Sophie Ellis-Bextor - more than just a name in pop

From starting out in an indie band aged 17, Sophie Ellis Bextor's name has swelled beyond that of a successful pop artist to become a high street brand. The value of her name has grown and grown and she even became the face of Rimmel make-up in 2008.

Even though she now enjoys contracts with high street brands, there are drawbacks: "Yucky as it sounds, I feel you sort of lose ownership of your name," she said.

Brand associations - Sophie went on to tell Newsbeat: "Now when I say Sophie Ellis Bextor I feel that's not really me because that's become this entity from doing the gigs and the shows and the make-up contracts and whatever else."

Being associated with big brands is a long way from where she started out: "When I was seventeen, the idea of doing a clothing line for a high street brand would have been totally unthinkable but now it's completely the opposite."

"I'm a little bit allergic to the whole brand thing to be honest but maybe it's just happening around me and I'm not really aware of it."

Even though she has commercial commitments, and there are even more brands knocking on her door, she says she keeps a level head on the decisions she makes. "My rule for the corporate stuff is the same as with my music - I do whatever means I can sleep at night and whatever means I can be dignified."

Sophie Ellis Bextor's fourth album, Straight to the Heart, is due out this autumn.

Quickest song - She's been working with a number of different producers - Calvin Harris, Richard X and others including Greg Kurstin. He produced Lily Allen's album, It's Not You It's Me. Sophie went to Los Angeles to work with him and explained that he doesn't hang about when it comes to song writing.

"He holds the award for the quickest written song on the record. I turned up midday, we wrote, we had a long leisurely lunch and it was done by quarter to four."

"I've never done a song in under four hours before - from start to finish. It's called Revolution and it's probably going to be a single."

After this album she says she's going to change musical direction and she's recently been working with trance legend Armin Van Buuren who's ranked number one DJ in the world. "I must confess I knew very little about the trance scene, I'm more house and commercial dance but it was really interesting and different."

"If you're going to start in trance then you should start with the number one trance DJ in the world I figured. It's going to be really good fun."

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_10430000/newsid_10439900/10439980.stm