"Put it in my hand and tell me how much pressure it takes to get you off," is the opening lyric to 'Shelter Your Needs', the opening track on the Licks' first EP released in 2004, and lets you know exactly what you are in for right from the off. Lewis' appearances in dark, hardly mainstream, almost punk rock films such as 'Natural Born Killers', 'Kalifornia' and 'From Dusk Til Dawn', to name three, means you wouldn’t have been surprised if a future role had been taking the lead in a biopic of Joan Jett.

But she took it one step further and actually formed a band in real life, partly due to equal parts boredom and frustration, partly due to passion, and instead of singing manufactured bubblegum pop a la Lindsay Lohan (for want of a better example), she sings good old-fashioned rock and roll.

When meeting Juliette she is just out of bed, hungover, make up-free and completely un-starry. (Where's the entourage?) She has been staying in a hotel apartment for the last few months due to appearing in the Sam Shepard play 'Fool for Love' in the West End. On the wall is a calendar packed with future engagements including the start of her upgraded UK tour in a few weeks. This is just the beginning of the press circuit which means she is excited to talk about the forthcoming album - and also can’t wait for her band to come over and join her and get back on the kind of stages she is used to.

Over green tea, we briefly chat about Nouvelle Vague ("I want to work with this guy") and guiltily fancying current singer-songwriter du jour James Morrison ("oh my"), before moving on to discuss the soon to be released second album 'Four on the Floor'. I keep accidentally referring to it as 'Four to the Floor' because that's the saying I know. "Oh Four on the Floor is the saying I know. It was 'Four to the Floor' the first time I saw it in print and I was like (screeches) "What?" It was one of those Spinal Tap moments. Four on the Floor is a term I heard a couple of years ago and it’s just a solid drum beat - one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. It's a drum beat that's pretty timeless and makes you want to move. And when I told my dad, he was like that's a race car driving term. It means what you're driving and it stands for speed and efficiency and because there's four gears. I say it in 'Smash and Grab' (first track on the album) and that song's a metaphor for driving, fighting and screwing and stuff. For me it was something timeless and solid which is the rock album I was hoping to make."

How long did the recording process take? "Really a total of a few weeks. We did all the drum tracks in three days and everything else, guitars, vocals and stuff a couple of weeks later. So the whole thing was mixed and recorded in probably a month and a half. We don't have the luxury of time or money or anything... yet. So everyone works within... we all work on passion really. And Dylan Mclaren, the guy who produced it. I'm a bit wary of somebody else's direction because this is something I built from the ground up and I really want to preserve the sound."

You can tell when a producer comes in and takes over and it's just their vision instead of the band's. "Yes! Totally and they'll start trying to put different sounds in and it's like (gruff male voice) "you should start using a harp" or "why don't you do this?" Dylan stretched us... but all he really did was realize who we are sonically and he had mixed the band several times live so he understood us as a live act. I thought anybody who is going to work with us needs to know what we are like as a live band and he mixes really good so the sound is really rough and full and energetic."

How did Dave Grohl get involved on this album? Have you known him from way back? "No I haven't! (laughs) That was just a bit of magic. That was really special. Last year we met at the Reading festival and he came up to me and said hello and I watched the Foo Fighters from the side of the stage that night and I don't know, we struck up a friendship and our entire friendship revolved around music and all we would do was trade music back and forth that we liked. I think he had been touring all year, and so had we, and I wanted to try demo-ing the record, some songs, start planting the seeds of what the record would be. He offered us the use of his studio and then offered to drum on demos we recorded. We recorded five, three are on the record. And I think he was hungry to drum after touring so much. So the demos turned out really, really nice and I asked him to do the rest of the album and he said yeah. I think it was a timing thing as much as anything because to get that guy, you know some of his time, is pretty hard and it was just the perfect window."

Do you think he will play live with you at any point? "God willing. Really, it will be my mission." You hear about how he's one of the best drummers around but it's not until you see him live that you realise he actually is. "Some drummers are just superstars and you watch them and you just get goosebumps. To record the album and be like five feet away from him and when he was drumming, you can feel that energy, it's just phenomenal. So yeah, it will be my mission that he will play live with us but we'll see."

Was supporting Foo Fighters at Hyde Park in June your biggest show to date? "Well, believe it or not, we played this weird show in Italy in front of 400, 000 people so it still counts because we were in front of that many people but it was for a TV show. There were a bunch of bands and we did four songs. But technically that was the audience, I mean it was almost half a million. So this was our proper rock show, the biggest - yeah for sure. It was just an amazing privilege really to be asked by Dave to be on that line-up and to be the opener. We knew we were going to open so we wanted to set the pace and bring the rock and roll to the table right out of the gate. I think we did good... we played all of our songs too fast because we were all really nervous. We were like, "what? did we play too fast?" When we played, Pat Smear and Dave Grohl were on the side of the stage and the drummer I had at the time was playing Dave's parts so I was a bit nervous. That was such an exciting day to be on the bill with all those bands and then once your set's done, you get to watch all of the other bands. Lemmy from Motorhead and his guitar player asked me to sing back-up on one of their songs. Was that a dream of yours? "Not really! I’d seen them live in LA and they are probably one of the most fun bands to see live." They are definitely one of the loudest bands I've seen. "Yeah they were, they live up to that. The thing is with this whole music thing I take nothing for granted. So if an opportunity comes my way, I just frickin' grab it. So when I’m asked by Motorhead... and normally, you don't want to make a fool of yourself." Did you know the song though? "No! I didn't know the song (laughs). I get intimidated here and there... but I can't pass up the chance to stand onstage with Motorhead. Lemmy's girlfriend was singing back-up too. There wasn't really a melody and once you get on stage you don't hear vocals, it's literally a wall of sound of distorted guitars. I thought I had permanent hearing damage... it was phenomenal - I think they are half deaf. But that was fun."

The first single to be released from the album will be 'Hot Kiss'. After a brief pause where Juliette stops to kill a fly, she can't remember where the video was filmed, definitely in London though, maybe Camden, maybe not. "That video idea had a bigger idea but we don't have money yet. This is my whole goal to create a living and sell some records so I can better the vision I have for things." So, do you want to spend loads of money on videos and production? "Not loads but you have no idea how little we have." The low budget look and feel works for this video though. "I originally had the idea where we were on the tour bus and I was looking down the hall and my band were getting dressed. It's a vision I have all the time because the song's about missing my man. But I'd like to earn a living so we have more room to be able to create... so we could film a video in two days instead of one. I'm not talking about millions. The next single is going to be 'Sticky Honey'. I have an entire little story but there's no way we could film it... of two little kids who grew up across the street from each other, they go off to school then they get married. I have a whole idea and I can't do it. When we tour, we don't have a sound guy, every so often we'll get one and on this tour, we're going to have one because it’s really important, it's our next album so it should sound good - you have to spend where it makes sense. But I just want to improve our show and also be able to have more time to create the next record instead of having to rush everything and have deadlines. You don't understand, I have deadlines all the time."

The Licks are Todd Morse (rhythm guitar, formerly in post-hardcore band H20), Kemble Walters (lead guitar), Jason Womack (bass) and Ed Davis (drums). Are you looking forward to the UK tour? "Man, I've been counting the days. My band are at home. My right hand man, Todd, always calls me. We have to get a new drummer in shape to tour so this guy Ed is going to be filling in on drums and they've been rehearsing with him and my guitar player will call me and send me MP3s because I told them to record some of the songs. We'll practise together for two weeks and then go on tour. We're all excited to play the new record."

Is this the first time you are playing the whole record on tour? "A couple of them we have played live for the last six months - 'Hot Kiss', 'Mindful of Daggers' and 'Bullshit King'. But all the rest like 'Purgatory Blues' I can't wait to play and 'Killer' - that’s a mouthful. When you write a song like that you have to be clever with your insults. You can't just say (screeches) "why are you such a fucking shit?" or something. Be inventive or use a metaphor but this was about a friend of mine's alter ego and I just love that term killer and being a ladykiller. But this tour is so exciting! I feel like it's the beginning of the beginning. I feel like this was my vision three years ago finally realised and this record’s more focused than that last (2005's 'You're Speaking My Language') and I feel like we've grown as a band and we've created this synergy... and the line-up of who we are, besides my new drummer, is the band. Collectively we all have the element to create the music we make."

When you were putting the band together, did you almost have a checklist in your mind? "Well I did because when you create art together, quote unquote (laughs) you have to be able to communicate in a really special way and it’s kind of unexplainable, so how do you do this through a conversation? How can you tell if you will be able to vibe and be open to exploring a song together? The main thing is that they be drug free. Absolutely. Because if you are going to be creative with somebody I can't work through fucking pot haze, or if they are speeding or whatever, I can't create... to me that just slows everything down and that's just annoying because people can't take direction necessarily well and they get sidetracked and there's a whole side of touring you avoid when people aren't on drugs. So that was the criteria for everybody in my band. I wrote songs with a few different people so I had this template which was five songs that each person had to learn so they'd learn the five songs I had written with various people and that was the first seeds of the Licks, and from there we would just develop songs. The great thing about musicians is they always have things they've been working on so they'll just play some riffs and either you respond straight away or you don't. That's the magic of music, you just hear things, it's sort of in the air. It's really neat."

Juliette will talk openly, honestly and thoughtfully about anything she is asked. Other topics waxed lyrical about included the lack of frontwomen for girls to look up to and be inspired by. Apart from Beth Ditto ("I love the Gossip. I wanted them to open for us on our tour but they can't"), Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Brighton-based band, Headless who Juliette first encountered at one of the Licks' London gigs. Crowd-surfing: if you have seen Juliette live, you will know she is not just going to stand there and be admired, she likes to throw herself around on stage and get involved with the crowd. "No one audience is better in terms of reaction. But I can tell you about how each audience in different countries grabs me when I'm crowd surfing." Incorrect musical definitions: "I don't get why we are referred to as punk." Having to rein in guitarists: "Neil Young can play a guitar solo that will be dear to my heart but he’s Neil Young." Starring in an emotionally demanding play: "It’s difficult, sometimes I just don't want to go on. It’s like I don't feel like screaming today, I'm actually in quite a good mood." Macho bullshit in music: "I'd love to do a cover of 'Big Pimpin' by Jay-Z and just turn it on its head from a female perspective." Her future film career: "I would definitely like to do more films but it would have to be something really good." Scientology: "Some people get it so wrong. Like I read an article in a magazine and they just didn't get it at all. It's not about following a religion, it's about using it to enhance your life."

And to set the record straight, she has been clean from drugs for 11 years ("people always get that wrong") and she didn't divorce her parents because she hated them. "It was just what you did, everybody did it. If you were an emancipated minor as opposed to just being a minor, you would get more work."

So much more to discuss, so little time. Interview over. "You’re not even going to ask me about Brad?" she asks incredulously, obviously used to being asked about her former beau all the time (especially by UK tabloids I'd imagine). To be honest I'm so not interested in Brad Pitt. "Well (laughs) it's like me asking you about, like, Todd who you dated in eighth grade, it's so in the past."

Ms Lewis has definitely come a long way since the pretty brutal criticisms of the band's appearance at the Vans Warped Tour a couple of years ago. Whether you like the music or not, you have to respect anybody who does things totally on their own terms. Somebody this driven and passionate could never give up or fail. Still think it's four to the floor though.

THE SINGLE 'HOT KISS' WILL BE RELEASED ON SEPTEMBER 26TH AND THE ALBUM 'FOUR ON THE FLOOR' WILL BE RELEASED ON OCTOBER 2ND BOTH THROUGH HASSLE RECORDS.

WORDS: LYNSEY HOSKINS