Isobel Campbell might normally be thought of as the softer half in her partnership with Mark Lanegan.

But the Glasgow songstress reckons she’s so passionate when making a record, that she’s the one who drives her colleagues crazy in the studio.

She’s just released her third album, Hawk, with Lanegan, and the songbird admits that her intensity when in the studio is high.

“I’m always intense when making a record,” she explains, back in Glasgow after a year spent recording around the globe.

“I can drive the people that work with me potty, and a lot of studio engineers couldn’t work with me, because they’d end up wanting to kill me!

“I’m not trying to irritate them, I’m just being myself – but I’m like a dog with a bone and I won’t give up on anything until it’s as close to what I’m imagining it as possible.

“A lot of engineers are like ‘You can’t do that in the studio’, and I’d be like ‘But why, that’s not a good enough reason, let’s try it’ and the more confident I get making records, the more irritating I probably become.”

Thankfully, Isobel is not the slightest bit irritating as an interviewee, happy to chat at length about a range of subjects. And her studio approach has continued to reap dividends, with Hawk arguably her most satisfying collaboration with Lanegan yet.

They may have seemed a strange pairing at first, she the dainty-voiced cellist and keyboardist with Belle & Sebastian, he the solemn and menacing Screaming Trees frontman, and regular Queens of the Stone Age collaborator.

But their partnership has proved fruitful, and now they’re heading to the O2ABC for a show next Wednesday.

Isobel admits she’s the driving force behind their albums, and speaks frankly about the amount of time and effort she poured into making Hawk.

“I just didn’t have a social life, I was thinking about that record non-stop.

“It was so intense that since I’ve finished it feels like I’ve lost a friend – I don’t know what to do now!”

“I’ve called it Hawk partly because I was out on aeroplanes all the time travelling, and partly because the music industry can be quite blunt, so I thought I’d give the album a merciless name.

“Also, a lot of the songs were written in Tucson, and I was staying in the mountains out there where there were a lot of hawks. It felt like they were following me around.

“Most of the record I recorded in California and I also did some recording in Dallas and in Shreveport (in Louisiana), in someone’s house, with dogs sitting around howling! It was great fun, the most fun I’ve ever had making a record.”

It would appear that the travelling bug has firmly bitten Isobel as a result, and she’s planning to relocate to the USA in the near future.

She admits there’s plenty about Glasgow she’ll miss when she goes Stateside.

“The one thing I’ll miss most about Glasgow is my yoga teacher! I’m a total worrier, and yoga is really good for me, as when you’re getting really, really stressed I find it helps.

“I’ll miss the cafés near my flat as I never have time to cook. And I’ll miss the humour of the people. But I’ll be back regularly!”

If her continual moving about during the recording indicated a desire to be on the move, there’s hints of that restlessness in her conversation too, and she can swiftly jump from discussing why she’s probably a perfectionist to laughing away while vividly recounting a stay in a cramped room in Denmark.

One thing that remains consistent though, is her approach to lyrics, with the songstress rarely holding anything back when she writes.

“I’m sort of a brutally honest person” she muses.

“I’ve had some experiences in my life that are pretty brutal. I remember a few years ago my then boyfriend’s mum read some of my lyrics, and said ‘Oh, she’s had a hard time.’ But I’m just that kind of person.

“I feel better about communicating doing stuff like that – I’m not going to just write songs saying ‘Oh, the weather’s not bad today’, I’m going to write that this is all rubbish if that‘s how I feel.

“That’s what keeps me alive – just being able to be myself and share experiences.”

Her love of language is also strong, and she admits that she adores wordplay, and the way that certain phrases can be so “elegant.” Her focus on language can occasionally cause her to be told off though – by her mum!

“I’m still in love with words and language, I’m just a geek, I guess. I love being in the studio and I can just spend all my time in there, and I’m the sort of person who reads a dictionary.

“I was talking to my cousin about something the other day, and my mum was like ‘You’re just so boring!’”

Isobel admits she’s more comfortable in the studio than performing live, but there’s still an eagerness to appear at the ABC next week, where she’ll perform a selection of material from Hawk and her other albums.

“This will be my third time at the ABC, and I really enjoy it as a venue. It’s a great sounding room, with a good PA, and a good place to play.

“I think if I had my way I’d be locked into the studio 24/7, but it’s fun to play live and it’s good to put faces to the people that buy my records.

“I’m definitely not Mick Jagger when performing though. I mean, I love showmen like that but it’s not really me!”

• Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, O2 ABC, September 8, £16, 7pm.