Furtado Teams Up With Oakie

NEW YORK (AP) - Although she's still riding high on the success of her debut, Woah, Nelly!, Canadian songstress Nelly Furtado has begun penning tracks for her second album. She hopes to lay her new songs early next year for a late-2002 release.
"I kinda started in L.A. and woke up and wrote ten songs one morning," she says. "The reason I didn't start writing earlier was I didn't want to get into the new material and less interested in my current material. That's already starting to happen, but it's fine.
"I don't have any titles yet," she continues. "But my next album will continue on the path I set with this one. It's not going to be like drastic change, but it will sound different. I've grown a lot. The subject matter will change. I think I'll get a bit more frank emotionally and get a bit more up front and less metaphors and stuff."

Before recording begins, Furtado plans to release her third single from Woah, Nelly!, "Shit on the Radio (Remember the Days)," with an accompanying video to be directed by Hype Williams (TLC, R. Kelly, DMX). She is also planning another tour.
"There's still another level the show needs to get to for this record," she says, having recently wrapped her duties on Moby's Area: One tour. "The level of showmanship and the level of production will be bigger than my last shows."

While her schedule may be hectic, Furtado has found time to work with other artists, including lending vocals to a remix for Missy Elliot's "Get Ur Freak On" (on the Tomb Raider soundtrack) and more recently for DJ Paul Oakenfold's upcoming new album.
"I'm working with Oakey right now," she says. "I think he's keeping everything under wraps so I don't want to blow his cover . . . It's just one of those things you kind of do and see what the vibes are like, and if anything good comes out of it, then you use it."