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and how it informed the next 20 years of where I was going to go. So it was a really good
project.

BiTS: That sounds absolutely wonderful. I’m looking forward to seeing that and hearing it as
well.

FB: Having said that, I have just recorded something new, so you did actually ask about new
things. I’m looking to
release a new album which

is mainly solo and the other
half of the album is just me
and my drummer. I
recorded that very quickly
and I’ve just mastered it
because it was when I could
first get into the studio after
lockdown. In Australia,
things were quite tightly
locked down, so in fact, I
was in a different state from
my band and I couldn’t
cross the border. So when I
finally could cross the
border into my home state
of Victoria, it meant I could finally get there. I could finally catch up with one of my bandmates.
I could finally get into the studio. So we celebrated that by doing a pretty impromptu recording
with lots of funky percussion and cigar boxes and stuff like that and I’m just in the process of

mastering and producing that album now with a view to getting it out around March next year.
BiTS: Talking of cigar boxes, as you just did, on your website, there is a whole series of

photographs of guitars including many cigar boxes. Have you any idea how many you’ve got –
guitars, I mean?

FB: [Laughing] Well, I should know because I just recently moved house so I had to actually try
and find cases for them all. Yes, they’ve been proliferating actually. I’d say probably about 30
instruments but I’m making a guess right now. Certainly, the cigar boxes have increased
dramatically, although I have a core of three instruments that I tour with usually or two or
three that are regular offenders and it’s a lot of fun. I remember back in the day where I had
one acoustic, one electric and a bass and I thought that was all I needed and then I did get onto
the gear acquisition syndrome and I started realising that different instruments make you play
differently and so I got inspired by that. So the cigar boxes I’ve been mainly playing a six-
string, a four-string which is a lap-style instrument and a three-string and I also got a gorgeous
National Resolectric baritone. So these kind of instruments because they sound, their voicings
are very different and the tunings are different, so it inspires you to just think outside the box
and so it’s led to writing songs on those particular instruments and then they’ve ended up
featuring on these recent albums.

BiTS: Have you ever made a cigar box yourself?

FB: [Laughs] No, I haven't but my husband, Steve, who’s also known as The Preacher, The
Buddhist Preacher, because he’s actually an ordained Anglican priest and I play the devil’s
music. Thus we keep the world in balance there. I found that the cigar boxes that I was using