Gawenda, the namesake of his folk-rock band Husky, wandered the streets around his Collingwood home and ventured to an area of Northcote known as Ruckers Hill.

He dreamed of a more dynamic sound and songs that rose and fell in volume and energy.

The singer and guitarist’s band, which also includes his keyboardist cousin Gideon Preiss, bassist Evan Tweedie and new drummer Arron Light, were on the same page.

“One thing we talked about was having an album that was more dynamic than the first,” Gawenda says.

“And that’s not so much a ­criticism of the first, I like the way cohesiveness of the first album and the world that it set up.

“But I think on the second one we wanted to have songs that were a bit more direct and upbeat.

“And that was from having toured and played live a lot. 

“The show perhaps lacked that a little bit.”

Over 12 months of writing and production has resulted in Husky’s second album, Ruckers Hill, the suburb named after William Rucker who built a mansion in the area in 1842. 

“I like the sound of the name and I think that’s really important in a name,” Gawenda says.

“It has a rugged beauty to it.

“A lot of the songs and the stories on the album began in Ruckers Hill in the time that I was living there, and so it felt natural to name the album after its birthplace in a way.”

Husky have been travelling through the Hunter regularly during the past few years.

They were recently in town for the Dungog Festival and also supported Neil Young and Crazy Horse at Bimbadgen Estate.

The band’s new material, which includes the impressive singles I’m Not Coming Back and Saint Joan, has shaped Husky’s live ­performances into a more colourful and diverse affair.

“In some ways the Forever So songs were slower in tempo and a bit more intricate at times, and it’s enjoyable to recreate that live and pull that off,” Gawenda says.

“But sometimes it’s fun to just strum the guitar hard and sing your lungs out.

“It’s nice as a performer and good for an audience too.

“It feels good to be able to do both of those things now.”

The band recorded most of the tracks on Ruckers Hill live, playing together in the studio, and kept overdubs to a minimum.

But some of the layers on the album have required some musical trickery to replicate on stage.

“We take the liberty in the studio to do more than what we can do live,” Gawenda says.

“There are only four of us live, so we only have eight hands.

“But what you lose in terms of parts and layers from the recording, in the live show you make up for with energy and passion.

“But we also do make a point of trying to recreate as much as we can, even if it means sometimes Gideon will use keyboard effects to recreate parts that I overdubbed on the album, like electric guitar and electric guitar effects.”

Over the album’s lush instrumentation and radiant harmonies are Gawenda’s evocative lyrics.

He often conveys a sense of ­restlessness.

“I had been touring for two years straight really, I’d been on the road at least half of the time, if not more,” Gawenda recalls.

“There was a bit of a struggle between having toured for a long time and having missed home, and then being home and missing being on the road.

“There was a restlessness.

“That paradox is pretty apparent on the album.”

Songwriters place varying levels of importance on their lyrics and subject matter, but for Gawenda the stories are vital.

“Lyrics are very important for me,” he says.

“The lyrics are as important as the music in the songs that I write. The songs on this album are personal.

“I don’t know that they’re necessarily autobiographical, but they all come from things I’m experiencing and feeling, or stories I’ve been told by other people.

“The songs definitely come from my life and what I’m going through.”

That said, Husky did aim to craft an encompassing record in an age where many music listeners of the iTunes generation cherry pick certain tracks rather than play an entire album from start to finish.

The art of creating an album in this way was embraced by the artists of yesteryear whose influences can be heard in Husky’s lyrics, acts like Crosby, Stills and Nash, Simon and Garfunkel and America.

“We come from a time and a tradition of listening to albums as albums,” Gawenda says.

“We grew up on that [approach] and as a kid I sat and listened to albums from start to finish, over and over again sometimes.

“For us as artists that’s the most exciting thing for us, that it works and plays as an album.

“[Ruckers Hill] isn’t a concept album, but there are themes and things that are threads throughout the album.”

And although Ruckers Hill was only released this month, Gawenda admits he has already thought about album number three.

“You think about it all the time,” Gawenda says.

“But I’m excited to keep writing and see where the writing and the sound takes us.

“I’ll be doing that throughout this whole release period.

“I’ll make a point of continuing to write because we got into quite a good pattern of writing throughout this time and I don’t see any reason to stop that now.”

Husky play the Small Ballroom, Newcastle, on Friday, November 14.

Tickets are available through Oztix.com.au

Alive has two double passes to give away to the show.

For your chance to win simply fill out the coupon in today's Maitland Mercury.