If Jennifer Starr's life were a pure fantasy, it would be equal parts Unsolved Mysteries, Astrologer to the Stars and Hollywood Babylon. We'll let her explain: "When I was a little girl, I was told by this psychic that Mae West was trying to get in touch with me," explains the blonde dance diva behind Pure Sugar. "He said, 'She really likes the way you dance and she's going to get pictures of herself to you.'" He explained that in former lives both Starr and West had been struggling actresses in Paris and that West was trying to re-establish contact with the spirit of her old cohort. A few days after this revelation, Starr's mom, unaware of any psychic reading, brought home a book with Mae West's picture on the cover. But wait, there's more.

Starr had forgotten about what she then considered just a coincidence until several years later when she unwittingly moved into the apartment where Mae West had spent the last forty-eight years of her life. It was there that her luck began to change. "Everything that's happened to me that's been good in my life started in that apartment," she says. Within ten months of her signing the new lease, she formed Pure Sugar, signed a deal with Geffen and released a debut album.

Though her story may seem like a new-age fairy tale, Starr is defiantly genuine in a musical genre where disposable one-hit wonders are the norm. For Pure Sugar's eponymous debut, the group, Starr and producers/arrangers/co-songwriters Richard "Humpty" Vission and Pete Lorimer, opted for real vocal performances and "live" drums over the antiseptic approach of pitch-corrected vocals and drum loops. The result is a record more organic and human than most dance offerings, and one that showcases Starr's considerable talents as a vocalist and songwriter.

Since its June release, Pure Sugar has received significant international radio airplay and earned favorable reviews. "Delicious," a sassy reinterpretation of Taste of Honey's hit "Boogie Oogie Oogie," reached No. 67 on the U.S. charts and No. 1 in Japan. Groove Radio in Los Angeles has also championed the record, making Pure Sugar their featured artist over the last several months and, with the new single, "These Are the Times," going to radio, Pure Sugar seem poised to conquer the dance world. But the assault come without some personal trial.

In support of Pure Sugar, Starr's been performing in dance clubs on tiny stages with primitive sound systems. She describes the ongoing ordeal it as "karaoke in hell ... it's life or death and people are going to like you or hate you" -- a point that's not hard to believe given that Starr is involved in the normally blasphemous task of singing over a backing tape. "[People] just think that I couldn't possibly have any talent cause I'm wearing ponytails and a bikini onstage," she says, "but I can push that and say 'you're going to realize by the end of this show that I'm up here with ponytails and a bikini and a voice!"

And as for the Mae West connection, Starr's recently vacated the late sex symbol's apartment in favor of another L.A. crib. "I got what I needed to get, I did what I had to do and it was time to move on," she muses. "I needed more space."

DAVE DERBY