Stella Katsoudas, the driving force behind Sister Soleil, is a strong, deeply emotional and intelligent woman. Not only is she a talented songwriter and singer, she is also a great storyteller.

Her story is one of life, and how it gets crazier everyday.

She affectionately refers to her life as a “war story” and, like a loving grandfather, is happy to retell it whenever she gets the chance. You’d think by now the story would get old, but Stella would tell you otherwise.

“I’m not sick of it, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger,” she said. “It’s about a girl trying to break into a very sexist niche of music, and coming from nowhere, having basically no money, and just basically setting my goal and reaching it,” she said.

The last time Stella was in Ames, her story left off with her searching for a record deal. Now she has added a few more chapters. The most recent was the signing to Universal Records.

“I went through the whole feeding frenzy, which was nerve-racking, and wound up at Universal as my home,” she said.

Stella cited Universal’s company head, Doug Morris, as the biggest helper in her career.

“He’s my surrogate father and coach in all of this. I’m very fortunate to be working with such an amazing person,” she said. “Universal is the Bulls, and he is Phil Jackson. He is a revered leader.”

Although Stella is a veteran in the Chicago music scene, her band ended up in London to record its second album, “Soularium,” which hit stores this summer.

The group wrote 56 tracks and spent six months recording at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios.

“It was an amazing experience being in England, in the English countryside, in 400-year-old stone cottages recording the record and then coming home and taking the posse to Nashville,” Stella said.

The group went to Reba McEntire’s studio to mix the record, which Stella said was like having culture shock.

“Nashville is sort of like Disneyland. The music industry is so new, all the buildings are like a year old. You’ve got Garth Brooks emporiums and Reba emporiums,” she said.

As far as working in London, Stella had good reason to travel across the ocean. The first was the outlook on the music scene here in the United States, and the second was getting to work with Gabriel.

“I wanted to learn about the music that was happening out there. I wanted to delve into big beat music,” she said. “There wasn’t a whole lot going on in the States, but there was a whole lot going on over there.

“Peter gives me faith in the music industry and faith in humanity,” she added. “After everything that man has been through as a pop star, and to be completely unchanged as a human and be that wonderful of a person after the absurdity of the lifestyle, it made me go ‘To get lost in this and get caught up in this is a choice.'”

As Stella’s story continues, she took the band on tour and prepared to go national with “Blind” as the first single. Stella said “Torch” was originally released to key markets as the first single, but it wasn’t pushed.

Sister Soleil then proceeded with a 45 radio station promotional tour, meeting programming directors and learning how the radio process works.

A new aspect to the band is the addition of a brand new bright red tour bus which Stella said was a lot better than the old van.

“It’s a Marriot on wheels,” she mused.

The bus is probably the biggest difference between the band’s touring before and after “Soularium.”

“The bus makes a huge difference. Our market is much broader. We’re playing all over. First of all, I had no idea the U.S. was that large. After pulling 19-20 hour drives and doing a show, it’s pretty intense,” she said.

Stella is very proud of her new album. It touches her every time she hears it. But making it proved to be a challenge.

“I still get chills every time I listen to it because there was so much incredible work and focus and concentration for such a long period of time,” she said.

“It was really like being pregnant and delivering this child. I look at it like my child. Just like children are extensions of their parents, this record is a complete extension of myself.”

Fortunately, it was a smooth delivery, as the record label made it easy on her.

“I had the luxury of the amount of time I had to work on it. The record company said ‘Take as long as want.’ You only have one chance to put out your debut,” she said. “I can honestly say I’m 100 percent happy with my record, which most people can’t say.”

The first single, “Blind,” is an amazing song reminiscent of a ’90s “In Your Eyes.” The song has a special meaning to Stella.

“‘Blind’ is about being misunderstood as a woman, misunderstood as somebody who is just a face or somebody who couldn’t possibly have the depth of emotion that I do,” she said. “It’s a reoccurring subject with most people to be misunderstood, and what I look like in other people’s eyes.”

Stella said the story of her life has changed a lot in the last two years and she feels “worlds” older, and that the things that she used to get upset about are “drips in a bucket.”

“I feel more confident, more peaceful as a person. I feel more at ease with myself. I don’t have a lot of the identity crises I used to have anymore,” she explained.

Among the group’s many goals, Sister Soleil plans to record an acoustic E.P. as soon as the tour is over. Stella said it may be distributed on radio or released to the public if good enough.

Stella also hopes to get a couple of videos made and to get a film script written. She’s been working on it for the last few months, with a working title of “Universal Fun.”

“My goal is to make the movie and have the second record be the soundtrack to the movie,” she gleamed.

Stella said the movie would be like a really bad “I Love Lucy” episode. It will encompass everything that has happened to her in the last four years.

The message of the movie will touch on the journey through the gray areas of life and not all the black and white ones.

Stella has had a remarkable life so far, and her story continues to write and rewrite itself every waking moment.

“You can set your goals, you can dream your dreams and achieve anything you want to do, but then when you do, it’s not over yet,” Stella said. “It doesn’t just end there. The story keeps going, and you keep living.”

Sister Soleil plays a 21 and over show at People’s Bar and Grill Saturday at 10 p.m. and an all-ages show Sunday at 6 p.m. Tickets are available for $10 in advance.