Everyone from neo-soul, Deep House, to straight R&B afficionados seems to love this song. Why do you think that is?

TERISA GRIFFIN: I think every woman is looking for their "Mr. Wonderful". Somehow, though, people thought it was a religious song. My mom said to me, "Are you looking for Jesus?" She's a preacher's wife, so of course she's like, "Oh, you finally did a gospel song!"

In all actuality, I'm like all other women looking for the perfect guy, and wrote about my dream guy. And people relate to it across the board, whether it be spiritually or romantically. It's happy - it's not something that's downgrading a guy, which is cool these days. The guy's not a jerk. It's not "pay my bills" or "ring the bell", you know? It's definitely a dream thing for women, and then guys get to feel good in the process. It's "wonderful" as opposed to all that. So maybe people were looking for something positive instead of a lot of negativity.

So if your mother's a preacher's wife, that'd make you a preacher's daughter! Where were you born?

TERISA GRIFFIN: Monroe, Louisiana. I'm a Louisiana girl. I grew up non-denominational but believing in God. Of course we have voodoo down there too. It's funny, but when I first came to Chicago, a lot of guys asked me, "So you do voodoo?" like I have dolls in my purse. And I'm like, I'm not that desperate!

I moved to Chicago about eleven years ago. I'm really grateful for meeting Terry, as my initial meetings with producers here were probably not the greatest. When you come from Louisiana, you can be a little na•ve. People can choose to be good or they can choose to be bad. You can choose to do the same thing to somebody else that was done to you, or you can choose to do something totally different. And while I ran into some horrible people, I also ran into some nice folks.

I didn't know much about the music business. Like a lot of people, you're hoping that you'll run into that one person who will "find" you. Eventually, I just found myself. I knew that I could write, but of course you want to pair up with somebody. Unfortunately, people tend to believe that they "own" you in this business. That's scary. That's maybe why the music business is changing in such a drastic manner. To work for so many years and only be able to pay your bills by performing is a horrible thing.

"My Naked Soul" is both the title of the album and the name of your record label that you released it on. What does it mean?

TERISA GRIFFIN: Because I'm giving everything I have from my heart and my soul. As I say at the beginning of my album, I'm totally naked. I didn't hold back anything as far as money, heart or soul on this project because if I didn't believe in myself, how could I expect anyone to invest or believe in me? That's what the company is about as well as the album.

As far as forming my own label, I don't think a lot of musicians are looking for a deal anymore because they've found out that they have to trade out their publishing to get one. You have a successful artist like Prince who will write "SLAVE" on the side of his face, irritated by the fact that he could sell millions of albums but not own his own songs or get the money he should be getting.

On the other hand, I've found though that even outside of the record labels, it can be the same thing. I'm not against technology, but I've found that musicians often don't get the chance to play together anymore. I hate what it's done in that aspect. Children don't get to be sociable musically anymore, and that's a horrible thing. If they sample a song, they think they've created something. They don't have what I had when I was growing up, because music isn't in the schools. If anything, we should be putting it in so they can learn to create without sampling and music can grow in a bigger way. The shame of it is that those older musicians who made those great songs will never see the proceeds. Oftentimes, that's the life of a musician so we have to learn to live in the moment.

Indie producer Steve Albini once wrote an essay called "Some of Your Friends Are Already This Fucked" in which he illustrated with hard figures that with all of the record company shenanigans, a moderately successful major label artist would make more working at a 7-11 than in the music industry.

TERISA GRIFFIN: Yes, but in exchange for happiness? That's the other part of it - to live doing what you love. And if you're smart enough, you'll figure out how to do it and get paid. Tons of musicians decided, "There's the Internet, and I can go out on the road by myself." Trust me - I've lost a ton of money getting on the road by myself. But the experience of living with my musicians on the road I wouldn't trade for anything.