When you go to a Clay Aiken concert, it's never a solo effort. Even as a relative newcomer to the field, Clay isn't afraid to surround himself with very talented people and to let them shine. At some point during the course of his shows, Clay is sure to proudly turn the spotlight on some of the extremely gifted musicians and singers who accompany him on tour. One of those talented people is Angela Fisher, one of three backup singers who have accompanied Clay on three tours this year. Angela has won the hearts of many fans for her rich, expressive vocals, curvaceous beauty, and engaging stage presence. CNN caught up with Angela as rehearsals began for the Joyful Noise tour, and she generously answered a few of our questions about herself, her work with Clay, and brought us up to date on some exciting developments in her solo career, including the release of Clef Notes, her new EP from Innersoul records. CNN: You've been singing since you were 4 years old. How did you get started? A: I started singing in church at a young age, and then from there just basically got my training from church. Never really had a vocal coach or anything like that. Just being in church you kind of pick up different styles and listening to different artists all the time... my parents are very musically inclined. They sing as well, so I always had music around me. I wanted to pursue [music] so I just did everything that was necessary to get involved with music, whether it was singing on somebody's album or doing commercials… I just wanted to sing. CNN: How long have you been singing professionally? A: Professionally, 13 years. I've been in the industry a while and I just had a great opportunity to work with a lot of different artists from different areas, from rap to R&B, to pop and jazz. CNN: Do you have a particular genre you like to sing the most? A: I like it all. Whether it's singing pop or jazz, I love to sing, period. I'm more or less leaning on the R&B and jazz side of it, but for the most part I like all different kinds of music. CNN: Who do you consider to be your musical influences? A: I would have to say Donnie Hathaway, Patti LaBelle, and Aretha Franklin. There are so many different artists who have influenced me, everybody, pretty much, from gospel - Mahalia Jackson – from that to Jazz - Ella Fitzgerald. A lot of artists have influenced me, so I just take bits and pieces of their style of music and kind of create my own. CNN: Do you teach voice as well as perform? A: I have helped out a few people. – it's been awhile now. Certain people, they want vocal training but they may not know exactly how to go about getting it. I do [teach] from breathing techniques to holding out certain notes... CNN: You could tell that on the tour! A: Exactly! CNN: How did those note holding contests come about? A: You know what? Clay is such a fun person and one night, it was just like on a whim, he just started holding notes out, and we just said "okay, well if you're going to hold out your note, we're going to hold our notes too. We'll see how long..." It was like a competition type of thing. It was still a fun type of… it was just good. It was just good for all of us. CNN: And you started winning! A: I know! I did! That was hard too, 'cause Clay's a good one. But it was fun, just being on stage and enjoying. I mean, we were working, and we're on stage and we're doing what we do best but we still like to have fun. CNN: You all seem to have a lot of fun onstage. A: We do. We're a big family. We just enjoy each other's talents and we respect each other as artists and we just try to make the best of it every night. CNN: Obviously you were able to work on your EP while you were touring with Clay. How are you able to find time to work on your own artistry while you're on tour with others? A: It's kind of hard. When you're touring, it's time consuming. The days that I have off, I'm just working on my stuff. Which is not that many days, but I try to make the best of it. I don't care if it's a few hours in a day to where you can write something down. Whether I'm thinking of a new song or if I have an idea, I try to jot it down and write it down and come back to it in the next day or so. There is time, but it's limited. CNN: So you write your own material? A: I do write my own material. I've co-written a lot with my producer Darryl [Anthony from Az Yet], but I do write music. CNN: So will there be songs of your own on this EP? A: Yes, there's a couple of songs on my EP that I've co-written with Darryl. CNN: Can you tell us a little about the EP and the songs that are on it? A: "Find Another Place," which is going to be my single. That was a …(laughs)….that was a song that I really experienced. Basically just being respected as a woman and not taking nothing less than that. You'll hear more about that but that's it basically in a nutshell. " Swingin '" which is kind of like a juke joint song, a really feel good song, where you can kind of groove to it, it has a really good sound and groove. Swingin' is … basically there's people in the club and you're checking out a guy, a guy's checking you out, you guys are dancing and enjoying each other's company. Enjoying each other, getting to know each other, living life to the fullest and just enjoying the time you have here. I can't forget "Flavorhood" – that’s a duet with Ter'ell Shahid, my labelmate at Innersoul. Great song. It's more of a mellow song. Where it's just a beautiful day…you're just walking along in the neighborhood, enjoying the whole scenery. I'm checking out a certain guy, I'm taking pictures of him. [Ter'ell and I] did a video for that song, so check that out as well. CNN: Where will we see the video? [Angie's Management]: You'll see it a couple of different places. One is a video show called NuJoint. It is a daily music video show. It's on one Dish Network channel called Colors. It's also part of UATV, a broadcast network provider that goes to 77 markets across the country. CNN: In the past year you've been on television, the recording studio, and you've performed in arenas, small theaters, state fairs, etc. Do you have a preference or is there something to love about each of those? A: I don't have a preference, I love it all. You get a good feel and a good vibe from every place whether it's a theater, whether it's an arena... No, I take that back. I think I would have to go more or less on the arena. Only because with the arena, the more energized the crowd is the better. There's more space, the stage is a little bigger, wider, longer. I love arenas but I also love theaters as well. (laughs) As long as I'm on stage and I have a mic in my hand, that's all that matters. CNN: On stage you’re feeding off the audience.  Is it difficult to keep that energy level up when you’re in the recording studio? A: I know what works for me. I like to go in in the morning, because I'm a morning person. I can be up at 6 am and be ready to go. I just enjoy that because I am more energized in the morning. I can get maybe a song or two done within, you know, five hours, and then let’s work on another one. At times it can be difficult because you know, you have your good days and your bad days. Some days you don't feel like doing it and other days you’re like ‘lets go’ – you've just got to work with everybody's schedule. CNN: Now, you and Jacob and Quiana have done some vocals on Clay's Christmas Album, correct? A:  Yes I have. All of us have. CNN: Can you talk about that experience?  I don't know how much you can say about the Christmas album at this point. A:  I can’t say much about it right now, but we did work on a few songs, so…we love it as singers and artists so I’m sure you guys will love it as well. CNN: We’ve been really impressed with the first cut [Mary Did You Know] A:  Good! CNN: The production on it is just… A:   It’s beautiful!  I’m expecting for it to be a great hit. I’m even going to purchase it myself.  I mean, I love Clay as a person. He’s a great artist and he's a great person and I want to continue to support him in everything that he does. CNN: Now, you are going on the Christmas tour, right? A:  Yes, I am. CNN: So, I think we were just starting to talk about it [with Angela's management] when you came on the line. A couple of dates went up and sold very, very well.  A:  And where is this? CNN: Atlanta. The server crashed immediately. A:  Whaaaat? CNN: Sewell, NJ sold out in a couple of hours A:  Oh my goodness. (laughter) CNN: I think the word 'bloodbath' was used a couple of times. Tony Bennett tickets went on sale at the same time and the box office was expecting that would be the big draw, but you guys sold out in a couple of hours. There are still really good seats to be found for Tony Bennett. A:  (laughter) Oh my goodness!  Wow! CNN: Do you know if you’re doing any duets or solos on the Christmas Tour? A:  I have no idea. We won’t know until we start rehearsals, what exactly is going to take place.  [Eds. note - we've since learned that Angela is singing one solo and one duet, alternating with the other singers] CNN: A really great part of this last tour was that the show was a little different every night. A:  Yes. Yes, it was different every night.  It's all about…just the whole…I’d have to say the crowd. You know? We change up – the show itself is pretty much the same. Um…just depends on how we’re feeling. It depends on how the crowd is. You never know from day to day how it's going to turn out. CNN: Did you start changing it up to keep yourselves from getting bored? A:  You mean with the songs?   I think it was – well, it was Clay's idea.  He just wanted something different. I don't know exactly why…he probably just wanted to kind of spice up little things. Quiana had her song with him, then I had my song with Clay, and then Jacob had his own.  I think it was for…the excitement.  A change of pace a little bit. CNN: It worked out really well. A:  Oh, thank you. I'm glad that everybody received it well. CNN: You gained a lot of fans. A:  Thank you so, much, I really do. CNN: Part of what made that concert series so much fun was how much fun you were having on stage. It almost didn't seem like work. A:  Oh, yeah, (laughing) it's work. CNN: Especially when you have to wear those high heels. A:  Oh my goodness. Quiana and I said we can't do it any more. Our. Feet. Hurt. Maybe if we were standing still the whole night it would be different, but we're moving constantly.  We're going up the steps and going down the steps and moving to the side, and walking backstage and coming back on stage. That's a lot of moving and when you're in those heels – three inch heels! – you know, your feet are hurting.  And you still have to stay on your note – but you're concentrating so much on your feet you're like ‘now I'm really off balance.’  I'm glad that they were like "you guys can wear your sandals, it's okay." CNN: Was [the moment when Clay let you take your shoes off onstage] as impromptu as it appeared to be? A:  It was!  It was! Oh yes. Because we kept complaining. We were just like ‘our feet hurt -- we love the shoes, but our feet are killing us.’ After the first week, Quiana's toes were like…they were going inward.  I don't know what my shoes were doing… I said ‘I have to get out of these babies.’ CNN: Who arranged the medleys on the tour? A:  You know what, I believe that was just Clay’s idea on how it was going to be arranged. They pretty much told us what was going to take place and so we just said okay. He wanted us to do whatever we wanted to do when it came time for us to sing our part. He said ‘you guys feel free to switch it up, change it up, do whatever you want to do for your part.’ CNN: Who arranged the harmonies? Or did you just work those out yourself? A:  We all just kind of thought of how to switch it up. For instance, with Quiana's song, I helped out with that and Clay and I decided ‘okay we needed to make it a little more jazzy…a little bit more feeling to it,’ so added the ‘oooos’ and different 'ahhh's' with that, to make it a little more exciting. I guess for us if anything. CNN: Did that translate into the Christmas album? Because you're so used to singing together? Or did you lay down your parts separately? A:  We did it all together, but we didn’t have any take in the arrangement of the Christmas album at all.  CNN: All of you are just fabulous – you and Jacob and Quiana have amazing voices. Fans have said "as soon as they drop an album I'm buying it." A:  Oh, wow.  I thank you so much for your support. I really do. It means so much, it really does. You guys will never know how much you guys keep us going. Because we enjoy doing what we love to do.  At times it is tiring, but when people can push you, the excitement and the whole….  You never know – because we see people in the crowd every night.  And you never know…you may see a face that is you know, feeling kinda down and by the end of the night they're smiling and they're up on their feet, and they're jumping. And I've seen so many women and even little kids cry and you have some people that are just excited the whole show.  And that's what makes our day because now we can say you know, we've done our job. It wasn't in vain. We really put forth the effort – along with Clay – to make every show a success every night. And so that's what keeps us going.  We thank you, we really appreciate all of you guys. After 20 years in the business, Angie is still "passionately in love with music" and when she isn't working on her own album you can hear her on many commercials, as well as doing background vocals for other successful artists, including Clay Aiken, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Missy Elliot and Brian McKnight. Her debut project on Innersoul Records is entitled Clef Notes. Shifting with ease through catchy hip-hop, jazzy riffs and tender ballads, Angie describes the EP as a 'musical storybook' of moments in her life. Recorded on a dual CD/DVD format, the EP includes 5 standard audio tracks, two DVD audio tracks mixed in surround sound, and an interview with Angela, complete with pictures from her childhood, giving us a sneak peek of who she is. There also are behind the scenes videos with commentary from friends and fellow artists, including Clay. You can hear selections from Clef Notes at www.angiefisher.com and CNN readers will also receive an autographed photo and sampler disk if they place their orders online -- please just write "Clay Nation News" in the comments section of the order form. Photo credits: www.angiefisher.com; grownup2004 Please send feedback to cnn@claynationnews.com ClayNationNews.com and the Clay Nation News mailing list are not affiliated with Clay Aiken, RCA, 19 Entertainment, The Firm, or American Idol. ClayNationNews.com is an unofficial fan site created and maintained to help Clay Aiken's fans support him and his music.