'There's Always A Risk In Following Your Gut Instincts'

Perth-bred singer-songwriter Bex Chilcott (who performs under the name Ruby Boots) has been living in Nashville and soaking up the music mecca's vibes for the past two years, yet the first fruits of this adventure - her new second album Don't Talk About It - are even further removed from straight-up country music than anything she's concocted before.

The Americana and roots structures that have always underpinned her songs are still firmly intact, but the album contains flourishes of everything from rock'n'roll to doo-wop, which the singer explains are the result of just following her muse.

"There's always a risk in following your gut instincts, you know?" Chilcott ponders. "You don't really end up having a choice, because if you don't end up following that instinct then essentially you're robbing yourself of making the art that you want to make and trying to stay in a safe spot. I think if you're not scared of what you're doing then you're not doing it to the best of your abilities.

"I think for me it feels right, and I'm glad that that growth has come across in the way that seems organic, because I was just listening to the voices in my head saying, 'You have to do this!' so you never know the end result."

Chilcott elaborates that while she didn't know where her endeavours would lead her, she did have trusted musical guides such as Lucinda Williams and Tom Petty to help keep her on the right path.

"I think Tom Petty is completely tattooed all over my brain and my heart and my soul, he's always around, which I'm not complaining about," she laughs. "But when you're following a feeling, you don't really know what you're doing; you're just doing what feels right in terms of the sound and what the songwriting encompasses. So this one, to me, doesn't feel like a country record because I don't feel like I've ever made strictly country music - especially by the guidelines of somewhere like Nashville where they're very purist about what is and isn't country.

"I get off on writing lyrics that kind of do fit into that Americana world, but sonically I wasn't really comfortable or vibed-up enough to write strictly in that world, so I realised after touring that last record, 'I need more rock'n'roll! I'm literally trying to turn my Americana songs into rock'n'roll songs and that's no good for anybody!' I can keep the lyrical approach, because I love it - I still love being able to tell stories and try to connect with people lyrically - but sonically I want it to be loud and hard."

And while the a capella rallying cry I Am A Woman is undoubtedly the album's emotional fulcrum, Chilcott tells of another undercurrent running through Don't Talk About It.

"This is an album of realisation that there are a lot of old habits and approaches in life that become redundant," she reflects. "One of the things was straddling this place between vulnerability and strength, where I thought maybe to have my walls up and see things with my defence mechanisms intact would equal an element of strength that would get me through life. Whereas now I'm really understanding that the courage and strength is in the vulnerability, and also the balance of staying tough but also allowing life to be fragile and myself to be fragile and everyone around me to be fragile. And I'm still working on that, to be honest. A song like I Am A Woman comes from a place of anger and it comes from a place of pain and a place of, 'Fuck you, you will not talk about women's bodies like that.'

"But at the same time I found myself experiencing these spiritual and life growth spurts that allowed me to witness how beautiful and vulnerable and fragile and strong we are all at the same time, and this is something that makes us deserve to be loved as humans, rather than taking that angry tirade path with the middle finger up in the air to everything that doesn't agree with my approach."