For Jewel, the search for intimacy is as near as her pen and notebook.

Writing, whether it is songs or poetry, really is a form of intimacy, suggests the singer-songwriter who is moving into a new phase of her extraordinarily successful career with maturity and renewed sense of control.

It is reflected in her latest album, "0304," as it was in her previous "This Way," (released in 2001) which was hailed as an ambitious, earthy, even raw, effort displaying artistic growth.

The writing process makes her intimate with herself, Jewel says. "It’s almost like my therapist. It helps me understand what I’m going through, what I’m thinking, the world."

Most of us don’t spend any time knowing ourselves, she says. We just keep reacting.

"Writing is a really good first step toward that goal of knowing yourself," she adds.

Ultimately, she reminds, people are responsible to themselves. Her job, she reasons, is just to write what she is experiencing.

"Some people relate to that. Some won’t. What’s great about music is it takes so many kinds of people, including me. Everybody is in a different place."

Through the centuries, artists in all mediums have addressed the heavy questions of life, the eternal, timeless questions, and Jewel finds that is helpful for her own life.

"I just find it very relevant for my own life to ask the questions," she explains. "I’ve always asked ‘Why? Why? Why?’ ‘Why am I here? What is God? How does it relate to me?’ I’m very socially and politically conscious. It seems to be in my blood. I think it’s in most people’s blood."

She considers herself a spiritual person more so perhaps than a religious person.

"I never found much comfort in overly organized religion of any sort," she says. "I have a sneaking suspicion that all religions lead to the same place, a very unified place."

The thought that the creative flow probably is part of the divine flow speaks to her.

Jewel says she was so eager to become involved in music more than any of the other arts because she sees music as "always struggling with the dilemma of the present, and reflecting the social climate it’s in."

It’s always emotionally driven, she says. "It passes right by people’s intellectual process."

No other art form does that in such a way, she adds. "Music touches people. It makes you feel that other people understand what you are going through."

She also finds it personally freeing. "I don’t exist without writing. I don’t see the world unless I see it in ink. Music is a different branch of that. I love singing. It’s a very natural thing for me to do," she says.

Jewel suggests that it seemed natural to explore dance-oriented electronic beats and uptempo melodies on "0304," further expanding her image.

She describes it as her "happy" record, her pop culture record, a response, in one respect to the dark days of America’s return to war.

In contrast to these times, people want to feel young and sexy and smart, and have assurance that all will be well, including her, she says. That’s what "0304" is about, she implies.

In keeping with that mood, she is allowing herself to emphasize her femininity, secure that you really can be "smart and sexy at the same time." She believes that at this point people know who she is and what she stands for. Now, she believes, it’s OK to play with that image and along the way offer some irony.

USA Today praises her "polish," asking, "Has any popular artist shown more growth over the past five years than Jewel?"

"…Jewel raises the bar again, exploring more adventurous rhythms and textures while sustaining and nurturing her folk-pop sensibility."

She explains that she has always been interested in a variety of music and, with "0304" has found a way that is comfortable for her to employ dance beats. The artist says listeners to this CD will hear her love of many styles of music, from folk melodies to hip-hop beats.

And, for those who want to delve deeper, they will find other layers of meaning beyond just the dance orientation of the record, she says. Her lyrics still reflect her take on her life and the world.

Jewel admits that she has been humbled at the response to her creative expression through the years, including her 1995 breakthrough "Pieces of You" album whose music and themes resonated for many millions.

"I had no idea that sincerity was enough," she says of what became one of the phenomenal success stories of the late ’90s.

The Alaskan native, who only a few years before being so enthusiastically embraced by music fans, the industry and the media, was living out of a van. The transition has helped keep fame and its trappings in perspective.

"I was expecting the worse. When I was in my van and the labels came to me, I almost didn’t do it," she recalls. "I thought I had found utopia in my van. I didn’t have to compromise myself at all. I felt I was able to have an impact on people who came to my shows, and make a difference, even if it was 100 people. I heard all the horror stories about the record business."

Then she considered the opportunity to possibly reach millions of people. "I wanted the opportunity to be able to sing around the country for myself and other people," she says. "Since I don’t need to have money or be famous, I wouldn’t do it unless it really suited my vision. Luckily I got that."

She believes she came into the music business in a strong negotiating position.

"I had nothing to lose. I’d really just go back to my van," she says. "Also, I had great people around me. I find you get out of people what you put into them."

Jewel says she enjoys working very hard for something in which she believes.

"I’m not killing myself for something I don’t really love," she says. "As I remember my passion, people remember their own. The opportunity to do a lot of good is very available to me."

She hopes she has demonstrated the importance of belief in yourself.

"I would always encourage people of any age not to be so quick to follow other people’s truths, but to search and follow your own moral code and live by your own integrity, and mostly just be brave. The writers I respect the most had an undying commitment to a vision."

The attention given to the vision of women in music during the Lilith Fair period did not have its genesis in fad, she insists.

"It was just good music and fans recognized that and fans forced the industry to recognize that," Jewel says.

She tells people that if they respect what she has done, then they should do something themselves.

"If I’m a phenomenon, it makes me feel like I have no purpose," she explains. "That damages kids. They think Jewel or Madonna or someone else is just born that way. You don’t understand the process of where we came from and where we are now."

Understanding that process is most useful for self-empowerment, she suggests.

"I hope kids can be inspired by that and then focus back on their own life."