Every lover is a fighter, according to Hawksley Workman.

"If anybody chooses to live their life in a loving state, it is a fight, no matter how you face it," the Canadian singer-songwriter says. "I think as a teenager you think certain things about love and happiness, and now as an adult, love and life and happiness are a fight and a struggle, and once you find it it's about expanding and enduring through trials of faith and grace."

Workman's new album, Lover/Fighter, deals with the many intricacies of a relationship, both positive and negative, through tales of joy, heartbreak, longing, alcohol and tobacco. It moves in a myriad of directions, but the idiosyncratic singer-songwriter believes his third album is more focused than his previous efforts both in its sound and message.

"I've made a bunch of esoteric records for the time being and I wanted to make a clearer statement this time out," he says. "I feel all my records have dealt with conflict and duality and a battle of wills, but I think this record is my sort of political record.

"The kind of politics that interest me are the politics of the self, of mortality. My feeling of politics is the people in government are not politics, it's how you create your own better realities that lead to ultimate growth."

Lover/Fighter was recorded in a one-room schoolhouse three hours north of Toronto. He lived in the makeshift studio for seven months, writing and recording 30 songs (playing most of the instruments himself).

Workman, 27, decided to move to the country after living in Paris for 11 months. He moved to France to have a home base while touring Europe and to challenge his senses by exposing himself to a different reality.

While overseas, he toured with people such as David Bowie and Patti Smith and worked with electronic artist Tommy Hools and French indie-rockers Aston Villa, helping to expand his musical creativity and vision, he says.

Workman was signed to Universal Music after winning two Junos in 2002 for best new solo artist and best video for Jealous of Your Cigarette from his album, (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves.

"It's kind of what I've been working towards and when it actually started to happen I thought it was a little late. When I got into the business I didn't think I was the closet boy genius I was touted as being. I wanted to build this to a level so I wouldn't be surprised to see myself on TV," he says.

Workman plays the Burton Cummings Theatre tonight with Serena Ryder, who is signed to his label, Isadora Records.