The Janis Joplin comparisons don’t bother Colleen Rennison, the 26-year-old spark plug that fronts the visceral blues-rock outfit No Sinner. Just like any good Canadian, she grew up watching her parents' copy of The Last Waltz, the 1976 Martin Scorsese documentary of The Band, and has plenty of classic rock in her DNA. After a stint in New York City, she returned back home to Vancouver and took up a weekly residency at Guilt and Company, a gem of a gastro-club in the vivacious Gastown District. She parlayed this gig into a full-time band that signed on with a few labels and generated a good deal of buzz with its six-track debut, Boo Hoo Hoo.

Now poised to release a full-length follow-up called Old Habits Die Hard on May 20, Rennison gives us a glimpse into her songwriting approach and the lessons she’s learned after a few years of steady road work. Best of all, she shared with us "Leadfoot," the debut single from the new record. Listen to the track above and learn more about No Sinner below.

Hometown/homebase? Vancouver, British Columbia

Is Vancouver a good town for blues-rock?

I don't know about that. It's got great old-guy cover bands that you can see at the Dover Arms in the West End, or playing the Ivanhoe every once in awhile, but not a whole lot of bands are making original blues rock--except our pals Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer; they're holding it down for sure.

I know that you were a child actor. Where might I find some of your old work?

[Laughs] It's easy to find if you look. There's a pretty accessible pirated version of Beautiful, a film I did with Minnie Driver that was directed by Sally Field, that has me in fully fledged pre-teen '80s beauty pageant mode. That's a good start.

Tell me how you got turned on to the style of music the band is doing?

I've always gravitated to where country and soul and blues and rock and roll meet. My earliest memory is of watching The Last Waltz with my parents and knowing that was what I wanted to do some day.

I guess the Janis Joplin comparisons are sort of automatic for a lot of people. Who else lives in your sound would you say?

Oh, there's so many. I grew up singing along to Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, so you can probably hear that sometimes. Tina Turner, James Brown, Nina Simone, Robert Plant, Nat King Cole, Karen Dalton... hell, there's even some Gwen Stefani in there. The list goes on and on.

How did the band get together?

Through the sheer grace of God and incestuous nature of the Vancouver music scene.

What does the band name No Sinner mean?

It's my last name backwards, I thought that was pretty clever.

How do the songs typically come together for the band?

On this album a lot of the tunes were born from jams that we recorded on an iPhone, and then I would play them over and over again on my bike and eventually the songs started to reveal themselves. Melodies and syllables and subject matter would start to form in my head, and then I'd bring it back to the guys and explain the arrangement I came up with. It was a really cool way to do it ‘cause it gave me time alone to write but was still very much a song written by and for a band.

Can you put into words what "Leadfoot" is about and what it is inspired by?

It’s a song about partners in crime going off the rails together, knowing that the destruction is what is killing them but also keeps them alive. It's a celebration of going down in flames, freedom and chaos.

What are the most important lessons you learned out on tour?

Keep track of your stuff, bring as little as possible, eat vegetables when you find them and sleep when you can. Don't sweat the small stuff and try to have fun even when shit hits the fan. Oh yeah, and when you need to do your hair and get ready but there's nowhere to go, the handicapped washroom is sometimes your only friend.

What is the craziest thing to happen to you at a show?

One guy asked me if I had a penis and I was so shocked that I didn't even know what to say.

Are you worried about Canada being overrun by Americans fleeing a Donald Trump presidency?

Yes, but if that happens I think we would consider them refugees, and Canada isn't scared of refugees.