Considering there's a three-hour negative time difference between Ottawa and Vancouver, Bif Naked's 11 a.m. call seems positively masochistic for a hard-living rock-and-roller.

Not at all, says Bif.

"I'm up at 6:30 a.m. every day -- every damn day -- because Nicholas, my dog, needs to go outside," she explains, on the line from her home while the canine in question yaps away in the background.

It won't be long, in fact, before rowdy Nicholas, gnawing on the phone cord, cuts her off in mid-conversation.

"He's brutal," says Bif. "My dog bites people. He's also classist. Where does he get it from? He doesn't get it from me. He has small-dog syndrome.

"He's a bit of a bastard to all the other dogs in the park. It's probably because I dress him like an idiot ... He's got some new one-piece red longjohns with Archie comics on them -- he's the laughing-stock of the community."

If this little episode of Early Morning Pet Talk with Bif Naked comes across as a bit out of character for the be-pierced and oft-tattooed 27- year-old singer -- who plays Barrymore's Saturday night -- you haven't been paying attention lately.

Along with the decidedly poppy nature of the music found on I Bificus, her just-released (and much-delayed) sophomore album -- a rather strong contrast to the metal-tinged material on her self-titled debut -- 1998 has brought a softening, of sorts, of Bif's tough-chick image. The "Naked" part of her name has likewise largely faded from use.

"I mean, it's an evolution definitely," she says.

"When I did my first record I was 23, I was a little skater girl who had really bad boyfriends and drank all the time ...

"I'm a really different person now. I've been straight-edge for two years, I'm a yoga junkie."

The changes were just a result of growing up, says Bif, and realizing her career wasn't going to take off if she kept acting like a "McChicken-eating, beer-drinking, smoking 23-year-old."

"It was just time -- I turned 26 and it was time to get serious," she says, adding it was a particularly brutal European touring schedule that finally convinced her to clean up her act a couple of years ago.

"I pretty much realized that if I continued to enjoy the different beers of Europe, I wasn't going to be able to do it.

"That was a big kind of motivation, that kind of really physical pressure.

"I honestly don't know how rock bands can maintain a touring schedule if they're doing drugs and drinking all the time."

Finding herself in the strange position of being looked upon by some young women as a bit of a role model -- not just for her outspoken and uncompromising nature, but also for her involvement with organizations like Rock For Choice and Stop the Violence -- provided added impetus for change, says Bif.

"This is the bad thing, you know," she says.

"If you want to develop any kind of notoriety or well-knownness or celebrity, you're going to become a role model ...

"The best I can do is just try and be an example -- somebody who doesn't shoot people or shoot drugs. I just shoot my mouth off."