Guinevere

Straight from the Arthurian legend, singer Guinevere brings her pop princess vocals to Chicago this week. The Canadian's "Crazy Crazy" single is spinning on the dance charts meanwhile we found her riding on Backstreet Boy Nick Carter's tour bus across the country.

JN: (Jerry Nunn) Hi, Guinevere. How are you?

G: (Guinevere) Good, a little hot at the back of this tour bus though.

JN: I'm so excited you are heading our way. You will be at House of Blues first with Nick Carter.

G: Yes, I can't wait. That is going to be a big show. I have heard some great things about the House of Blues so I am excited to rock the stage!

JN: The space is amazing to play live in. Then you head to Roscoe's Tavern right after that.

G: Are you going to be there?

JN: Yes, of course.

G: That is great. I would like to have a drink with you afterwards if you have time.

JN: I will make time! So let's talk about how your name came to be…

G: I am absolutely in love with Arthurian legends. I fell in love with the story. I loved the name Guinevere and her story. She was a badass rebel in the King Arthur kingdom. I picked that name and now it stuck.

JN: It is not a huge jump from your real name of Gwendolyn. You are from Toronto?

G: Yes, cold, cold Toronto!

JN: I just wrote a travel story there last year.

G: What did you think?

JN: It is a beautiful city. I liked how it was laid out. The gay bars were a blast.

G: They are.

JN: People wanted to compare it to Chicago or New York but it is its own thing.

G: There are so many places where you can go hang out and write songs. It is inspiring.

JN: You just toured to Nashville. I am from there. How was it?

G: I wish I had stayed there longer. I went to Tootsies on that little strip for a few hours. The band that was playing kept me smiling. I could not stop cheering and almost blew my voice out! It was so incredible. You just walk along the strip and every single bar has great bands. I couldn't get enough of it.

JN: I read the show was at the Cannery.

G: Of course the show was so much fun. It was a little scary at first because I am a new artist and not really sure how they would react. Every single person was a girl by the way, being fans of Nick Carter. After a few songs I really started to hear them cheering, then it got louder and louder. I think they really loved it at the end.

JN: That must be rewarding to turn a crowd like that.

G: Oh yeah but it's scary though, those first few songs…

JN: I watched the video for "Crazy Crazy." Where did you find that guy with the hot body? He is yummy!

G: I know! He was asked to be covered in baby oil. He was just a model we found in Toronto and so sweet. His abs I swear were just rock hard and it looked like they were Photo-shopped. It was ridiculous.

JN: So baby oil huh?

G: I guess it makes things pop on the screen so I got to lather him up. That was really fun! (both laugh)

JN: Tough job some days right?

G: Yes, it is a hard life.

JN: You have more music coming out. I have heard some snippets online of singles "Liar" and "Go." Will there be a full album?

G: Yes, it is almost done. We just finished another track with Cirkut called "Liberated." I really think that will be the next single. I'm hoping so. No news on the release of the album yet.

JN: I am sure you want it to be perfect. You did a cover of Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" not too long ago.

G: I actually ended up changing the perspective. From Bon Jovi's point of view it is a guy trying to pursue his dream as an artist. I decided to do the perspective of a girl and what it is like to not be in the spotlight and to see it from her point of view.

JN: That sounds better than the original.

G: Oh, I don't know about that. The classic is just so killer.

JN: You twittered me about shooting marshmallow guns. Do you really have them?

G: That is for real. I don't want to give too much away but during the bridge of my new song we have little marshmallows and we are going to shoot them out at the Nick Carter show.

JN: How fun!

G: It is a lot of fun. It doesn't hurt though. I wouldn't point it at anybody, that would be a bad thing.

JN: I wanted to tell you that I love the blue lipstick.

G: Thank you. I have been getting some mixed feelings about it. Something about "going down on a Smurf."

JN: Where do people come up with this?

G: I don't know but it is kind of funny. I had to laugh about it.

Keep up with Guinevere at www.thisisguinevere.com. She opens for Nick at the House of Blues, 329 N Dearborn, Feb 11 with an appearance at Roscoe's Tavern, 3356 N Halsted, directly after.