Almost five years after releasing the celebrated chart-topping album Rattlin’ Bones, the duo are back for another round with Wreck & Ruin.

Chambers said the couple had escaped their busy home life to write nearly the whole record inside a small secluded cabin in the Hunter Valley foothills.

“We all know what that’s like ... when you’re put in a situation where you’re in a little cabin, where honestly you cannot hear anything for miles and miles, when three cars go past in one day,” she told Offbeat.

“If you spend one day like that it makes you realise how busy your life is. We notice with our busy lives we don’t write as much as we used to, so we need to create situations where we might feel creative or inspired enough to write songs.”

After such a successful first effort as a musical partnership it made sense to record together again, and Nicholson feels they’ve managed to top their last effort.

“I love the last record but I think this is different,” Nicholson said. 

“We just don’t want to make the same album every time.

“Musically there’s less of a darkness on this record — there’s more free-spirited joy in some places.”

Chambers agreed, suggesting in some ways the two albums were as different as night and day.

“Someone said it sounds like Rattlin’ Bones was made at night, and Wreck & Ruin was made during day, and I kind of get that vibe from it too,” Chambers said.

“We really consciously wanted every song on the record to be from the point of view from two singers, from a melody side.”

With 12 albums between them and countless road miles under their wheels, Chambers and Nicholson have built up a following from their live shows across the country. Wednesday will be their first show on the national tour, just six weeks after the album’s release, Chambers said.

“Often the first date of a tour is hard because you don’t know what you’re doing but we’ve got the Wreck & Ruin band with us.

“We’ve played in Warr-nambool quite a bit over the years. It’s always a fun, good gig and there’s always nice people to play to.

“I don’t know why but Warrnambool stuck in our three-year-old’s head and he kept telling people when asked about the next tour, ‘We’re going to Warrnambool, I want to go back to Warrnambool’.

“He came out on stage and sang a song, so maybe he remembers it because of that. He thinks he’s famous in Warrnambool.”

j.pech@standard.fairfax.com.au