7 QUESTIONS; Former One Dove frontwoman Dot Allison on her solo album and the joys of working with Paul Weller.

Byline: AVRIL CADDEN

How would you describe your new album Room 71/2? It's an eclectic album. There's folky, alt-country and garagey moments. It reflects things that have influenced me. The lyrics are much more accomplished than anything I've done because I pushed myself a bit in terms of writing lyrics.

There's a song on the album called Room 71/2 and it's a fictional narrative, like a lot of the songs on the album. I was just trying to make a little story. It's sung through the eyes of a prostitute and it's about yearning and loss and a room 71/2 is a hinterland zone.

It's the space between two people and the difference between people's differing perceptions of the same thing. In the Charlie Kaufman film Being John Malkovich there's a floor 71/2 in the Mertin Flemmer building. It just seems to be very symbolic and it always really touched me.

You're also doing some film score work - tell us about it. I've just collaborated with Christian Henson on his score for Triangle, which is coming out in October. I've done a new score for the same director Chris Smith, which is another horror - I'm going to be the voice of horror - brilliant. It looks easy but you've got to spin so many plates. That's something I'd love to evolve into.

How did you end up collaborating with Paul Weller on your album? I got a text from him and he asked if I fancied writing a song together. I phoned him the next day, we had a chat and agreed to write something and see where it took us. We worked on the phone for a while and I went down to Blackburn and we finished writing it there. He's a really down-to-earth man. What made you cover Scott Walker''s Montague Terrace (In Blue) and what was he like to work with on his theatrical production of Drifting and Tilting? There was a guy in One Dove who gave me a cassette in the 90s with that song on it. I was aware of the Walker Brothers' work but he introduced me to his solo work and I always had a real fondness for that song.

I did quite a lot of homework, I didn't want to go on to that Barbican stage and not know what I was doing. The main song I did was Buzzards from the Drift, it was almost like avant-garde classical.

Scott Walker was at the Barbican at the back of the auditorium communicating over a mic. Some people you think you might feel intimated by end up being really relaxed. He seemed really happy with it. It was the most challenging musical performance I've ever done.

You''ve also got Peter Doherty and the song I Wanna Break Your Heart on the album - this is an old song, isn't it? Yes, but this is the first commercial release of it, although it was on a Babyshambles live DVD. I used to come on stage half-way through a Babyshambles gig and me and Pete would do an acoustic set. At the end of that the band would come on and we'd do I Wanna Break Your Heart. That didn't end up going on the Babyshambles album but me and Pete always said that we'd release it at some point. We were going to do an album of duets but plans change. The songs earmarked for that project have ended up in other places.

Why have you decided to release that song now? Sometimes songs just have to sit for a bit before they find their way. Maybe the environment or the album isn't right to put them out but you know they are there and you're very fond of them. As long as nothing happens to you - they'll come out at some point. It's just one of those songs that had to wait in the wings for a bit.

There are other songs that we wrote together that I still would like to find the right album and the right production for, and I'm sure he would, too. I was thrilled that he let me use that song.

Have you been working together again? We've been working together a lot. We were at the V Festival and we did a surprise acoustic set in London. We're going to write more together. We feel we write nice songs and we should do more.

He's a very original artist and I think he's quite misunderstood. I've not met anyone quite like him. There's something about him that's very unusual and you get that in his choices of imagery and everything that he does. I have a lot of respect for him as an artist and as a person. I'm not going to talk about our relationship other than the music but he's lovely to work with. AVRIL CADDEN

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Respect& Dot Allison loves writing with Pete Doherty