Holly McNarland is talking about her two children.

One is her three-year-old son Nege, who's running around her Vancouver home vying for some of his mother's time while she's trying to discuss her other offspring.

And that second baby is McNarland's sophomore album Home Is Where My Feet Are, this summer's follow-up to her 1997 release Push, which earned her a Juno for best new solo artist.

And though the time spent in labour in order to deliver her latest CD was a lot longer than for her flesh-and-blood babe, the pain involved in the latter was far more excruciating.

"It wasn't even close," she laughs about the 30-hour labour involved in her son's birth. "(Man) did that hurt. It was the most painful thing ever. I thought I was going to die.

"But it was worth it, dammit."

Not that there wasn't a great deal of discomfort involved in the album's recording, and not that it, too, wasn't worth it to McNarland.

The disc is a balanced collection of the 28-year-old songwriter's more rambunctious femme-rocker element and quieter, more mature side.

But to get the finished result, McNarland had to endure three different recording sessions with three different producers -- Mark Howard, Malcolm Burn, and Warne Livesey -- which are each represented by tracks on Home Is.

As McNarland reveals, the need for three sessions was more forces outside of her control and less a case of her wanting everything to be perfect for her reintroduction to the world of pop music.

"It just wasn't working for the record company," she says contradicting her record company bio which puts all of the onus on her.

"And part of it was not working for me either but mainly it was the record company ...

"I have to pick my battles. And I'm glad we did it the way we did otherwise I wouldn't have written Beautiful Blue."

That track was one of the final songs recorded for her latest and its one that most apparently shows the results of her time off and the birth of her son.

It's about how the priorities have switched in her life, and how those priorities in turn have affected her as a mother as well as a performer.

"As a person, it's changed me," admits McNarland, who'll bring both of her children to the Coca-Cola Stage tomorrow night.

"I just don't care about stupid things any more. A lot of things don't bother me that used to bother me.

"Depending on when that happens to you in your life it opens up more room to soak up other things.

"And that changes you, it makes you a better person ... And I think that helps in songwriting, too."