Shane Nicholson wears heart on sleeve in new studio record

And Shane Nicholson's latest marriage of words and music has again proven that sentiment true.

His fifth solo record, Hell Breaks Loose, reflects on both a difficult period in his life and the birth of a new one.

In mid-2013 it was announced that Nicholson had separated from wife of eight years Kasey Chambers, with whom he shares son Arlon and daughter Poet, and released two ARIA-award winning albums.

The normally prolific songwriter then entered a dry spell of almost a year.

But he found a way out.

At the invitation of his friend and indigenous songwriter Warren H Williams Nicholson travelled to the remote town of Hermannsburg, north-west of Alice Springs.

"I had things on the boil during that time but I wasn't properly writing," he says.

"It was a product of my environment though.

"When my marriage finished I got a new house and I had to move my studio.

"Then I threw myself into work, I was producing [other people's records] and didn't come up for air from the studio for close to 18 months to two years.

"I was just making record after record, back to back, for other people.

"After 14-hour sessions in the studio you just don't come home and write songs."

Nicholson was so distracted by his production work with other artists, including Lyn Bowtell and Suze DeMarchi, that he didn't notice his own songwriting had fallen by the wayside.

"I didn't realise that I hadn't written songs for that long because I was being creatively fulfilled by working in the studio every day," he explains.

"Then I realised, 'Shit, I've got no songs here.'

"It wasn't like me to go that long without songs, but it was good because it meant I wasn't writing through that post-marriage breakdown phase.

"I'm grateful for that now, because I would have hated to have a break-up album.

"People expected this [record] to be that, but it's definitely more a post break-up album.

"It's not directly related to [the break-up], it's more dealing with the new world and being a newly single dad, running a business and having a career - starting again at 38."

The extraordinary vastness of the landscapes around Hermannsberg gave Nicholson the distance, both physical and figurative, to pick up his guitar to write.

"What I got out there, there was this sense of perspective and being removed from my bubble," he says.

"It's like being inside a storm so large - you've just got to move a couple of thousand kilometres away from it and it looks rather small.

"That removal made life seem a lot more simple, and I wrote [the song] Hermannsberg sitting outside the church there.

"Then the next day I walked back to the church and wrote two more, and I thought, 'Okay, something's going on here.'

"This is what I needed, it was the catalyst for the record coming to life.

"It was pivotal, not just musically but personally."

Even though Hell Breaks Loose is a revealing collection of songs, the Central Coast-based songwriter felt no nerves ahead of its release.

"It's exciting and that never changes," Nicholson says.

"I always have the same feeling whenever a record is about to come out, there's a great sense of excitement and impending relief.

"That doesn't wear off - I'm as excited about this record as I was about my first record 15 years ago.

"It's the other people in your camp that have feelings of expectation and nervousness, but I don't ever really feel nervous about a record coming out because I don't really put it out unless I love it.

"If other people love it, then that's a bonus."

The record's title suggests explosive catharsis, as if a wellspring of emotion has boiled over.

But for a record with its heart on its sleeve, and an album cover on which Nicholson is releasing a velvet-black raven, the album is gentle in its reflection.

There's wry sentiments on Secondhand Man, fatherhood and the spectre of depression in opener Weight of the World and a barbed rumination on relationships in When the Money's Gone.

The arrangements and instrumentation are deliberately short and simple, delivering each story with little fuss.

Nicholson's voice is huskier these days compared to his arrival on the Australian music scene in 1997 as the androgynous face of the band Pretty Violet Stain, but maintains the timbre of a younger man.

And while this may seem like his most honest set of lyrics, Nicholson explains that he has simply been more direct.

"I think a lot of the records have been personal and honest in a certain fashion, but they've all been a lot more guarded than this one," he says.

"[Hell Breaks Loose] is less mysterious and hidden, not buried in metaphor like the other ones often were.

"This is more direct, but I don't know whether that's age or whether I was doing that on purpose.

"I don't think it was a conscious decision but I found I was much more confident writing in a direct way this time around.

"And I felt some of the stories needed to be told in that way, they have more impact."

Nicholson refused to censor himself, moving forward with the lyrics that felt right.

But one song, Single Fathers, made him wary.

"I was just a bit worried that song could be taken the wrong way," he says.

"So I was in two minds about whether that would go on [the record] or not.

"But the deciding factor was that I've never entertained a self-editing philosophy before.

"I've always gone with my gut and, eight albums in, I don't want to start.

"So I just went with it, for better or worse."

Nicholson will travel to Maitland's Grand Junction Hotel this Saturday night for an intimate, free solo acoustic show with a special appearance by Melody Pool.

He will then return with his full rock band for the two-day Americana festival Dashville Skyline at Lower Belford.

Nicholson says his Skyline show will be the "Crazy Horse version" of his back catalogue.

"I'm excited to be getting the band out and playing again because [the new album] feels really fresh and I'm really proud of it," he says.

"That's definitely a new feeling."

Tickets for Dashville Skyline are available from dashville.com.au/skyline-2015