If one listens to Losing Faith, the new and third album by Australian alt-country artist Audrey Auld, the main impression is of an individual with a real talent for songwriting and singing, and an ability to produce autobiographical songs without a hint of self-absorption. Talking to her, the term 'individual' is enhanced further, as she proves to be very much her own person with strong ideas of how music should be presented and appreciated. Add to that the fact she co-founded her own label Reckless Records along with Bill Chambers (ex-Dead Ringer Band and father of Kasey Chambers) and oversees all aspects of production, and you have someone very much in charge of her own destiny.

The album was released in January in time for the Tamworth Country Music Festival in New South Wales and has been selling well.

Audrey Auld (AA): "I'm getting good feedback to it. I think it confronts some of the country media a little bit because the previous albums I've released have been quite hardcore country and this one's a lot more diverse. I think when people have expectations of you and you don't meet them, they can't really cope because you're not actually being what they thought you were. Just means they've got to kind of relax their minds a little bit, I guess… But there are people who love music no matter what the genre. They kind of respond to a song and don't really think about what sort of song it is."

Michael Hunter (MH): How does one gauge the success of a recording of rootsy music? In terms of record sales, it wouldn't really bother the manufactured pop bands, I'd imagine, but on its own level you're able to do OK?

AA: "I guess I view my career as a long term thing, that you produce a body of work. This is my third album, which is not much in the great scheme of things. For me, I can probably answer it better in a year's time but the last two albums have sold really well and continue to. The thing about a pop act on a major label is that they've got to shift a heap of units in a pretty short period of time. I don't think they work an album for very long, whereas when you don't have those huge promotional budgets you rely on the music to sell the CDs.

"Obviously, the best way always is just to get out and play it live and have people hear you and get to know you. We do really well with European and American sales as well, because the Internet is really great for making the world smaller. We've already sold several hundred in America and I haven't even released it there yet. I think with this album I'll lose some people who still want me to make the Looking Back To See album, the really trad country stuff but then hopefully, I'll gain as many or more who just respond to the songs.

"The artists that I love like Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams, they never make the same album twice. Every new album is a challenge. I think you've got to approach albums like it's the first time you've ever made an album. I guess I get a much more open-minded response from people who never heard me and they go "Oh, I love this album". People who've heard The Fallen or Looking Back To See, they like it but they go "Oh, it's different isn't it?" They come with that expectation.

"As a writer, life is so varied and changing and has so many facets and you go through different things personally - Losing Faith is kind of about disillusionment of a relationship falling apart, and the next one won't be about that at all! I've totally written that and I don't feel that and I'm never going to get my heart broken ever again!"

MH: So the next album will be one of affirmations, then?

AA: "Well, I think this one is, I don't think it's a loser album. I think it's more about "this is about me" rather than 'poor me, look what he done to me'."

MH: And of the songs that aren't autobiographical - 'Next Big Nothing' seems more self-deprecating. I'm assuming it was done in humour?

AA: "Oh totally. That's not about me, that's just a pisstake on, like there are labels that sign up really young artists and then just dump them. They just don't really realise they're treating human beings and handling people's lives. They pump them up, they 're just totally playing into people who have got stars in their eyes and use that to try and make a buck out of them. It's not a very caring way to deal with artists and their music. They dump them and it's really sad.

"I think that Hollywood star manufacturing thing that happened in the 30s and 40s, there are still remnants of that in our psyche, I think. People still want to be discovered and want someone else to come along and do it all for them and make them a star. I see it all the time. People ring me up and go "I know this person who's really great, what should they do?" Or "what can you do for me?" and I go "There's nothing that I can do for you that you can't do for yourself. You actually just need to do a lot of hard work and get a credit card!" It's about money and hard work - and having something to offer that's unique, I think. Let's not overlook that. Sometimes people do!"

MH: What about your own history - have you got a musical family?

AA: "Yeah, my Dad and my step dad are both musicians. Mum was obviously a band mole… My Dad's a piano player and he plays the cornet and my step dad's a jazz trumpet player, Dixieland kind of jazz. He's a big fan of Louis Armstrong. We had a lot of music in our house, very restricted television and only listened to classical music on the radio, never any pop music. I played violin from when I was six years old, practiced every day and lessons every week and then I played piano for a few years. So we got a really great natural musical education. We were encouraged to listen to music and to listen to all the stuff that's going on and the emotion in it, that music's not wallpaper and it shouldn't just be on in the background as some kind of filler."

MH: So not a particularly countryish background?

AA: "Not a bit."

MH: So what is it that drew you to country music from that background?

AA: "I think it's what I started writing, but before I started writing songs I'd heard some John Prine and Lyle Lovett, Patsy Cline, Bob Wills, Dwight Yoakam and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. That's a pretty diverse bunch right there. There was something about the lyrics that was very honest. We were brought up to be very honest and tell the truth. I think everybody is, but it was really enforced in our family and I think there's a lot of room in country lyrics for honesty. You've got to have your heart on your sleeve, and the instrumentation really supports the emotional qualities. Like fiddle and pedal steel, they're very emotive instruments. There's something very simple and plain about it too that I really like, like the Carter Family, the old stuff I'm talking about. The hardcore stuff that's a lot simpler and really is straight to the bone. I really don't like the generic crappy stuff. I mean, I've gone through Reba McIntire phases and I've been through Mary Chapin Carpenter phases until I discovered people like Steve Earle and Lucinda. Obviously John Prine. People who are just raw and honest, there's nothing too manufactured or plastic about them."

MH: With the heart on the sleeve thing, particularly with Losing Faith, I suppose at least it gives you - if you weren't a songwriter, you'd have all these crappy experiences and how would you get them out if you weren't able to write a song about them?

AA: "Yeah, exactly"

MH: And what sort of country songs would they be if they didn't involve heartbreak?

AA: "Yeah, often I'm listening to a country radio station and think 'Oh God I hate country music' 'cause a lot of it is so fake. There's no truth or realism in the lyrics. We all know what's real and what's not on a really subconscious level. When they're just kind of pumping out songs about utes and beer, it's like "oh God…" We've had that, let's get over it, you know? It's that kind of thing of 'If it ain't country, it ain't music.' There are people that think like that and they want everything to stay the same. They're almost into music more for a political reason than a musical reason.

"As a writer, it is about exploring what's going on and expressing it. Sometimes it's not all going to work to a country rhythm or melody, that style is not going to work musically. Like there's a song on the album called 'Heartache' which is more a kind of pogo-ing song, really. It's just a really pissed off song. It's really hard to get that pissed off in a country song, because there is a thing about being polite and nice."

MH: The album's self produced too, you're very hands on.

AA: "I love doing that, I love the whole process of doing the CD. The artwork and the photos and the songs and the production and the mixing and the mastering - everything. And then the distribution and the promotion, it's great! It's really great when it all works."

It's undoubtedly worked well on this CD. The songs range from acoustic and traditional-sounding to contemporary alt-country with a full band. Most are originals, and a number of guest vocalists are also featured including Kieran Kane and fellow labelmate Fred Eaglesmith. The end result is a thoroughly entertaining and intelligent collection of songs, boding well for her planned lengthy career in the music industry.