If you ever wanted to know how to make the tambourine the sexiest instrument on the stage, there’s only one woman you’d call. We managed to pull The Duke Spirit’s Liela Moss away from the madness of life pre-record release to grab a coffee and have a chat about gingerbread houses, snakes and Jerry Lee Lewis. . . .

FAULT: First of all Liela, how are you?

Liela: I’m all right. You’ve caught me in a bit of a fluster today. I’m in that strange sort of out-of-balance state you get when you finish tour. I’m now at that point where I head off to the potting shed to plant new ideas for songs—they’re just like little seeds…

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The Duke Spirit have been going since 2003. You’re three albums in – what’s the key to survival?

Well, there’s been a certain amount of perseverance through times when it would have been easier to give up. If you’re prepared to reconnect with the people you make music with, then you find a way through to making another album. Just keeping conversation, energy and moral up, I think. That said, it’s important to keep finding inspiration outside of what you do together. Working with different people on different projects and then bringing that back seems to help. Somehow, we’ve managed to just roll back into people’s town and just keep on going.

Read the full interview and find out more about Liela’s plans in FAULT Issue 10.