Laura Stevenson is returning with an album she says is “more rock and roll throughout.” And she's quite confident it is, judging by the title Cocksure. Stevenson, who wanted to “have the real spontaneity” of each song come across, has created a strong batch of beauties brimming with power pop. Stevenson is touring North America with Matt Pond PA and took some time to talk to Myspace about the new record, moments of doubt and the Rolling Stones.

I read part of Cocksure was created in the attic of what used to be a former brothel? What was that like?

[Laughs] It's cool; it's an old house and I never experienced any ghosts, yeah I live in a really old town, it was a mining town so a lot of the private homes used to be saloons or boarding houses or brothels and that house happened to be a brothel. But it had a lot of positive energy, it didn't feel like it was ever a bad place but I don't know. I tried not to think about it too much.

The opening track “Out With A Whimper”—how did that track come about?

I was just feeling unsafe in my chosen profession, which is something that happens to people in any job really but like the creative feel you're a little fish in a huge pool of people doing the same thing as you. There's so much music content, there are so many bands, what am I doing this for? Does this have longevity? That was just one of those moments and I wanted to document it as honestly as possible.

Another song, “Claustrophobe,” seems like one of those songs that wrote itself. Did it gel quickly?

That song came together super quick for me on my end, and then when we were arranging it it took a little bit. At first we tried it with two different drummers and they were coming up with ideas that were more straightforward for the drum part. When Sammi (Niss) came—she listens to a lot of Wilco—she just wanted to do something that was a little spacier and atmospheric. She really opened up the drum part and it really opened up the song.

Have you road-tested some of the songs?

“Torch Song” is really hard. It's going to be a real challenge just because my hands are moving so much and I wrote the song so that there's no lull in the vocal melody. This means I have no break to breathe or swallow if I have spit in my mouth.

In rehearsal have some of them come off better than expected or surprised you?

“Life Is Long” is so much more fun than I thought it was going to be because I knew it was going to be fun because it has a Replacements-y and kind of Faces, like rock and roll that's feel good, fun and power poppy. I'm having such a fun time playing it. I can't not dance and I usually don't dance around so when we play that one I hop around, maybe I won't do it on stage.

What can you tell me about the album cover?

My friend (Maps And Atlases drummer) Chris Hainey took the photo. I've just been such a fan of his photographic work and when we were coming up with ideas for the cover we were like, “Get Chris to take a photo.” He just put it all together and created this whole set that looked like this whole world. It really looked like my basement with the wood panelling and the old TV.

Do you know who owns the trophy besides the TV?

I don't know. Some lady who is very good at bowling. It's not me because I'm terrible at bowling.

When you're playing and see the audience and some are watching you through their screens or cameras how does that make you feel?

I just hope they're not texting. Whenever I see people looking at their phones my self-conscious mind always goes to they're not listening, they're not paying attention, they don't like this, they're distracted, I'm not engaging with them. But they might be just taking a photo of me. My mind goes to instant paranoia, I just close my eyes and continue playing.

When I'm at shows and I see that happening in front of me....I just saw the Rolling Stones for the first time in Buffalo, which was incredible. I was watching this guy watching them through his phone. We were like in front of Mick Jagger when he was at the top of the catwalk. And this guy wasn't experiencing it as it was in front of him. It was insane; it bummed me out.