Leighton Meester: Exes inspired me

Leighton Meester's old songs were inspired by "some stupid breakup".

The 28-year-old star previously recorded music in 2009 and, despite never making it to an album launch, she released two songs and two others were leaked.

Now she is back with new material and is busy promoting her album's eponymous single, Heartstrings.

Speaking about what first inspired her music career, during an intimate Q&A and performance in New York, she said it's all thanks to failed relationships.

"It used to be about some stupid breakup that I had when I was 25 or earlier," she confessed to Us Weekly. "But it was stupid, and I was like, 'I have to write a song about this!' Now, it really does have more meaning. At the time it was like, 'Screw you, I don't care about you anymore, and it's not going to happen! Joker.'"

The actress is now happily married to Adam Brody, who she tied the knot with at the beginning of this year.

Prior to Adam, Leighton dated her Gossip Girl co-star Sebastian Stan for two years, before breaking up in 2010. She later briefly romanced her Remember the Daze co-star Aaron Himelstein.

The meaning behind her latest single is personal for the brunette beauty and she explained to her fans during her preview show earlier this week what makes it so important.

"The song Heartstrings is really special to me. It's really more of a very visual: It represents the feeling of the rest of the record," she explained. "It's about hiding your feelings and smiling and pretending that you're happy when you're not.

Actually, I'd say that it represents most of the record, because that's what it's about. It's about just sort of tying your heartstrings off - not allowing yourself to be vulnerable."

Heartstrings is out later this month.