Natalie Imbruglia has been missing in action since her spectacular rise to fame, when her 1998 debut album, Left of the Middle, climbed up the charts on the strength of "Torn" and snared two Grammy nominations.| Since that time Imbruglia has been rather reclusive, living a quiet life in her adopted home of London. Then Billy Corgan came into her life, and it was time to get working again.

Imbruglia ran into the Smashing Pumpkins' singer at a party in Los Angeles about six months ago. Corgan told her that he had penned a song for the Stigmata soundtrack with her in mind. This surprised the winsome singer, who barely knew Corgan at the time. "I bumped into him a couple of times," says Imbruglia. "I don't really know him; we've had a couple of chats really."

Nevertheless he did write the song "Identify" with Imbruglia's voice in his head. "I didn't even let myself think about it, after he mentioned it to me," she says. "I knew he was doing a soundtrack, and when he said, 'There's a song I've written, and I was thinking of you. Do you think you might want to sing it?' I was like, 'Whoa. For sure.' But after the party I forgot about it completely. I didn't want to get my hopes up in case it didn't happen."

But a few months later, Imbruglia was in a London studio recording the track with the hot young production duo Sam and Henry from Shebang, whom she had met through producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck, Pavement). She never saw Corgan during the recording process. "It was weird, because I never spoke to him, but we talked through different people," she says.

Imbruglia filmed the video for "Identify" with Sam Bayer this week in Los Angeles. "It was really good fun," she says. "We both wanted it to be really emotional, because the song is, well, the way I describe it is 'numb.' Emotionally beyond pain to the point of unfeeling. It's quite intense."

The Aussie beauty is currently working on her follow-up to Left of the Middle. "For the past year I've been basically chilling out and trying to get myself in the headspace to write another album," she says. "I have started writing, but I can't say I've honed into the whole gist of the album. I'm still experimenting. I think in the next month it will all become obvious about the direction it's going to take."

Just don't get your hopes up about finding Billy Corgan on the new album; Imbruglia says she has a hard time asking for help from other musicians. "I'm not really like that," she says. "To my own detriment, I must say. Even if I admire someone I'd never ask them to do something for me. It would never have occurred to me to ask Billy Corgan to do something with me. But when it happened, obviously I nearly jumped out of my skin."

The Stigmata soundtrack, which also features tracks by David Bowie, Bjork, Massive Attack, and Chumbawamba, will be in stores August 24.

JAAN UHELSZKI
(July 30, 1999)