Nadia Ali Inspired By Avicii, Skrillex For 'High-Energy' Phoenix Album

Since releasing her first post-iiO solo album, Embers, in 2009, Nadia Ali has forged a legacy that will endure as possibly the biggest vocal brand in dance music of the past decade. She's followed up her Embers tracks "Love Story" and the Grammy-nominated, Morgan Page remix of "Fantasy" with a stellar collection of EDM tunes.

"Feels So Good" with Armin van Buuren, "Keep It Coming" with Starkillers, and Sultan and Ned Shepard's "Call My Name" are but a few. And then there's the Alesso-accelerated remix of "Pressure" by Ali, Starkillers and Alex Kenji that went on to become one of the biggest EDM anthems of 2011.

Hours after walking away with two International Dance Music Awards — for Best Trance Track ("Feels So Close") and Best Progressive Track ("Pressure" remix) — Ali visited her old friends at MTV News in Miami to talk about her long-awaited follow-up to Embers.

"I finally have a title for it, it's called Phoenix," Ali revealed. " 'Phoenix' representing sort of the rebirth or relaunch of something, and I feel like that's what's happened in my career. My first album, which was Embers, was definitely more of a chill-out album. I've done so much work with so many amazing dance artists in the last two to three years that I just thought about bringing a lot of those producers together, and just having everything in one place."

"I want to give my fans a very high-energy dance album," she continued. "With my usual vocal style, experimenting some, having a little bit more fun, and not taking myself too seriously."

With only a handful of songs written for the new album, Ali isn't quite ready to reveal any producer credits just yet, though she did mention she's inspired by indie-pop and some of the younger EDM artists such as Avicii and Skrillex, whom she calls "amazing."

"As far as dance artists, Avicii," Ali said. "Everybody sweats Avicii, but he's a genius, as young as he is. I'm kind of really feeling R3hab these days. I'm really feeling that aggressive sound. I want to project some of that in my album."

A release date hasn't been set for the album, but until Pheonix rises, you can catch Nadia Ali performing on her Queen of Clubs Tour across the U.S. from the end of April through July. Visit Nadia's site for a complete list of tour dates.