Alanis Morissette's renewed passion

Known for vividly channeling her life experiences into her music, Alanis Morissette returns to form with her newest album Havoc and Bright Lights.

The Ottawa-born singer-songwriter is in a different headspace with the new studio album, her first since 2008's Flavors of Entanglement. 

The former angry young woman who rocked to international fame with Jagged Little Pill is now a happily married mom, who sings about her young son in the new track Guardian. 

Though she still gets angry (something to which her husband can attest, Morissette quipped), she now says that she draws from a range of passionate feelings — frustration, lust, infatuation, joy, despair — to fuel her songwriting.

"My message to anyone who's afraid that they can't write music when they're happy is 'Just trust the passion. The passion can write a lot of things,'" she said in an interview with CBC News.

'I just feel compelled to continue to be transparent. It just really levels the playing field and eradicates the shame that I have...about being human' —Alanis Morissette

Alongside her music career and acting roles over the years, Morissette has been expanding into other creative realms. She's written about her experiences as a new mother and is also finishing a book she's been working on for some time. Naturally, it uses her "own life as a case study," she said.

"I just feel compelled to continue to be transparent," Morissette acknowledged, saying she feels no regret about the revealing songs she's written.

"It just really levels the playing field and eradicates the shame that I have, or that one might have, about being human. So I'm going to just keep going."

Morissette talked to CBC's Deana Sumanac about the influence of Jagged Little Pill, maturing as an artist and finding different ways to express herself.

"There's a continuity between what I care about in any form: I care about it in my music, in article-writing, in how I dress, in how I live, in my relationships, in how I navigate paparazzi, how I decorate my home. There's such a continuity between everything that I don't really care what form it shows up in. I'm clearly most well known for my music. Eventually, ultimately, I'll be writing books. I'm still writing articles now. I just consider myself a writer," she said.

Havoc and Bright Lights will be released internationally in late August and in North America specifically on Aug. 28.