MTV: How did you come to play so many different instruments?

Furtado: There was a great music program at the school that I went to [and] at age nine, I started playing ukulele. I'd transpose Portuguese songs from a tape, and I'd sing them at folklore festivals. Then I started playing trombone at age 10 or 11. I played that for about nine years and it was a huge part of my life, because I was in jazz band, concert band and marching band. I write a lot of songs on guitar. I like to play some keyboards in the studio.

MTV: How do you think your sound will fit in alongside all the teen pop on the radio? Because it sounds nothing like that.

Furtado: I'm kind of excited, because I think what my record does is it hasn't forgotten about the single. The beauty of it is, I think it addresses certain things you don't hear on pop records. It has tons of counterculture references. I think kids that haven't grown up in a world without hip-hop, they're gonna understand the record, and so far it's been that way with my fans. There's certain kids that show up at my show and they'll give me a mix tape, and it'll have everything from DJ Shadow to Kid Koala to Elliott Smith to Ani DiFranco to Bebel Gilberto. And I'll think, "Wow, they get it." I just know that I'm addressing something that hasn't been addressed yet in the pop world. That excites me a lot. The world influences on my record, and the fact that I'm Portuguese-Canadian, and coming from a different culture, I think that reflects the way the world is changing, and through the Internet and stuff, and people are learning about different cultures.

MTV: What is the message of the single, "I'm Like a Bird"?

Furtado: "I'm like a bird, I don't know where my soul is, I don't know where my home is." That's pretty cool, like does that mean you don't know who you are still? On first look it seems like a love song. But then someone was saying the other day, "You should've had homeless people in your video." And it would make sense, too, in a way. Just the idea of being a nomad and liking to wander a lot is a big part of who I am. I have a restlessness about me.

MTV: Do you have any funny stories about anything that's happened to you since you got into the business?

Furtado: Somebody at the label told me that they got a phone call, and they were like, "OK, we wanna book Nelly with P.O.D. for a high-school tour." And then she started explaining me to her, and then when the person on the other end of the line found out I was a female and a singer and stuff, she was like, "What are you talking about?" Because she thought I was the rapper Nelly. And wouldn't it have been funny if they booked me with P.O.D.?

MTV: Tell us about some of the musicians on your album.

Furtado: Mike Elizondo plays bass on five of my songs, [and he] plays bass on every track on [Eminem's] The Marshall Mathers LP. He also plays on a lot of the Dr. Dre records. The cool thing about him is he's a classically trained musician, so he can play the nice samba stuff up on upright bass on "Legend," but he can also play like the hip-hop dub-y stuff on "Baby Girl." I also brought in a Portuguese guitar player named Nuno Cristo. And Little Jazz, who is a champion hip-hop turntablist from Toronto. He's 21 years old and he scratches on "ŠOn the Radio (Remember the Days)." I think the record reflects the diversity of influences right down to the session musicians we used.

Furtado: The record is kind of like a hologram, like the kind of stickers you move one way and you see one thing, and you move it the other way and you see another thing. It's kind of how beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If it's a kid who listens to hip-hop, or they get the beats, they get the rhythms, they get the energy, they get the style. If it's an older person who listens to more singer/songwriter stuff, they're into the passion of the lyrics and the passion of the melodies in the songs and the energy. If you're a jazz listener or a world-beat listener, you're appreciating the Brazilian percussion, and the Latin phrasing and the dub-y rhythms.