Brandishing both wicked humour and brutal honesty, it's sometimes hard to know exactly when Sia's joking. What is certain is that, with fragile beauty, a collaboration with Beck, and swathes of sensual soul-searching, 'Healing Is Difficult's long overdue follow-up, Colour The Small One, rekindles thoughts of an all conquering phenomenon and will surely make her a 'coolio' once again.

From the lilting pianos and claustrophobic beats of 'Breathe Me', to 'Sunday's' enchanting harmonium and breathless chant, it's a mesmerising album, undercut by the hope and despair of a little girl lost. Guilt, and how to deal with it, is the recurring theme with Sia's vulnerable voice as a beacon guiding through the pain and fear. "I call it easy Listening," snorts Sia trying to keep a straight face. "That's what I've been telling everyone." A mix of horror and hilarity dawns on her face. "Do you think it's depressing? It's not too depressing is it? It's meant to be nice, easy, music. Songy and lush."
In fact, Sia credits the biggest influence on both her and Colour The Small One as touring with Zero 7. "That's when I actually started listening to music," she says with a grimace of embarrassment. "All the other music I'd listened to in my life had been incidental; in clubs, cars, lifts. I only owned 2 CDs: a Jackson 5 anthology and Jeff Buckley's Grace. While we were on tour, the Zero 7 guys were always talking about artists I'd never heard of, so I bought a Discman and started listening to their James Taylor, Nick Drake, Harry Neilson, Randy Newman and Django Bates CDs. And it all just really blew me away."

Colour The Small Ones lyrical roots, however, run much deeper. After three years fronting Crisp, Sia packed her bags and headed off with an open ended ticket on a round the World trip. After enjoying colourful times in some unusual places, she agreed to meet up in London with the man she describes as her 'first true love'. A week before she arrived, he was run down and killed by a black cab on Kensington High Street.
Bully, the track she wrote with Beck has similarly serious roots. "There was this kid at school who I used to be really cruel to, and I've felt bad about it ever since. It got to the point where I was having nightmares about it. So I wanted to write a sorry song." Thankfully, the collaboration itself had happier origins. "The last date of the Zero 7 tour was a festival at the Universal Amphitheatre in LA and Beck was on the same bill. Next thing he's ringing Zero 7's management asking if I'd like to duet with him." Understandably she said yes, and found herself on stage singing 'You're The One That I Want' from Grease. "I suggested it as a joke; but we changed the major to a minor, made it really slow and turned it into a bit of a country stalker anthem."

The Beck and Zero 7 connections- Sia's already recorded two more tracks to their next album - give the biggest clues to Colour The Small One and the giggling Australian's current intentions. "I don't want to be a superstar, doing all that wibbly-wobbly stuff. It's too emotionally stressful; photo shoots always make me want to have plastic surgery. I just wanted to write an album that was me: a small, weird, needy freak. It's a slow burner, but it's honest."