'Mending' Marc Anthony

Marc Anthony

(CNN) -- The king of salsa, Marc Anthony, is back with his second English language album. Called "Mended", the eagerly-anticipated album follows his 1999 triple platinum breakthrough, "Marc Anthony."

Determined to burn the candle at both ends, Anthony went into production on "Mended" at the same time as he was putting together his salsa album, "Libre," which was released last November.

"It was quite a feat," said Anthony. "It has by far been the most prolific musical year of my whole life."

Mr. Anthony took time to enter The Music Room to tell us how it feels to be "Mended." Here's what he had to say:

TMR: Musically, where are you right now?

Anthony: I'm in musical limbo. I got all the music out of my system right now. I recorded two albums simultaneously in two totally different genres: a salsa album and a pop album. I jumped from one session to the next. I'm just recharging the battery before my next commitment comes up to make the next one.

TMR: Do you derive more joy from the creation of an album or from actually performing it live?

Anthony: I enjoyed making my salsa album like no other project I've ever worked on. Because I've traveled the world quite extensively, there were so many rhythms that I looked forward to incorporating. I knew that it would be a challenge to incorporate these rhythms into what the basic outline of what salsa is. So, every intro sort of reflects a certain region that I enjoyed visiting. It was like almost paying homage to traveling the world. I got to incorporate a lot of those elements. And I produced it and I arranged it myself and I had all those responsibilities and though it was tough, it was extremely fulfilling.

Now, there's another part to that; I get to perform these songs that I absolutely adore, these arrangements that have been such a big part of my life for the past year and now they belong to everybody. On a live level, I get to sort of articulate what these songs mean to me. That's extremely gratifying as well.

TMR: Do you think your personal life serves as a compass for your music?

Anthony: I realized that recently, yes. ("Mended") is by far the most positive album I've ever done. It's not as melancholic or as deep as the other ones that I've done. My last album ("Marc Anthony") was a little dark, it was a little more full of pain, a little bit of angst and uncertainty. And I realize that that's where I found myself at that point. That's why this album is called "Mended" because so many of these things had to come together for me to find myself in this beautiful place in my life. That's why I'm looking forward to this tour. I've never toured under these circumstances; just being so happy, so fulfilled and so complete.

TMR: In July you'll be embarking on a tour of North America. Do you find touring grueling?

Anthony: (When I did my last tour) I remember thinking, "I do a two hour concert -- two hours a day. Put it in perspective. My dad worked in a kitchen for 50 years and just retired. You want to talk tired? I work two hours a day!" Put it in perspective first of all and then during the day, just take it for yourself. I know I'm going to use all that I learned on the first tour.

You know this next tour is probably the most extensive tour. I think it's 50-something cities in a row. I'm really looking forward to it. The only thing that changes is the baby and the wife and how I'm going to incorporate that. But there are ways to be comfortable. That's my priority. I don't even think about the show anymore or whether I'm going to be comfortable but whether or not they're going to be comfortable. If they're comfortable, I'm comfortable.

TMR: How was it having Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas co-write the single "Tragedy" for your latest English album?

Anthony: When I heard that he was eager to write something for me, I was curious and full of anxiety if you can imagine. When you hear someone you respect, someone like Rob Thomas, is writing something for you, you're just, "I wonder what he thinks. I wonder what it's going to sound like. I wonder what it's going to be like." But it was a treat. I absolutely loved the song.

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