Ashley Tisdale rocks out to her hit song, “Hot Mess,” during her Guilty Pleasure AOL Sessions. Check out a few fan questions the 24-year-old songstress answered below:

On how being an actress compliments her music career: “With my music, I’m not really playing a role. I’m who I am, actually, and with acting, I’m playing different characters. Performing though, it’s just who I am. But, being an actress you just connect really well with the song. It’s not easier or anything, it’s just I love to perform in front of audiences. I get a lot of energy from it.”

On the difference between Guilty Pleasure and Headstrong: “The first album was me learning about myself as an artist. The experience was very new to me, I had never recorded an album before. So, Guilty Pleasure, I knew what I wanted going into it. I wanted it to be a reflection of who I am and where I am in my life right now. It’s a little bit more mature. It’s a different side of me that people haven’t seen.”

On if she still keeps in touch with her HSM family: “I haven’t seen Lucas [Grabeel] in a little bit or Corbin [Bleu], since he’s been traveling for a while. But yea, Zac [Efron] was just over at my house last night. Vanessa [Hudgens] is doing a movie right now in Montreal, but we talk all the time. I just saw Monique [Coleman] recently too, we Twitter each other. (laughs) I keep in touch with them all the time. They’re my family, I love them.”