Canadian singer/songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk's fifth studio album, Plain Jane, is her first with indie label MapleMusic. Kreviazuk's other four albums were released by Columbia-Sony. (Ernest Doroszuk, Sun Media)

Singer-songwriter-pianist Chantal Kreviazuk named her fifth studio album, Plain Jane, after a new song on the disc, for a very specific reason.

It has to do with the dual life she leads with husband and Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida and their three young boys (Rowan, 5, Lucca, 4, Salvadore, 1) with homes in both Toronto and L.A. for the past ten years.

On this side of the border, she is a Canadian celebrity, who has won Junos and is deeply involved in War Child Canada for whom she has been named honorary founder. (One song on Plain Jane is called Na Miso (With Eyes), written and recorded with her long-time nanny, a Rwandan war refugee named Bibiane Mpoyo.)

Down south, she can lead an anonymous life, as a songwriter to such stars as Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, David Cook, Gwen Stefani, Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore, Carrie Underwood and, potentially, Faith Hill on her new album. Kreviazuk's songs have also appeared in various films and TV shows.

"When I am in Toronto I do have a very different life than when I'm in L.A.," said the Winnipeg-born Kreviazuk, 35, recently in the Toronto offices of her new indie label, MapleMusic.

"It was important for me to get away from me, like to get away from the self-perpetuation and promotion of being an artist. Because when I'm in L.A. I like to say that I get treated like crap like everyone else. ... And I think it brings me back into my world as an artist on a really, really, positive strong level.

TRULY LIVING

"I just don't feel that you can truly be living if you're only paying attention to where you are on the streets or in the charts," she continued. "And I see how it drives people into a really isolated place and I just love being a part of things. I've been in a few tabloids with people before who are famous because I was with them, 'so-and-so with singer Chantal,' and I have to tell you that was a litmus test for me because it made me physically ill. We see pictures of people when they're all made up and they look great but inside the narcissism and the tragedy that is going on ... I know it. I've felt some of those feelings."

Not to put too fine a point on this, Kreviazuk is photographed on the Plain Jane album cover, sitting at a piano in a gown with her back to the camera.

She also has a new perspective on her music career, having decided to leave the major label, Columbia-Sony, after four albums, for the indie world of MapleMusic.

"I'm really excited to maybe make a dollar on music," said the singer, somewhat sarcastically, pointing out that she has made all her money off touring and songwriting for the past 13 years.

"I've never experienced that before. I'm serious. I've never made one dollar selling music. Why do you think I'm doing a hair commercial (for L'oreal Canada)? If I hadn't been a songwriter for other people, I wouldn't be able to make money. Deals with majors are you don't make any money unless you recoup. And all your money was being spent and you didn't even have control. So this is like a real partnership."

Her extensive Canadian tour, which includes a Dec. 8 date at Massey Hall, won't see her take her three kids on the road full time as Rowan is in kindergarten and Lucca is in Montessori School in L.A.

Maida, who just got back from an Our Lady Peace tour, will look after the children and she's hoping he might take them out of school for five days and join her. (Maida's opening slot for his wife at Massey is just a one-off event.)

"It used to be that if I had a day off, well I just stayed in Toronto or I stayed in Vancouver, now I'm going to go L.A., if I have 24 hours, I am going to go back home."