Heartbreak, loneliness and bad relationships have provided inspiration for countless songwriters — Lehua Kalima among them.

Kalima, 45, had enjoyed a long and successful music career, most notably as a member of Na Leo Pilimehana, when the end of her nine-year marriage in 2008 inspired her to take her work in a new direction. The result was her first solo album, "Rising in Love," which will be in stores Monday and is available online at www.mountainapplecompany.com/lehua.

Don’t panic, Na Leo fans! The trio — Kalima, Nalani Jenkins Choy and Angela Fernandez Morales — is still intact.

"I’m not leaving Na Leo. I’m very happy to be celebrating our 30th anniversary coming up very soon," Kalima said. "It isn’t often that groups stay together that long, and I have no intention of leaving."

It’s just that a combination of things — her divorce, a slow stretch for Na Leo, encouragement from friends — got Kalima thinking about doing a solo album.

"The biggest obstacle for me was that I didn’t want (Choy and Morales) to feel like I was trying to break up with them. I just kinda felt like I needed this release on the side. This was my way of dealing with (the divorce). … When they gave me their blessings to go ahead, I really felt like I could do it."

Kalima started work on the project with producer/musicians Shawn Pimental and Michael Grande three years ago. She wrote songs. Pimental wrote songs. Guitarist Kaleo Del Sol contributed a song and collaborated with Kalima in creating another. They laid down tracks, listened back, tried different ideas. Pimental and Grande moved their studio from Halawa to town. The music continued to evolve.

Looking back, Kalima describes the album as being "like a child with a three-year gestation period. It needed to go through the different changes that it did in order to reach the point where it’s at now, and actually, honestly, now that it’s said and done, there isn’t anything that I would change about it.

"That’s the main thing to me, to be happy with what I did, to not feel like I missed something or I didn’t do something. I’m glad that it took that long."

One of the things she’s proudest of is that none of the songs is a remake of someone else’s hit.

"The whole purpose of this album is to put myself out there, really, and so it’s all original songs, and hopefully people will connect to them and we won’t need to have a (remake) just to get on the radio like you always seem to have to do these days."

VIEWING the album from a historical perspective, Hawaii has seen at least one previous successful solo project by a member of an established group.

Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole received two Na Hoku Hanohano Awards for his first solo album, "Ka ‘Ano‘i," which was released in 1990 as an outlet for material that didn’t fit the repertoire of the Makaha Sons of Ni‘ihau.

Kalima feels her album fills a similar niche.

"I really didn’t feel (these songs) were Na Leo material. If I had thought so, I probably would have saved them on the side (for Na Leo). I’ve done a lot of my own songs with Na Leo, obviously, and to me these didn’t really fit. That’s why I decided to put them on this album."

"‘She’s Waiting’ I had actually written 12 years ago, and I never used it ’cause it wasn’t a Na Leo song to me, but it seemed to fit (here) … and the song I wrote for my son, ‘Kailoa’s Song,’ probably could have been a Na Leo song, but I wanted to put it on this album."

To answer two other questions, the order of the songs on the album is not intended to tell a story. She says at one point they were going to be in alphabetical order, but the final order was determined as much as anything by the arrangements.

"We wanted to break up the tempos, break up some of the instrumentation, and so we did it that way, and we put ‘Rising in Love’ as the first song mainly because it is the title track."

Second, Kalima says none of the songs should be interpreted as being about her ex-husband — or anybody else.

"I haven’t consciously gone out and picked someone to say stuff about. I try to keep my songs as obscure as possible so that it’s easy for other people to relate to and so that I don’t embarrass anyone that I know."

She adds that working on the album kept her busy at a time when she might otherwise have "fallen into a big funk. It was a healthy release."

"I made all the decisions, which was very scary because with Na Leo I’ve always been part of the process, but I’ve never really had any interest in the business side … and so to be able to control this and to be responsible for it did give me a big sense of empowerment. I needed to feel strong and it really helped."

With the album finished and the music out there, Kalima hopes it will help other people get through their own bad times.

"Everybody has things that they go through in life. If people can connect to something on this album, if they feel like they’re not alone because somebody else has gone through it, then I think that’s important. … If you’re going through something that you think you can’t get through, I’ve been there and I’ve done that, and a lot of people have.

"There’s tomorrow — and it will get better."