As one of the main songwriters and the singer in chart-topping group Texas, it was natural that Sharleen Spiteri would become the figurehead for the band.
Couple that with the fact she's friendly and down-to-earth, not to mention really pretty, and it's easy to see why you wouldn't recognise the other four members of the Scottish outfit if you walked past them in the street.
While Sharleen has always been perfect solo artist material, after years of refusing record label requests to write her own material – she's finally setting off on her own.
"I hadn't really thought about doing this before. There was no masterplan, honestly," she says of her first solo album Melody, which is released this week.
"Ever since we had our first hit, I Don't Want A Lover, the record company had been saying, 'Give us a solo record.' But I'd always stuck to my guns and said, 'No'. But I just felt ready. It just felt right," she says.
"The music I was hearing in my head just didn't fit with Texas, so this is a record I had to make on my own."
Work on Melody began two years ago, after Sharleen broke up with her long-term partner and father of her five-year-old daughter, Misty.
"A lot of things changed in my life then," she says. "Splitting up with my daughter's dad made me question a lot of things. Everything."
As a result, Melody is a very personal record. Take the title of lead single All The Times I've Cried, for example, or the lyrics of I'm Going To Haunt You, Now I don't need you, and I never did before.
"I've always had a mix between things that happen to me and things I've observed. This record is very me, though," she says. "Writing about things helps you get over it, definitely. You know that feeling when you have to take lots of little short breaths, but you're dying for a really deep breath? Well you write the songs, get it all out, and then it feels that you can take a deep breath again."
Musically, the album is about as retro-sounding as it gets, but while Texas's blue-eyed soul was informed by the classics of Marvin Gaye, Al Green and The Supremes, Melody takes its influence from the era before.
"I went to the 1950s for this. I'm really into people such as Lee Hazelwood, Bobby Gentry, Ann-Margaret, Francoise Hardy and The Shangri-Las, so I explored them," Sharleen explains. "I'm Going To Haunt You is my tribute to Nancy Sinatra. I also loved the open sound Lee Hazelwood's recordings had so I wanted to recreate that in my arrangements. It's about finding space for all the instruments, and using them to accentuate the vocals."
Getting her dad to paint the inside of her garage must have also been on that blueprint, too. To create the right sound for the guitars, Mr Spiteri was roped in to paint the walls with a high-gloss paint.
"The fumes nearly killed him," she says. "We put all the guitar amps in the garage when we were recording, and I wanted the sound to smack off the walls rather than be absorbed into the stone."
So what does the solo album mean for Texas? Their last album was released in 2005 but there's been no announcement of a split.
"Everyone's doing their thing. I suppose they're waiting for me to say, 'Yes, let's do another record,' which is what normally happens. But I don't know if Texas will make another record, I don't know if this solo thing is my future or whether it's just a diversion. I'd be lying if I gave you an answer."