The Risks You Take When Writing An Album About Love

It's raining, so Dustin Tebbutt's interview takes place in the only common indoor space of The Music's office — the gym. "We should totally conduct the interview with me on the treadmill and you on the cross trainer," he laughs, rearranging his limbs on the floor. Exercise is something we both need considering our recent winter diets. He has this theory about new-fangled chocolate combinations: "If it should be on a sandwich, it shouldn't be in a chocolate. Like, do you put fruit and nuts in a sandwich? No. Ok, put it in a chocolate. Do you put vegemite on a sandwich? Yes, don't put it in chocolate."

Moving reluctantly on from debating about food — Tebbutt laughing that his music "is relatively more boring to all the other things I have to talk about" — the subject matter of his debut album First Light almost stops the conversation in its tracks. Since The Breach threw him "unexpectedly" onto Australia's music radar in 2013 — "I wasn't ready… I'd never been a singer publicly before. I had no idea what I was getting in to" — Tebbutt feels he's never had "enough songs to add [to his EPs]. I didn't wanted to put fillers on there, I wanted to make a statement". And then inspiration struck in the form of a girl from Melbourne.

So, of an album dedicated to a single great love, one must naturally ask — who's the girl? "I know this record, they're gonna want to hear about this woman," he says after a moment's hesitation, obfuscating. So after the heartbreak that inspired The Breach, Dustin Tebbutt, Love Song Extraordinaire is officially taken? "No. No, it's done," he laughs. Oh dear.

"I don't know, I have nothing to hide. I'll just be really honest about it. I think it's amazing that so much music came out of it. [It ended] a bit before the album was finished. There's a few tracks towards the end that are a little darker; some of the lyrics as they were getting finished off became a little more introspective and stuff."

There's a few ideas in the air for next time 'round: "I've been really obsessed with space recently," he laughs at the tangent. "There's so many fascinating things in the universe to delve into. My brain always wants to lock things into a concept... these grand concepts: 'It's going to be an album about the critical moments of biology and evolution!' And them I'm like... 'I can't write that, what am I doing?' Some things just don't translate." Space odysseys aside, one thing's for certain.  "Last week a piano arrived on my doorstep which my grandmother had left for me when she passed away," he says excitedly. The plan is to write "little musical vignettes... having something that's more 'bang bang bang' would be really nice".