IT'S refreshing when you hear a songwriter as esteemed as Tim Rogers describe the process of penning tunes as "great fun".
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"Apart from making out with the missus, there's not much else I'd rather be doing," Rogers laughs. "Talking to my daughter on the phone, that's No.1, but writing songs is up around three or four, I can tell you."
Listening to Rogers' long-awaited second album with his Americana side project The Twin Set, it's apparent the 53-year-old was having a blast.
Tines Of Stars Unfurled serves as the sequel to Rogers' beloved 1999 solo debut What Rhymes With Cars and Girls, which won the You Am I frontman an ARIA Award for best male artist.
The 11 tracks answer the corresponding song on the original album. The lovesick troubadour of Last Nite I Left My Heart All Over The Place is replaced with a more bruised middle-aged view on Left My Heart.
Then Twenty Eight, which spoke of Rogers' fears of his youth slipping away, is updated with the buoyant honey tonk of Twenty Two about the excitement he feels for his daughter's future.
"I dare say as a songwriter, it's interesting to revisit things," he says. "They're mine, so I can do with them what I want to. I'm not going to be revisiting every song from my past, but just as a writing experiment it's interesting, whether you release things or not.
"I've actually written a sequel to Heavy bloody Heart. But that's for my own amusement."
The idea to write a sequel to What Rhymes With Cars and Girls came to Rogers while watching the late Aidan Fennessey's musical stage play based on the album in 2015.
"I was forced to listen back to the lyrics of these songs being sung by actors and this story that was written, which had nothing to do with me, it was written by the playwright Aidan Fennessy," he says.
"I thought, 'how much of this do I really love?' I hear these songs differently and I don't know what the characters are saying."
But before Rogers could reform The Twin Set he needed the blessing of Jen Anderson, who co-produced What Rhymes and played violin, viola, harmonium and omnichord.
Anderson was in and Rogers set about rebuilding The Twin Set with original members, You Am I buddy Davey Lane (guitar) and Mark Wallace (accordion) and new faces Jeff Consi (drums) and Richard Bradbeer (bass).
The release of What Rhymes in 1999 came at a pivotal juncture in Rogers' life. At 28, his band You Am I had just released three consecutive ARIA No.1 albums and were at their peak.
After eight years of solid touring with You Am I Rogers had just moved to Melbourne where he lived "in a tiny apartment without any windows" in Carlton.
Anderson would invite him out where Rogers forged new musical connections.
"She was the person that introduced me to Melbourne and the country folk and jazz scene because she had a lot of friends who were players and ratbags," he says.
"She really allowed me to hang out with her mates and it was a really exciting time."
Despite the success of What Rhymes With Cars and Girls, The Twin Set only ever embarked on a brief tour.
"I had to and wanted to concentrate on my family," Rogers says. "I had a young daughter and there was pressure on You Am I to keep touring so doing the Twin Set tour was difficult.
"My wife at the time had just moved out from Spain and I dearly wanted to make sure she was OK. It must have been difficult for someone to move that vast distance and your husband goes out on tour endlessly.
"I didn't realise that at the time, but now I can see that it was, so it felt like a bit of unfinished business."
Rogers and The Twin Set will spend March touring Tines Of Stars Unfurled across 13 shows, before his focus turns to other musical projects.
Later this year Rogers is expected to release a second album with punk band The Hard-Ons, as well as another record with Melbourne funk and soul outfit The Bamboos.
There's also the important matter of writing and recording a follow-up to You Am I's well-regarded 11th studio album, The Lives Of Others, released in 2020. Rogers says fans should expect a more democratically-written You Am I record.
"Who writes what will probably be turned on its head and I'll have less of a say musically and lyrically," he says.
"Because why would I feel I've got to contribute the music when Andy [Kent], Russ [Hopkinson] and Davey [Lane] are brilliant musicians and great writers as well.
"It's one thing you learn when you get older, that you don't have to be the main dude anymore. You can just want to be a team player."
Tim Rogers & The Twin Set's Tines Of Stars Unfurled is out on Friday.
Catch them at Bendigo Theatre (March 11); SS&A Club, Albury (March 16); Milton Theatre (March 17); Lizotte's, Newcastle (March 18); Eltham Hotel (March 31) and Brunswick Picture House, Brunswick Heads (April 1).
