Are there any songs that you like better now that you've taken them out of the archives for the new album?

Well, Armed with a Broken Heart is a really powerful song in the sense that it's angry, but it's also saying 'stay away from me as I'm afraid that I'm vulnerable around you'.

Do you know when a song is going to be a hit?

It's very hard to know. I had no idea All the Lies was going to be such a big hit. That was initially an album track. There was a little sparkle of magic dust that happened in the studio, and there was just an energy about that song.

Christie Hennessy wrote it -- do you know what inspired the lyrics?

If I remember rightly he wrote it about a friend of his who was going through a tough time. I couldn't relate it to myself, but then I got a phone call from my friend who had just split up from her fiance, so I thought the song would be perfect for her.

What did she think of it?

The first time she heard it she couldn't stop crying -- it's one of her all-time favourite songs.

You're working as a counsellor with the Rutland Centre now.

Yes, I'm loving it. I went back to college and studied addiction counselling and I work there part-time now. I don't think I've ever loved anything so much, apart from singing on stage. It just feels so right.

How do people react when they realise Frances Black is their counsellor?

In the field that I'm working in there's so much pain going on that people might talk about it for a few minutes, then they go back into their own lives.

Will you be back in the recording studio any time soon?

There is talk of another album but we'll just have to wait and see.

The Essential Frances Black 40 of her best-loved tracks, is out Friday. She plays the Helix October 12 and Draiocht October 31