called to fix the toilet about three years ago.
We finally establish that work in a completely different sewer and want to know where the wayward and witful surveyor of techno-goth classics such as Lucky Number, New Toy and Bird Song has been for the last year or six.
"It's been frustrating," she sighs in an accent which droops somewhere from mainland Europe between Yugoslavia and Essex. "I've been really close to despair and going crazy.
"I really enjoyed being on Stiff Records in the early days. But they were only concerned with the British charts and commercial success within that small market. They completely ignored anything else happening in the rest of the world. And then they started to ignore my artistic progression."
Actually they told Ms Lovich she could realize anything she liked, as long as it is a cover of a Motown song. And so a cold war began. She kept bringing in new songs. They kept saying no. When the company finally segregated into bankrupt heap, she found the chaos she needed to escape.
Of course, Lene wasn't completely submerged in the primeval slime of this time. You might remember a towering babble of a song she recorded with Nina Hagen, concering the plight of the animals in this human zoo of the world. Lene explains how that all came about.
"Nina came up to my house to record a demo of a completely different song, and she asked me if I was interested in writing a song about animal liberation. I'd always been sympathetic to the cause, but I'd never actually done anything about it.
"I think a lot of people are in that position. All I needed was information, and that's what Nina gave me. Then I was able to make an educated decision about it."
Since that collaboration, Lene has upheld the animal rights issue with a passion. She recently took part in the second Rock Against Fur show in New York, along with The Sugarcubes and Psychedelic Furs, and had a part in a film called "Meathead", along with Captain Sensible. According to Lene, the Captain plays a "demonic Ronald McDonald type of character".
She was cast in a stage show based on the life of Mata Hari, and completed the soundtrack to a musical based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher".
With long-time companion/collaborator Les Chappell (remember the bald buy in sunglasses from those old film clips?), Lene has also been raising two kids, Tarzana and Valhalla. If you think naming offspring like an Italian vine swinger and a Glebe cinema show Lene is a bit "cosmic", then you've just won yourself a Kewpie doll.
"I wasn't really that optimistic for a while there," she says. "I really did think the world was going to end in 1984. Then I just got this strong message that the world was going to carry on.
"I feel strongly about the whole reincarnation aspect of things. Apart from wanting it to be good for my children, I want it to be good for myself when I come back."
So you think you'll come back in another form?
"I'm not really sure about coming back as a worm or something like that! I think worms might come back as other worms..."
Lene then told me about regression experiments she went through. "I wanted to find out about anything in a recent life that might have been a musical influence on me."
She warned me against the idea. Apparently it's the most horrible memories that linger close to the surface, and you've got a 90 per cent chance of tuning into an absolute nightmare of a time. She locked into one particularly bad episode and just kept getting it on action replay.
"I think maybe we're not meant to remember much about our past lives. Although it's within us, it's on the back shelf. It's not good to dwell on the past. We're here for this life and we're supposed to be moving forward."
IGNORE [Talk of moving forward brings us nearly to the subject of Lene's new album, "March". The conquering glory of the returning queen? Not quite. "Rage" rattles along nicely with a fuel-injected drum pattern and all the right sequencers, but it has to do battles with lines such as "Got to make an effort for the innocent child, the shape of tomorrow is not so nice". Fine sentiments, but so is the American Constitution.]
"Nightshift" features those famous bat squeaks from the woman with vocal chords made of pure elastic, while "Hold on to Love", with its throbbing bass and ice-cool vocals, should be offered to Grace Jones immediately to provide Les and Lene with the budget for their next five albums.
Still, there's always that voice which can leap from whooping banshee to guttural wildcat in a single bound.
But the most pressing interview question must be saved for the last. What did Lene think of Tiffany's version of "I Think We're Alone Now"?
"Well, to be honest, I liked my version better, but perhaps I'm just being biased. It's a great song - I think anybody can do it."
Perhaps Tiff might have made a go at tackling "Bird Song" on the next record?
"Now that would be interesting!" Lene Lovich laughs. "Wouldn't that be fun?"
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