Twenty-three years after sisters Donna Simpson and Vikki Thorn left Albany on the first of many musical road trips, teaming up with Josh Cunningham along the way, The Waifs' seventh studio album Beautiful You debuted at #5 on the ARIA charts. Strangely enough, the tight-knit trio who spent over a decade touring the nation in a Kombi had never actually written collaboratively, and after a fruitless attempt, perhaps never will.

"We've all been individual songwriters. Even though we've been collectively in the band we've always written that way — it's always been a personal, individual thing," says guitarist Josh Cunningham who shares vocal duties with the sisters. "And I think probably in the early days because we lived in very close quarters, it was like a bit of a respite — you could sneak off somewhere quiet with a guitar and spend a few hours and write a song... Vikki had this idea [for the writing process of the new album] — we're all songwriters, we should be able to sit down and write some songs together and see what we come up with. It might be a new sound that becomes our definitive record or something, but it proved to not be that successful. We've actually reverted back to our old habits and all went off on our own."

Simpson broke first — went off for a walk and came back with a song. The album came rolling out after that and eventually her heart-wrenching folk ballad Beautiful You was chosen as the title track.

"The song's a very personal song," Cunningham explains quietly. "Donna actually wrote it about a family member who kind of got mixed up with meth, and really devastated his own life and the family kind of got a bit torn apart. The song is a very emotive personal plea to him to kind of see the mess that he's in and turn back the other way — in spite of the mess, you're still beautiful. It felt like an important message and I think it applies to a lot of people's lives... It might not be as extreme as meth amphetamine [addiction], but in a lot of ways we all need to stop, take stock, turn around and go the other way."

It wouldn't be a Waifs record without such deeply personal insights, many of which centre around one of their most enduring themes: home. With Cunningham and Thorn heading back from their homes in the States for a 25-date national tour to celebrate Beautiful You, the guitarist is still more than happy to dish out the back catalogue yearning-for-home favourites.

"I love it every time!" he exclaims when quizzed on whether 2003 breakthrough track London Still has become a chore to play. "I guess some musicians get bored of that kind of stuff but for me, every time you play a song it's good to just re-experience what the song is. Whatever you're doing in life, you should get the most out of it and enjoy it as much as you can — the old songs I find just as enjoyable as the new ones."