*Fresh from a two-concert break to recover from swollen vocal chords, Alicia Keys returned to the stage Sunday night in St. Louis and spoke with Billboard.com about the road just beyond her current North American tour. 

       "I've been thinking about the next album since we kind of wrapped up this album," says Keys of her CD "As I Am." The set, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in November, still remains in the top 30 of the chart.      

       "Part of what I've been thinking about is, 'What are the ways that I want to express myself this time?' When I was just finishing recording 'As I Am,' I said to myself that I want to do something that's totally stripped-down, stripped-back, totally piano-based, singer-songwriter; [a] Joni Mitchell, Carole King type of vibe.      

       "I might do that, but you never know where life takes you, where the music's going to take you."      

       The biggest challenge, Keys said, is in finding time to create new music amidst a worldwide tour schedule that will last into 2009.       

       "At this point I'm trying to find the space to continue to record as I'm on tour," explains Keys. "That's always a bit of a challenge for me 'cause it takes so much out of me to tour. But there's always that urge to stay creative and write on that more personal side. So the main goal now is to continue to find that quiet space somewhere in the madness."      

       Keys says she and director Gina Prince-Bythewood are still deciding whether she'll contribute any music to her next film project, an adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's novel "The Secret Life of Bees." Due this fall, "Bees" features Keys acting alongside Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson and Queen Latifah.      

       Keys has also been tapped to star as the biracial classical piano prodigy Philippa Schuyler in the Halle Berry-produced "Black and White" but says the project is currently in the scripting stage with its release "a couple of years off."