Earlier this year, Canadian crooner Michael Bublé announced that he was expecting a baby with wife Luisana Lopilato and released To Be Loved, his fourth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard chart. West Coast editor Krista Smith recently spoke with the singer about performing on the subway, competing with Justin Timberlake on the Top 40 charts, and using The Power of Now to recover from heartbreak. Highlights from their chat:

Krista Smith: I loved that clip of you singing on the subway. Whose idea was that?

*Michael Bublé:*I always wanted to do it. I did it in my show with Naturally 7. I would finish my show, and you know all the fans wait for stuff. Me and Naturally 7 would come out, and we would do a tune. We’d do, like, “Stardust,” or some kind of doo-wop tune. I always wanted to go into the subway and do it there. You know what’s funny? You spend hundreds of thousands on marketing to go down and build a set, mine the song so they can use it for all the sizzle reels and stuff, and then you go down and make a fucking video in the subway, and it is bigger than any other press that you do. My favorite part was the guy getting off the train, going, “What the fuck is this?” and walking past me. Let’s talk about the album a little bit.

Each record I made I got more power and I became far more confident in who I was. Anyone I work with will tell you that I know who I am. I wanted to make that record that I always wanted to make. Maybe ugly, dirty, imperfect. But for me, raw.

I kept saying to them [co-writer Alan Chang and producers Bob Rock and Phil Ramone] over and over, Why do I love these old records? Why do I love the Motown shit? Why do I love all the Sinatra and all these old records? Whatever I heard, why am I not getting that in my records? It was basically Bob who said, “Mike, firstly it was the tape, and secondly they shoved all the musicians in a little room.” I had a difficult time sometimes listening to myself. I used to go onstage and do it live, and I take great pride in how good I was live. I kept saying to Bob, “Why can’t I be that good on a record? Why can’t I bring that energy?”

Do you feel like you accomplished it?

I did the best I could. I never tried to accomplish it on the originals. On the originals, I wanted to make pop songs. I wanted to make them sound like Top 40. I want to go compete with Timberlake and Katy Perry. I need them to get on the radio and to use Auto-Tune and effects and all that stuff because I want it to sound like a modern pop song. But for “You Make Me Feel So Young,” for “Come Dance with Me,” for “Something Stupid,” for “Melancholy Baby,” I feel like I kicked the shit out of it.

So you’re going to have a baby, right?

Yes. It’s the greatest time of my life.

How do your families mesh?

We’re always together. And both our families together are just a train wreck. It’s beautiful. A beautiful train wreck, but it’s so much fucking fun. Christmas? Is nuts. I hire a bus. A bus.

But would you ever imagine when you were starting out that you would be where you are now?