Kate Miller-Heidke

“We had no songs,” she says. “What we had was a huge burst of inspiration. We went into this album with a vision. We mapped out how we wanted it to sound; the aesthetic, the spirit of it. Experimental, hooky, unashamedly pop . . . we wanted to exploit everything that's unique about my music.”

“We” includes Kate’s partner in life and music, husband/guitarist/collaborator Keir Nuttall.

Radiating a newfound sense of mutual certainty, Curiouser immediately struck a chord with fans and critics when it was released in Australia in October 2008. In addition to a swag of glowing reviews, the album earned itself another F-word: the First album of Miller-Heidke’s to be certified Platinum, go to #1 on the ARIA charts and #1 on the iTunes chart. Curiouser dominated the Top 10 on the iTunes album chart for two months and spent two weeks at #1.

The record also received multiple nominations at the 2009 ARIA awards.

Ultimately, it’s the wonderfully unselfconscious yet accomplished songwriting that takes both Curiouser and Miller-Heidke to the next level. Remarkably, it’s also the first time she’s opened herself up to co-writing – here, working closely with Nuttall – and the results are inspiring.

"Songwriting was always too personal and I felt too self-conscious to collaborate," Kate says. "But after a certain point, I just lost my inhibitions. We got into a groove where we bring out the best of each other. These songs are better than anything we'd written individually before."

Recording with Los Angeles producer Mickey Petralia (Beck, Peaches, eels, Dandy Warhols), who had the right mix of humour, enthusiasm and weird old electronic stuff to offer the new tunes, Miller-Heidke, Nuttall, bassist Ben McCarthy and drummer Steve Pope spent two months crafting Curiouser. With his strict 4pm to 4am shifts (with no days off), Petralia's studio wizardry turned out to be the perfect galvanising force for Miller-Heidke’s and and Nuttall’s carefully detailed home demos.

“To me,” she says, “it sounds like a modern album, a forward-looking album.” To everyone else, however, it sounds like one of the best Australian records in recent memory – a set embraced by an enthusiastic audience and one lauded with critical acclaim.

“Mickey thought Curiouser was a noun, something that made you more curious,” Miller-Heidke says. “That's what made up my mind about the title. Wouldn’t it be great if people listened to this album and it made them curiouser?”