It may have taken Bec Willis 32 years and a lot of hard living to release her first album, but it was worth the wait.

The dozen songs gathered on Bec’s self titled debut offer an intense and personal look at a life lived characterised by struggle. A musical irony drips from each of the expertly chiselled songs – produced by Kasey Chambers and Bill Chambers - as the sweetness of Bec’s strongly Australian-accented voice sits at odds with the downbeat themes.

There are songs, deeply based on real events, but given enough poetic license to prevent them being considered fully autobiographical. There is a resilience in the writing and a quiet sense of self confidence that comes with a person doing what they know they were born to do.

Despite having played and written since she was about eight years old, and having performed live from the age of 14, Bec still suffers occasional stage fright. When faced with playing such personal songs she is insecure because it goes beyond wondering whether an audience likes her voice or musicianship. “All your emotional crap is out there, it’s so personal. I try to distance myself live when I’m singing it, but it is very personal stuff”.

“This album is like therapy [for me]. It holds all my emotional baggage from the last 30 years. I’ve definitely had a colourful life. While I’m generally a pretty upbeat person I really dumped in those songs. I think the reason it took me so long to get my act together musically is that I was busy dealing with all that crap. I do wonder if I am exposing myself too much. Still, I can perform them without being dragged back there. I don’t sing in the foetal position,” she laughs.

Born in the small South Australian town of Kingston South East, Bec was raised in Ceduna, (just 40 miles south of where the Chambers family was fox hunting, although they never met). By 14 she was on bass and back up vocals in Give Way. By 18 she had taken over lead singing duties and had the passion to make a career in music but no idea of how to go about it. She enrolled in the music industry course at the Port Lincoln TAFE and following graduation she and a brand new drummer-boyfriend decided to head to Brisbane. It was not the big smoke but in a career marked by little steps rather than great leaps, she was at least moving in the right direction.

The romance ended, but the choice between heading back home to Ceduna or staying in Brisbane was simple. Lots of rock gigs followed. They bolstered her confidence that she had the ability to compete on the main stage, but her next move seemed a little out of left field. She applied for, and was accepted to, the Tamworth College Of Country Music.

Country had been part of Bec’s musical heritage, courtesy of her parents, but it was an element of her past she tried to deny. It was a Kasey Chambers concert during the annual country music festival that turned Bec’s head around and gave her a new direction.

“After that I started writing again and the songs were more honest,” Bec says. “I never used to write as personally as I do now. It gave inspiration that you could be yourself and sing about what is real. I was blown away by the bravery of that. I’d been hanging around rock bands and it was a revelation that you could write about emotions honestly.”

Kasey was a guest at the college one day and sat with the class as they played their songs. Bec noticed Kasey give a look to her record company companion as she played Toohey Road. Bec took this as a sign they hated the song, her farewell to her Brisbane home, written on her last night there, before moving to Tamworth. She was wrong. Kasey loved it and told Bec that if she ever wanted to discuss how to get her career off the ground to come and see her. Soon after, Bec sold a sandwich maker for bus fare to Avoca Beach to take up the offer. After an hour’s chat, Kasey offered to help her make some demos. This quickly became an offer to produce an album with her father, Bill.

The catch was that Bec’s album would need to be fitted in with all the Chambers’ commitments. That means the album you have before you was begun nearly three years ago and has been completed for over 12 months. In the interim Bec has spent much time on the road as part of Beccy Cole’s band and played many solo and duo gigs while waiting for her roll of the dice.

“It’s God’s little joke to teach me patience,” Bec reasons. “I’ve been doing a lot of solo pub gigs and it has worked out perfectly because if we had brought it out straight away I would have been terrified onstage standing up front having to talk to people after years of playing in pubs where people are yelling out for Chisel. I’ve become a lot more confident. I’ve waited a long time and I’m just gonna get out there and have fun.”