Congratulations on the new album! It’s your first release in a decade, how are you feeling about the results?
I am so proud, I really love this record. It’s a combination of all the things I love about music, my culture, my heritage as a Hawaiian, my family and my love of pop music. I think it’s very simple but it has complexity to it – it won’t burn out.

What’s your favourite song on the record?
I think because I’m playing in the band and drumming at the moment, I’m really enjoying ‘Garden State’. But the cornerstone for the whole album was ‘Louie’s Song’ because it was inspired by my nephew and it’s very personal.

You recorded Kensal Road in London – why did you decide to head overseas?
Songwriting to me is an inordinately subjective thing. You have to go to a quiet space, you have to tune in to those frequencies, and sit and write. And when you’re parenting, there’s no time for that process to happen. So after ten years, physically being in London was the perfect place for it, and I had to rebuild my confidence about making a few errors, cancelling a few songs, saying halfway through production, ‘well, actually, this is shit, we need to get rid of that and start anew’, and doing it on borrowed time with borrowed money … But I realised it can be done, and I’m totally happy with it.

You’re set to play the Brisbane Powerhouse on October 20, what can audiences expect from the show?
Essentially what I have on tour is that Hawaiian sense of all the harmonies and we all swap and change instruments – we’ll have ukuleles and acoustic guitars and organic instruments.

It’s been a while since you’ve played in Brisbane, how do you find the local crowd?
I really have a great longing for Brisbane audiences. I had experiences here when I was younger, in my teens, where you’d do these great gigs in Fortitude Valley and they were just bursting at the seams and people were really engaged.

What Brisbane musicians do you have your eye on?
I’m infatuated with Brisbane acts. I did some work a long time ago on a music soundtrack with the keyboard player from Powderfinger and I’m in love with Bernard Fanning. Katie Noonan and I are very dear friends, and I love Kate Miller-Heidke. I just think there’s something really cool about this place and I want to be a part of it.

How do you juggle touring with your commitments as a mum?
It was really hard when my daughter was younger – I just couldn’t do it, I couldn’t leave. I think guilt-management comes with parenting and you have to keep it real. You have to keep it supportive to what you do … I do my best!

Do you have any family rituals when you return home from tour?
We absolutely do! We plan mummy days, and indulge each other. I cook and try to put back some semblance of reassuring elements of just her and me. I live with my mother and her husband is my tour manager – they live downstairs and we live upstairs, so there’s a constant flow of family in and around my daughter when I’m away.

What inspires you?
I live my life to be an example that one can stay in this business and I think I’ve defied a lot of stereotypes. I’m indefatigable, I’m interested in music, I love the arts and I love directing the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

How do you like to start your weekend?
Gypsy is so cute, she calls the weekends ‘holidays’. I love it. So I always like to treat the weekend like a holiday.

What’s your favourite thing to do on a Saturday morning?
We get up, Gypsy has swimming in the mornings, and then we have a little ritual where we have breakfast together as a family and take our dog, Banjo, for a walk, then I might have to come home and practise on my drum kit.

How do you like to unwind?
Lately I’ve been crocheting, I’m making the coolest crochet blanket. It’s on my Instagram – check it out!

What are your essentials for a well-spent weekend?
I’ve been getting prepped for touring by getting into kale shakes and different food. If you’re going to be self-preserving, you’ve got to be prepared to deliver. So I like a little bit of exercise, good food and not too much sitting down on my ass …

What’s something you’ve been meaning to do on the weekend but haven’t got around to yet?
Well the weather has been really bad in Melbourne but I love paddleboarding. I feel like a Hawaiian princess – I sit out there and sing all these songs, and I think ‘let’s hope there are no paps out there stealing this moment of me getting fit’ …

What’s your favourite thing to do on a Sunday evening?
I am such an old-school girl, I’ll watch Antiques Roadshow, Location, Location, Location – anything lifestyle. I also love Grand Designs. There’s something so comforting about going into other people’s houses and being able to see them creating something out of nothing. I’ll travel to any destination with that guy as my host – he’s my TV husband!

What are you reading at the moment?
I adore Tim Winton, Geraldine Brooks and Elliot Perlman. Every chapter of Elliot’s is like a complex wine – some days you’ve just got to put the book down because you’re so full!

What was your childhood dream?
My childhood dream – and it still is now – is to have a constant life in art and to be able to make my career and life out of that, and not have to do anything else. I always just wanted to make music.

What is success to you?
My definition of success is desiring something and being able to afford the luxury of going for it. I don’t think my goal is to accomplish it, but to keep doing it and continue to create in it. Happiness isn’t about ‘having’ it – it’s about getting there.

What are your words of wisdom?
You’ve just got to build a world of your own, and live and be confident in that.