As far as titles go, "Evolver" was as close to a perfect name as one could get for John Legend [ tickets ]'s latest album. After all, the Grammy winner evolves from soulful to funky on the collection, progressing from the up-tempo first single "Green Light" with OutKast's Andre 3000 to the reggae-flavored "No Other Love."

"It felt like it was evocative of the fact that there was something different about this album," Legend explained during a phone interview with LiveDaily from Amsterdam. "Also, just the sound of the word and the look of the word, it felt like a strong word to describe the tone of the album--and it works."

Besides Andre 3000, Legend collaborates with his longtime friend/mentor Kayne West, The Neptunes' Pharrell Williams as well as R&B songstress Brandy. Working with West has been a learning experience for Legend. The friendship began when Legend's University of Pennsylvania roommate and classmate, Devon Harris, professionally known as Devo Springsteen, introduced Legend to his cousin and then up-and-coming hip-hop artist West. Since that meeting, Legend and West have worked closely, with West signing Legend as the first artist to his new label, G.O.O.D. Music.

Legend, whose catalog also includes 2004's "Get Lifted" and 2006's "Once Again," spoke to LiveDaily about working with West, his Show Me Campaign and performing during Wrestlemania.

"Evolver" sounds like a really fun album to perform live.

Yeah, that’s kind of what I was thinking when I was making it. There were a lot of things going on in my head when I was making it. But one of the things was thinking about what I would do to round out the show. With "Get Lifted" and "Once Again," I felt like I could still use some up-tempo songs and fill it out with some driving, energetic songs. I think these add that kind of flavor to the show that's going to be perfect to combine all three albums together for a really great show.

How do you feel that "Evolver" fits in your catalog?

I think it's different in some ways but there's still some continuity. Me as a lyricist, and the things I talk about, I think you get a sense there's one personality throughout the whole set of albums. You don't feel like you get drastically different versions of me as a person. You feel like those are continuous. Each time I've experimented with different types of music, even though they've all been soulful at their core. But I've done different things musically to highlight different aspects of me as a musician on each album. I think this album highlights another side of me that people haven't seen musically yet.

And what would that be?

It's more up tempo. The sounds are more electronic, whereas before everything people have heard from me has been pretty much organic, acoustic instruments. This one's more electronic. The beats are more driving than they were, especially on the last album. I've done some things that I've never tried before, like "Green Light" definitely being the up tempo song I've ever done; "No Other Love" being the first reggae song I recorded, things like that are new and different from what I've ever done before.

Why did you decide to go this route?

I guess "Why not?" is the better question. As a creative person, you're absorbing the things that are around you. You're hearing different things and you get new ideas and you want to try them. That's essentially what it is.

I scanned a few bulletin boards before the interview and it sounds like people are really digging the album.

I read them sometimes. Most of the time it's good, but sometimes people hate. That's just part of the business. You make something creative and it's opinion based what people are going to think. You hope the majority of opinions are on your side. There's always somebody who's going to say it's not that great.

Describe your songwriting process. Do you write when you're inspired, in the studio, etc.?

I write in the studio all the time. It's not the romantic notion that people have of a writer who comes up with this great idea while they were walking in the park or in the beach. It's not that way for me. I choose when I want to go to the studio. I set aside time. I'll make an appointment to work with a certain producer or certain co-writer, or just to sit there by myself with the piano. Either way, I'll schedule that time and go and do it. Otherwise, there's always something else I'll do if I don't schedule it. I could take the day off. I could hang out with my friends. I could do any number of things. The only way I'm going to be diligent about being creative is to actually schedule the time and make it happen.

You've worked with Kayne West a handful of times. What's the most important thing you learned from him?

I think Kanye's a great example for a lot of artists because he's always staying on the cutting edge, staying innovative. He's always challenging himself to do something new and different. Case in point the new album ("808s and Heartbreak") and the new single ("Love Lockdown"). Who would have thought he would have been singing? He continues to do things like that, where he pushes himself and he pushes his audience. More than anything he tells me directly, he's a great example. He gives me practical advice as well when it comes to picking the right songs for the album, suggesting producers to work with, suggesting ideas for videos and things like that. He's been a great collaborator and friend to have.

Tell me about The Show Me Campaign.

The Show Me Campaign is an anti-poverty campaign I started last year. It was kind of in response to a song that I wrote called "Show Me" on the last album. The song is a prayer asking God why is there so much suffering in the world. How do you chose who gets lucky enough to be born into wealth, versus who's born into poverty and disease and things like that. It's just asking God these questions. In response, I was thinking more about the issue of poverty and what I could do. I couldn't keep questioning what was happening. Why don't we do something about it? So me and my team started The Show Me Campaign as our way of fighting against poverty, particularly for people living in extreme poverty, which is loosely defined as people that earn less than $1 a day, which is about 1 billion people in the world right now, one-sixth of the world's population. We decided we wanted to do something to at least save the lives of a few thousand of those people, so we started the campaign. It's doing very well, and the main project we're focusing on right now is funding a Millennium Village in Tanzania. Millennium Villages are projects that are started--there are 100 of them in different countries in Africa--where people living in usually remote villages that don't have access to health care, education, clean drinking water and proper agriculture, we try to give them the infrastructure and the support that they need to get on their feet and become self-sufficient. That's what The Show Me Campaign is funding in Tanzania. We also did The Show Me Poverty Action Tour. Where I traveled around the country--the US--and talked to different universities and colleges gathering the students to try to educate them on the issue of poverty and get them involved in the efforts against poverty.

And I have to ask, how was it to perform at Wrestlemania?

[Laughs] You know, we had a blast because I brought my nephews, and my nephews are big fans. When I was a kid I watched wrestling all the time and I was a big fan, too. But I don't know the current wrestlers because I don't have any young boys, so I don't watch it. My nephews are both 8 now. They're both at the age now where I was when I loved wrestling, when you still think it's real. So we had a blast. I brought them both down they took pictures of all the wrestlers and we had a great time.

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