You'll have to excuse Holly Cole for beating her own drum these days, but she just can't help it.

Between recording, performing and promoting her latest album, Romantically Helpless, Canada's foremost jazz-pop chanteuse has been spending what little free time she has refining her percussion skills.

"Drumming right now is an intense passion of mine," said the smoky-voiced singer during an interview at the Westin Hotel yesterday afternoon.

"I love it. I spend more than eight hours a day drumming and I brought three pairs of drumsticks on the road with me so I can practise in my room. When I'm at home, I drum all the time. I wake up in the middle of the night going, 'What time is it? Is it time to get up and practice?' "

Fans of Cole's sultry vocals needn't fret. She has no plans of giving up singing.

"My first passion is singing and I feel so fortunate I found it, because it's very elusive," said Cole between deep drags of a cigarette.

"A lot of times people don't find what they're passionate about."

Released earlier this week, Romantically Helpless is perhaps Cole's most ambitious and diverse recording to date.

Of the 12 tracks, eight are cover versions of jazz classics and more contemporary adult pop hits, including Dedicated to the One I Love, Don't Fence Me In, Black Magic and Paul Simon's One Trick Pony. Slightly adapted, of course, to fit the darkly mysterious tone that tends to permeate her music.

"If it's a well-known song, then it doesn't interest me to do the song unless it can be significantly reinvented," said the 36-year-old, who performs at the Jubilee Auditorium on June 27 as part of this year's Jazz Festival.

"That's what I really enjoy. Just because of my nature, I guess I like to take things to somewhat of a darker level."

Cole took a year and a half to record Romantically Helpless because, as she put it, "you get a broader spectrum of emotion.

"A song reflects a significant period in time," explained Cole, who enjoyed two pop crossover hits with her 1993 cover of Johnny Nash's I Can See Clearly Now and her version of The Beatles' I've Just Seen a Face, which was released on 1997's Dark Dear Heart.

"In a year and a half, you can really go through a lot of emotions. So when I listen to (the album), I can hear specific things like, 'Oh yeah, I recorded that when my mom got sick,' or when something good happened.

"I can hear it in my voice."