A small but vocal minority of music fans consider Freedy Johnston to be one of the best songwriters alive today. Combining poetic autobiographical tales with impossibly catchy melodies, his 1992 album, "Can You Fly?" established his reputation as a masterful pop tunesmith and won him critical accolades, if not commercial success. His next album, the Butch Vig-produced "This Perfect World," was supposed to be his breakthrough, but radio again proved less friendly than the press.

It seemed Johnston was well on his way to becoming a cult figure, but the singer-songwriter's new album, "Never Home," has more instant appeal than the beautifully morose "Perfect World." Johnston has moved on from his acoustic roots to decidedly louder rock arrangements without sacrificing the subtleties of his melodies, and the bolder sound suits his new, more light-hearted material. Calling in from the road during a tour on which he's opening for Shawn Colvin, Johnston speaks articulately if not enthusiastically about his new album, his songwriting style and his favorite UFO book.

RS Online: This album is a little more stylistically diverse than your previous work. Were you consciously trying to broaden your sound?

Freedy Johnston: I don't know. Since I finished the record, I haven't sat down and listened to the whole thing more than once or twice. I like writing songs in completely different styles. Or maybe it is not so much that I like writing in different styles, but that the things I come up with want to be finished in different ways. The songs often dictate how they should be treated.

I was surprised by your choice of Danny Kortchmar (Don Henley, The Spin Doctors) as producer. How did that collaboration go?

Well it is too bad that producers are so enslaved to the reputations of the people they have worked with, because Danny has been a great rock guitar player for 25 years. And that is why I was excited to work with him. As a musician, I knew he would be sympathetic to what it is like to be in the studio, under the gun. And he was interested in making a very straight-ahead record, which is certainly what I wanted to do. I didn't want to adorn the songs too much But I didn't go on what he had done in the past anymore than I did so when I worked with Butch Vig. I didn't want to make a Nirvana record.

Can you tell me a little about your songwriting style. Are you disciplined? Are you prolific?

No, I wish I was. I have the highest respect for people who can sit down and bang out a song that they got the idea for ten minutes earlier in the shower -- guys like Elvis Costello. I can never do that. It takes me forever. Because the lyrics don't come first. The lyrics always have to be applied to an existing melody. And that is often technically tricky ... I drive myself crazy sometimes trying to finish the damn things up.

What do you think makes a pop song work?

There are a lot of things. The song has to be understandable lyrically. It doesn't have to be totally literal or simplistic, but it has to be understandable. And there has to be an amazing hook. There has to be some kind of vocal or guitar hook, or a just a word, but something that you want to hear again. Something that somehow works. It is the hardest thing. My highest goal is to write a song that is good enough that somebody wants to cover it, and put it on the charts. I would love that. But at the same time I like writing songs that are much more from me, like "He Wasn't Murdered" or "Seventies Girl."

One of the songs that really stood out for me was "Something Out There." Is there a story behind that song's UFO reference, or is it just a neat concept for a song?

It is just a concept. I don't want to get the reputation as a UFO nut, because I am not. I like the track, but I don't believe in UFOs. Although I lived up in Woodstock a couple years ago, and my girlfriend gave me a copy of the book "Communion." I was living up there alone, and I read that book, and it scared the hell out of me. I don't believe in UFOs, but I certainly did for the time when I was reading that book.

There is a real sense of fun to some of this record. You mentioned "Seventies Girl" -- there is real sense of enthusiasm on that track.

I think on this record, there are at least three songs that could be called lighthearted. I hope so. I didn't really set out to do that. These aren't brooding, depressing, fatalistic songs like pretty much every song