Now halfway through her American tour, openly bisexual Australian singer-songwriter Missy Higgins is selling out venues. Her new album, On a Clear Night, has become a top album on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, where it peaked at 29, and her single "Where I Stood" was featured last fall on ABC's Grey's Anatomy.

Higgins remains somewhat under the radar in the United States, but she's been well-known in her home down under since she was 18. She has released three full-length albums and won several ARIAS (the Australian equivalent to Grammys), which led her to sign a major label deal with Warner Brothers.

Whether you heard about her through that Grey's Anatomy episode or you read about her coming out last year as "not so straight" in the Australian lesbian magazine Cherie, Higgins deserves your attention. She recently talked with AfterEllen.com about coming out, moving to the West Coast, and her song "Secret," that references a same-sex relationship.

AfterEllen.com: You actually recorded this album in 2006 right?
Missy Higgins: Yeah. I mean, some of the songs are quite old, relatively old. I wrote the song "100 Round the Bends" a while ago when I was recording my first album. That's very old, that song.

I guess the rest was kind of written while I was on tour for the first album, and the second half was written when I went to … this little country town in Western Australia by the beach. So I wrote about half the album there.

AE: Is it weird now to be playing these songs like they are new material for people who haven't heard it before?
MH: Yeah, it's cool though. When people are hearing your songs for the first time, you can't help but see it as refreshing, hearing it through their ears, which is great.

AE: You had a different single here than you did in Australia. Was that your decision?
MH: It wasn't really my decision. The record label thought "Where I Stood" would be good for American radio. I guess "Where I Stood" is more cinematic [than "Steer"] too, and so they probably were thinking that they could get it in TV shows, films and stuff. Over here [in the United States] that's such a massive way of entering the market.

AE: I recently interviewed Sia and she was talking about how she had been on Grey's Anatomy and how much that helped her popularity. I'm sure you're feeling that same effect right now — like it can only be a positive thing, whereas some people used to look at it as not so positive, attaching yourself to something like that.
MH: I think there used to be — definitely in Australia — a stigma for having your songs on any TV show or attached to a product. But I think now the industry has changed so much that it's just one way you can get exposed. There are a lot of record labels sort of shelling all this money into mindless music and getting that on the radio and that kind of thing, so to be able to get noticed, you have to try other things like getting on TV shows.

AE: Well, it's nice because you know someone is watching Grey's Anatomy, and they hear your song and they think, "I gotta know what this song is!"
MH: Yeah, it's not like they'd look it up if they didn't like it! A lot of them go to the website after.

AE: Are there any shows that you think you wouldn't want to be associated with?
MH: I just don't like reality TV shows much. I just think that would be a little bit demeaning to be on one of those things.