by: Parry Gettelman (section: Calendar page: 7)

Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs apologized. There were a few technical glitches at the start of the interview because she was having trouble with the call-waiting function on the phone in her Los Angeles hotel room.

"I don't have it at my house," Merchant explained. "I don't even have an answering machine. Most people cannot believe that in this day and age. But I feel it's a fascistic concept that someone can talk to me anytime they want, whether I'm there or not. I'm one of those people who doesn't answer the phone if I'm not in the mood to talk."

But doesn't she sometimes want to screen her calls?

"I don't want to know they even called - then I'd feel obliged to return the call," said Merchant, 29. "It's such a new phenomenon. Before, you were able to say, 'Oh, I wasn't in; you missed me.' Now you have to say, 'Oh yeah, I got your message - sorry I didn't call."

On the phone, despite a lingering cold, Merchant was delightfully friendly, chatting about everything from the latest book by Jonathan Kozol to the films of Wim Wenders. However, the singer-songwriter cherishes her moments of solitude. That led to a long break between 1989's Blind Man's Zoo and the new Our Time in Eden.

"Living in the bus with 12 other people for eight months, that's the definition of being deprived of solitude," Merchant said ruefully. "As much as I really enjoyed performing, the touring sometimes just gets a little tiring and a bit tedious. If I could just be beamed from show to show, I'd have a great tour."

Beginning with the release of their 1985 major-label debut, The Wishing Chair, the Maniacs began a strenuous touring schedule. The pace didn't slacken with the alternative-rock success of 1987's In My Tribe and then Blind Man's Zoo. (The stopgap 1990 release, Hope Chest, included tracks from the band's early-'80s independent albums, Human Conflict Number Five and Secrets of the I Ching.)

Thanks to the hiatus, Merchant, drummer Jerome Augustyniak, guitarist Robert Buck, keyboardist Dennis Drew and bassist Steven Gustafson are happy to be on the road again. (The group will play Carr Performing Arts Center in Orlando Monday - with a horn section, a viola player and Golden Palominos singer-keyboardist Amanda Kramer helping to re-create the sophisticated arrangements on the new album.)

"We're all very optimistic we're going to have the stamina, and we're just excited about playing," Merchant said. "We already did three weeks, and they were three of the best weeks we've ever had touring. The shows have been good, and everyone's attitude is real positive."

The Maniacs also appeared on Saturday Night Live recently - the group's second time on the show.

"It was so overwhelming the first time. I blacked out; I couldn't remember anything, I was so nervous," Merchant recalled. "This time, I was more in control... Also, with the experience we've had making music videos, I'm not as intimidated by cameras."

Merchant said when it comes to videos, she still enjoys the preparation more than the shooting. And she doesn't watch videos on TV - she doesn't watch TV at all.

"I grew up as a TV baby, with my TV babysitter, up until I was about 10," she said. "Then my mother just ripped the thing out of the wall and put it in a closet, and we didn't watch it. I have that sort of ability to become addicted to it. And I'm just so fascinated by it once I turn it on, I'm not even that aware what's there. I'm just watching it. So I don't ever turn it on. I get my news from the newspaper. I don't want to watch the Hollywood news product on TV.... There's no other piece of furniture in my home I'd stare at for three hours at a time, so I try not to do it to the TV."

Merchant said she loves films, however - preferably those with a happy ending. And when a movie disturbs her, she has to watch another to counteract the effect.

"After watching 'Scenes From a Mall', I felt so let down by Woody Allen; I couldn't believe he could be in a movie that terrible. So I went and saw another Woody Allen movie, 'Alice', a couple hours later."

Merchant said she was less disillusioned by the current Woody Allen scandal than by moving to New York City three years ago and discovering how "unrealistic and nostalgic" his perception of the city is. After living on a tour bus for so long, Merchant decided to re-enter a real community and volunteered at a day-care center for inner-city kids - about as far removed as one could get from Allen's films or from Jamestown, the semi-rural New York town where Merchant grew up.

"I spent hours playing with kids that were growing up in a very hostile environment," Merchant said. "It made Jamestown look like the most idyllic spot on Earth. But they were still children with the same needs and desires of children. They still wanted to play games and sing and jump up and down and poke each other and cry and do all the things children do. We used to put them down at naptime, and we'd play classical music and stroke their shoulders and their hair to help them fall asleep. That was my favorite time of the day, just comforting them and being a reassuring presence in their lives."

Merchant said the only song on Our Time in Eden that relates to that experience is How You've Grown, about the rapidity with which children change. Rather, many of the lyrics reflect her mood and thoughts after she returned to Jamestown to write and record.

"I didn't realize it at the time I was writing, but it was a sort of homecoming for me. Three of the band members still live there, so it was really cheap and efficient for us to write the record in Jamestown, and I found myself coming right back to the place I'd been struggling all my life to get away from. What I realized was what a beautiful area the countryside was around there and how I felt that sense of home that's very tangible to everyone - you know what your home is and you're most comfortable there.

"I spent time with my brothers and did a lot of hiking and swimming. It was springtime when I got there, and then there was a really beautiful summer. I got to see that change of season, and there were all these evocative triggering sensations and smells that would remind me of childhood, like plants that only seem to grow in that part of the country."

Producer Pau Fox also saw to it that Merchant got to spend plenty of time in Eden. Whenever her vocals weren't going well, he would send her out to play with the engineer's children.