The first time I interviewed Flora Smith and James Arneman, the members of Small Town Romance, I learnt a lot about their respective musical backgrounds and we also spoke about making music videos, which is Arneman’s specialty. Partners in life as well as music, the pair both grew up around instruments and performance. In Arneman’s case it was as part of an Australian country music dynasty, as the son of Anne Kirkpatrick and grandson of Joy McKean and Slim Dusty. Smith’s path was different but no less interesting and musical.

The pair have different yet complementary sensibilities, which is part of what makes their songs so appealing: they know how to work with, not against, each other and they both want to make the best possible music they can. And there’s a lot of wonderful music on their new album, Home Fires, which is cool in the indefinable way that cool is: you know it when you hear it, and it’s both reassuring and unsettling and familiar and new all at once.

Home Fires was released in August but we weren’t able to chat until recently, and I relished the chance to ask this talented – and highly entertaining! – pair about the songs on it. We also talked about a Christmas show which has come and gone, because I wasn’t able to publish this interview in time. But they will be at the Cygnet Folk Festival in Tasmania on 10 January and the Tamworth Country Music Festival later that month, and if their live performances are even half as good as the record they will be special. This is music that comes from deep knowledge of the craft that does not bind these artists but, rather, sets them free.

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