Chantal Kreviazuk Balances Kids & Career

Canadian singer and songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk is used to juggling the demands of family and fame. Despite her hectic schedule, the 35-year-old mom - she and her rocker hubby Raine Maida are parents to boys Rowan, Lucca and Salvador - says that motherhood has actually helped her creativity and her career.

"A couple of days ago I had four sessions in my home studio in one day," Chantal tells the Vancouver Sun. "My husband was away and I was running all those sessions and minding my children - obviously with help - managing a dog with an infection, a child with a skin ailment that needed constant attention, another with a bronchial thing... Doing all that mom stuff, you have to be on it, and it made each session, I think, run smoother, because I knew what creatively had to happen with two hours there, four hours there. It was really quite incredible, and I don't know that I could have done that without children."

"I actually find that in some way having children renewed or replenished my hunger as an artist," she adds.

Traveling between homes in LA and Toronto, Canada, writing songs for such acclaimed artists as Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani, touring, doing charity work, raising a family: Chantal admits it can be overwhelming, but says it's more than worth it.

"Sometimes it's hard and I'm not perfect and I make a lot of mistakes. But] I'm the same as any working mom. I just do it," she says. "The alternative is not to have a family and experience all that. And somehow it managed to trump, in an instant, everything in my life and at the same moment, shape everything else in my life, inspire everything else in my life and screw up everything in my life. I don't know, it's awesome."

Chantal is currently touring in support of her new album, Plain Jane.