Q It is almost five years since you released Rattlin' Bones (in 2008). That album earned you a slew of Aria, Apra and Golden Guitar Awards, debuted at No.1 on the Australian album charts and has sold more than 70,000 copies. Did that success affect your approach to Wreck & Ruin?
Chambers: We had no idea Rattlin' Bones would create the kind of stir it did. It was just a bit of fun for us as a married couple - to see if we could write songs together and stay married. It took on a life of its own and we thought someday we'd get around to making another one.
Nicholson: Rattlin' Bones started off as a side project that ended up taking up three years of our lives. At the end of that we needed space; it would have been hard enough for any band to go through that, let alone a married couple; that's why it took us almost five years to get to this one.
Q Given you've been married for eight years, can you describe how your relationship informs your music? Does it allow you to be more open and honest when you are collaborating on a song?
Chambers: For the most part, being married adds a positive into being creative together. There are a few obvious negatives but, really, I think it gets us to the point of truly being creative together; it's faster than if you were doing a songwriting session with someone you had only just met. We can even have a bit of an argument and end up with a door slamming, but that's just normal life.
Nicholson: You get to a point where you are working for a common goal. I think we are getting better at learning how to work the situation, to work together. I think the important thing is to respect each other's opinion. The difference with us is we are married and can thus be completely honest.
Chambers: Sometimes we'll start a song separately and bring it to the other person to finish; sometimes we'll sit down and start a song together and go from there; sometimes we'll start together but finish a song on our own.
There is a definite sense on Wreck & Ruin that it is about the two of us. Even if you are in another room working on a song, you are still thinking consciously that you're writing for two people. None of these songs could be put on a solo album by me or Shane.
Q How difficult was it to write songs, then record an album, all the while juggling family demands?
Nicholson: It was just that daily life thing. We just needed to get away and think and be creative. Over the years, we used to write songs on tour, on an aeroplane or a hotel room but we just don't do that anymore, because there are two or three kids running around - Arlo is 5, Poet is 11 months and Talon is 10, though he generally stays with his dad when we go on tour.
So we had to find a creative space. We found a wee cabin in the woods - though we did take our wee baby with us - and we'd spend a few days there a week and write. There was no mobile coverage, no TV, no internet. We wrote almost the whole record there. You can't just sit down and create inspiration, but you can create situations where it may happen.
Q I read a Paul Kelly review of your music, in which he said, "lonesome and loving haven't sounded so good since Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris". His comments were not so much about your compositions as the tonality of your voices. In short, they merge rather nicely. Is that something you have deliberately focused on?
Nicholson: I think that's something we recognised very early on. I still remember when Kasey came in to sing on a record 11 years ago and both Nash [her brother, a notable musician and producer] and we turned to each other ...
Chambers: I think as we've gone on, we start to know how the other person could fit in. We might get up on stage and sing a song we haven't done together before and kind of know where the other person is going to go. There is definitely something about having sung with someone for eight or nine years. It has helped.
Q The harmonic arrangements, i.e. the chord sequences, on Wreck & Ruin are often very simple. Was that a deliberate move, to allow your voices more room to move?
Nicholson: To try and answer that without being too technical, that is exactly what this album is about. In regards the chord structures, it is very simple, quite traditional, much more so than Rattlin' Bones.
It means that, vocally, you can hint at all sorts of other things. That's what makes it really special. You mention that Paul Kelly quote about Gram and Emmylou: the thing I love about them is that they are almost like independent singers who are singing together.
Hear it
Wreck & Ruin is out now.
