It's a shock to realise that, despite a number of visits to Australia over the years, William Ryan Key will embark on his debut solo run of the country later this month. While the 38-year-old Jacksonville songwriter has played to packed-out crowds in some of the country's biggest rooms, he will return to play some of the more intimate spaces; a note that doesn't phase him at all.

"Honestly man... it's all the same," Key says down the phone from the US.

"I get up and I get in my zone and I focus on playing the show well and once I'm there, it doesn't matter if it's 200 people or 2000 people. I'm pretty much in the same headspace no matter what when I'm performing.

"It's really cool to be in those smaller, intimate rooms especially when you've been doing it as long as I have and you have fans that have been with you for so many years. Especially in Australia, [fans have] never really seen us in a venue like that. We started coming over to Australia when we were headlining at Luna Park or whatever..."

Key released the five-track Thirteen EP this past May and says he is "starting to build an entirely new career here in a way". While he admits fans can expect to see him perform Yellowcard tracks at the upcoming shows, he says the desire to perform new material inspired him to record Thirteen.

"When I finally decided to commit to recording, when I got offered to tour with New Found Glory in May and June here in the States, a real motivating factor was just that I felt like I didn't want to just go out and play Yellowcard songs. On a tour that big, I felt like it would be really cool and a great opportunity to have my own music for the first time and see how it goes."

He adds that he made a point for Thirteen to not sound anything like his previous Yellowcard material.

"I wanted to step away from Yellowcard sonically, for sure," Key said.

"I think even though Yellowcard did a lot of acoustic stuff throughout our career... one thing that's a noticeable difference on Thirteen from anything Yellowcard ever did is I don't even use a guitar pick on any of these songs. I spent a lot of time practising, working and learning how to write these riffs that I wanted to write in, kind of, that Elliott Smith-style guitar playing. Not that I'll ever be as good as him, but he was definitely a big inspiration for me and was for these songs.

"I was really focused on creating something new and original and it felt like it was completely me and separate from Yellowcard, but not having it feel forced or pretentious in any way. I took my time with it. I knew I was probably gonna put out some music down the road when I knew that Yellowcard was gonna split up but it really took me quite a while to settle on what that sound was gonna be and where my head was at writing."

win tickets to william ryan key's australian tour

As well as saying goodbye to Yellowcard in 2017, Key was recently a part of the final-ever Warped tour, which wrapped just last month. The question must be asked: is that particular scene of music dead? Should we be nostalgic? Should we be sad? Should we be excited for what's to come?

"I do think that I'm not out of line by saying that the idea of rock'n'roll kind of dying right now is a real thing and it's very unfortunate," Key ponders.

"If you look at the state of rock'n'roll radio here in America, not that the radio determines everything but it is still important, it's just vanishing and opportunities for rock bands to really break through are so few and far between now. For me, when you ask about the 15 years that have passed or whatever, I feel just super lucky that I think bands like Yellowcard and New Found Glory and Fall Out Boy and Taking Back Sunday and on and on back in the mid 2000s, we were kind of like the last wave of rock'n'roll that kind of went from independent to mid-level to mainstream and have these wild levels of success that none of us were ever expecting to have. You just don't see that happening anymore with a whole scene of music or a whole group of bands.

"Like I said, I just feel really lucky to have been a part of the scene that I was and the group of bands that I came up with. I hope the ship gets righted somehow and its easier for young artists to make a living playing rock'n'roll again. But I know for a fact that it's really, really challenging right now, so who knows what's gonna happen?"

Following his Australian shows, Key will gear up for the release of his follow-up EP, Virtue, due out on 30 November.

Scroll down to see all of the dates for Key's Australian tour.