Always the spiciest Spice Girl, the scarily talented and frighteningly charming Melanie B is set for an exciting solo career before the next new Spice Girls album takes over the world later this year. And she was good enough to share a tiny piece of her glamorous life with Virgin Net. See for yourself in the video below.

Spice of life

Your first new single Tell Me is a very bold and honest song. Was recording it a good cathartic experience?

"Ooh I love that word, cathartic... Well, I've been keeping a diary since I was thirteen-years-old so I find it very easy to write down just what I'm thinking and feeling. So to write the whole album was the most natural thing to do.

"I haven't mentioned any names because I think that's stooping a bit low and the album's about various different people; it's about different times in my life and I've put it all down like a self-help therapy book!

"But that's the kind of person I've always been. From the age of about twelve, thirteen, I knew what I wanted to say and I had my opinions, which have stuck with me no matter what, and that's the kind of person I am."

How different is a Melanie B song from a Spice Girls song?

"Not that different really. You write down what you're thinking and feeling and your own experiences. But my album deals with depression and happiness at the same time, whereas Spice Girls stay on the pop front. I'm only human, so there's the low points and the up points. So it's different lyrically in that way, and musically I suppose it's different because it's slightly more r'n'b."

Did you find you had greater freedom over what went on in the studio on your solo record?

"No, not at all. The Spice Girls are all very in tune with each other and we get what we want out of the people we work with and it's exactly the same when I work with myself. I just haven't got the back up of three other girls saying 'we think this and we think that&! I did it all by myself and got on with it.

"It was a challenge - I didn't think I'd be able to produce what I've produced, but the people I chose to work with were so supportive and they'd been in the business for a lot longer than I've been alive, but I had a good laugh and everyone brought something different out of me. Everyone I worked with was very supportive. Maybe they realised I was feeling very unconfident about myself... Hahahahaha! That was a joke by the way!"

4 become 4x1 and 4 again

How do you go about writing and making your songs?

"It's all different. When I worked with Max [Melanie's young man] he already had the song planned out, bloody bugger had got his publishing before I got my hands on it! That's the only song I didn't write on the album.

"When I worked with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis I said to them: 'this is the sound that I wanna create, kind of Janet-meets-r'n'b-pop-Mel-B-upfront-tongue-in-cheek,' and they produced some beats when I was in the studio with them and I came up with the melody and I was chucking the lyrics about. Jimmy was like 'Well whatever you wanna say, say it' and I was like 'Do you think this is alright?' and then he was like 'Why are you asking me? Ask yourself&! and I thought 'Oh, I'm by myself! Is this alright Melanie? Oh, it is...'

"When I worked with Sisqo he said 'Right! We've got to do a song like this because people aren't expecting you to be vulnerable and say 'please don't leave'.' And I thought back to a relationship where somebody had left me and I thought 'you're right, I'll write about that.' "

Do you think people will be surprised how involved you are with the songwriting?

"All they need to do is look at the credits on the first Spice Girls albums, we co-wrote everything on there. What was lovely about my album was I actually got to work with the guy we co-wrote Wannabe with. I co-wrote Lullaby with him, which is about my daughter. You never can forget the people who started you off and they're always the best people to work with again 'cos they're like 'I remember you! None of that business&! "

You've also been working on the new Spice Girls album. Was it good being back with your gang?

"Well, we manage ourselves and we have done for three and a half years, so we're constantly on the phone to each other, but I must admit, to get back into the studio was like 'aaah, we're back together again&! even though we're together anyway.

"It was nice to get back that silly vibe that we've got going on. What we do is we nickname everyone in the studio and we have our little chats and our little conferences and then we walk in as a gang: 'WE DON'T LIKE THIS. WE WANT THIS&! It's funny. We did a lot in Miami, so we were like a travelling gypsy family with the babies and the nappies and the brothers and sisters and stuff."

Do you think people will have different expectations of you now?

"Well the public only know a certain amount - I do have a bit to myself. I live out in the country, where nobody knows where I live. It's very private. I have chilled-out times on my days off and I do give myself a lot of days off. But then again, when I work and Phoenix is at nursery I GO FOR IT! All in one day!"

Tell us what you want, what you really, really want

Are there any subjects you'd really like to talk about in interviews, but that no-one asks you about?

"Politics, charities, what I think of the youth of today... Luckily I'm in a position where I can help charities and talk about them, like I'm going to do now.

"I've just joined two new charities. One's called Blackliners, which is to do with black and ethnic women who have Aids and are pregnant and don't want to pass the Aids virus to their child; and I've just recently hooked up with a charity called Battered Wives in Leeds which is all about supporting women and families that want to get out of abusive situations, and I'm supporting them and opening a centre in October.

"It's good that I can do that and give them a voice and they can use me and I can give something back. And I'm even holding a ball in my back garden for Blackliners!"

Is there a central philosophy that drives your music?

[instantly] "Yes. There's a central philosophy that drives my life: believe in yourself, ask yourself a lot of questions and only you will know the answer and you'll get that from your gut instinct, that's what my mother told me.

"Never listen to anybody else. If someone is professional in what they do, you can take on their advice and opinion, but at the end of the day, only you know what is best for you and only you can make yourself as happy as Larry."