Adele Grows Up On Sophomore Album

Basking in the "surreal" glory of four Grammy nominations, Adele is already working on the follow-up to her debut album, "19."

"There's about three, four songs I really like that will go on the next record," the 20-year-old British singer tells Billboard.com. "I've got another handful that I hate and won't go anywhere near the second record. I'm kind of slowly getting back in the mode of it."

Adele describes the new material as "very different to the first record" and influenced by T-Bone Burnett-produced albums such as the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack and fellow Grammy nominees Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' "Raising Sand." "Obviously I don't want to write a country record or a bluegrass record or anything like that," Adele notes, "but the melodies, I think they're the best in the world, so I'm gonna try and incorporate a lot of that."

Lyrically she says the new songs have "more depth and subject." Where "19" was "almost a concept album ... about one relationship," the new album is shaping up to be "about a relationship I was quite pleased to get out of rather than feeling a bit deprived of someone's attention. It's more grown up."

Adele plans to start recording after her next U.S. tour, which kicks off Jan. 14 in Somerville, Mass., and finishes Jan. 31 in San Diego. She's already chosen a producer but isn't identifying him yet "just in case it doesn't work out, which would be a bit embarrassing." She plans to record in Malibu, where that producer is based and where she expects she can focus more on the task at hand.

"I think it'll kind of encourage me to work harder on the songs if I'm here," Adele explains, "'cause if I'm at home I'll keep going out with all my mates to the pub and the cinema and go to parties and stuff, whereas (in the U.S.) it's quite limited, the people I know here that I want to hang out with. I think I'll mainly just be working, which is a good thing."

Adele does plan to attend the Grammy ceremony in Los Angeles, where she's nominated in three of four major categories -- record of the year, song of the year and best new artist -- as well as best female pop vocal performance.