Rachel Fuller Changes Her Tune

By Liane Hansen

Published December 4, 2004 at 11:00 PM CST

Singer/songwriter Rachel Fuller still "tends to hear music like a classical composer."

As a young girl, Rachel Fuller showed early promise as a classical pianist and composer. Reared on Chopin, Beethoven and Debussy, she was writing orchestral works for the London Philharmonic by the age of 10.

After a brief run as an organist at a crematorium, Fuller has now emerged as a singer of self-penned confessional pop songs. But her classical background can still be heard throughout her debut CD, Cigarettes and Housework.

Fuller talks to NPR's Liane Hansen about the CD and the unusual inspiration for the title track -- doing housework in the nude.

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Liane Hansen

Liane Hansen has been the host of NPR's award-winning Weekend Edition Sunday for 20 years. She brings to her position an extensive background in broadcast journalism, including work as a radio producer, reporter, and on-air host at both the local and national level. The program has covered such breaking news stories as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the capture of Saddam Hussein, the deaths of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Columbia shuttle tragedy. In 2004, Liane was granted an exclusive interview with former weapons inspector David Kay prior to his report on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The show also won the James Beard award for best radio program on food for a report on SPAM.