CHECKING IN WITH . . . LINDA PERRY : One Non Blonde : After leading her band to a best-selling debut, the feisty singer ditches it all for a solo trek.

You came out of nowhere to sell 5 million copies of your first band’s debut album and become a colorful presence on the rock scene. You then work for more than two months on the crucial follow-up record. Does it make any sense to suddenly scrap it all, break up the band and go off to make your own record?

It does if you’re Linda Perry, whose wailing voice powered the San Francisco band 4 Non Blondes into prominence in 1993. The singer has just finished her first solo album, “In Flight,” due in February from Interscope Records. The feisty Perry, 30, explains her dramatic move.

Question: Why did you leave 4 Non Blondes?

Answer: I just found myself really unmotivated.

Have you ever been in a situation where you’re doing something very safe and everything’s going right and there’s really no reason to change it, but something inside you is saying, “I don’t know, there’s something not right about this,” and it eats at you and it eats at you?

That’s what was going on. Something just didn’t feel right. Musically, I didn’t want to scream. I didn’t want to play the music we were playing.

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Q: What’s your solo album like?

A: It’s mellow, but it’s very Pink Floyd-influenced. It’s really trippy. It takes you out on a journey. Drums are barely there. . . . It’s a lot more musical, and I didn’t think I could make that journey with 4 Non Blondes.

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Q: What inspired that direction?

A: You know what really inspired me? I really don’t like any of the music that’s going on right now. The ‘90s to me is the worst of music. Sure, some great bands came out of it, but most of it I thought was horrible. . . . These bands are in it for money only. There’s no true musical emotion in it, it’s just a bunch of hard-driven guitars, no tones.

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Q: Were you surprised that 4 Non Blondes did so well?

A: I don’t mean to sound like I’m gonna sound right now, but I kind of thought we would have done better than we did. I was hoping that we would actually walk away with some respect and some credibility in the music industry, and what we got was the 5 million records. To me credibility and respect is worth more than 5 million records.

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Q: You have a reputation as being temperamental and unruly. Is that accurate?

A: I think people kind of mistake honesty and knowing what you want for being temperamental and out of control. And if that’s true, yeah, I’m temperamental and out of control. But I’m the nicest person, and I’m a very generous person. I’m an Aries and I’ve always been like that. . . .

I just believe in order to do something in your life you have to go get it. You can’t just sit around and talk about it. You have to do it. And sometimes you have to do it with a little attitude.