Devil Woman is not about John Butler's wife. Neither is Bullet Girl. The first song tells the tragic tale of its protagonist finding his wife in bed with another man; the second captures the toll of a relationship filled with drama.

When he showcased the songs from the sixth John Butler Trio record Flesh and Blood during concerts late last year, the frontman explained to his fans these were not songs ripped from the chapters of his own life.

Butler did so jokingly, lightly but it seemed a necessary disclaimer from an artist whose fans will pour over every lyric and nuance of his work.

"It's not about me and Danielle," he says.

"And I have written many songs of adulation for my wife."

The point is, Flesh and Blood features several songs which mark a departure for a man whose music always wore its conscience on its sleeve. And challenged its audience to follow suit.

It had been three years since Butler and his trio released April Uprising, when Butler, bassist Byron Luiters and drummer Nicky Bomba gathered at The Compound in Fremantle which serves as the band's headquarters and the frontman's artistic space.

And he wanted to shake things up, find different sounds, tell different stories.

While he wasn't abandoning the protest and social commentary songs of his youth, Butler wanted to cast his lyrical net wider, and so he decided to magpie other people's life experiences.

The junkie couple of Young and Wild are another pair of Flesh and Blood's flawed romantic characters.

"I still care about everything I care about," Butler says. "But I don't know how to write another song about a greedy arsehole ruining the planet. I have done it.

"I started writing about the damage of war and the environment, but as you drill down deeper, move closer to the core of the heart, there are so many great stories to be had which aren't literally talking about a problem.

"Young and Wild is a perfect example of magpie-ing other people's experiences and some personal ones and put it into these characters."

The early sessions, held in mid 2003 after the band returned from their biggest American tour, broke protocol with his songwriting modus operandi.

Instead of bringing his ideas to the table to be fleshed out by his band mates, the three men started with a blank slate.

Bomba plays on the lion's share on the album, but has now left the group to focus on his own Melbourne Ska Orchestra.

New trio member Grant Gerathy features on the politically-charged How You Sleep At Night.

Inviting his band mates into the creative process was a big deal as Butler admits he can be "a little bit" of a control freak.

"I wanted to dig deeper with me, Nicky and Byron and we did a couple of co-writing sessions, which I had never done before. I had always brought the material," he says.

"Devil Woman, Blame It On Me came out of those jams.

"It was a healthy creative process and one I was probably ready for. Maybe I wasn't creating the environment for that to happen before.

"I'm the captain of the ship and I have really great shipmates."

Another new shipmate was producer Jan Skubiszewski, who helped inject some brighter, unpredictable sounds to the John Butler Trio palette.

Butler decided to engage the producer who has also helmed albums for The Cat Empire and Mama Kin.

It was the diversity of his experience and talent which Butler wanted to harness in an attempt to showcase his own band's eclecticism.

"He became the fourth member of the trio," he says.

But the silent partner in Flesh and Blood was Butler's now international community of fans.

The expanding fanbase for this fiercely independent artist meant he could stand still and focus on the music instead of his next goal.

John Butler Trio fans are a passionate and collegiate lot who are more likely to adopt you as their new best friend than have a go if you spill their beer.

"Maybe after working so hard creating the foundation, after 15 years you can stand back with a little perspective and say 'Wow, look at this'," Butler says of his fans.

"A lot of times, I was never in the moment, I was always looking at the next thing. We'd sell venues out and then it would be 'Let's take it to the next level.'

"I think about Better Than, about staying in the moment.

"For some reason this band just keeps growing and that does have everything to do with this community of fans, as you call them. I am always struck by how our relationship gets better and better."

One song which brings Flesh and Blood full circle to his beginnings as a busker in Fremantle is Wings Are Wide.

The song was written about the passing of his grandmother Phillipa, the family matriarch who made his destiny a reality when she gave a 16-year-old Butler the Dobro guitar which belonged to his late grandfather, John.

He played Waltzing Matilda to her on that guitar the night she died.

"She's the reason why I play music; the cornerstone. It's about her going to see her man again, after all this time," he says.

But perhaps the album's most telling song is its closer You're Free, the personal song with the universal message.

"The greatest thing about music is it makes you feel like you are not alone," he says.

"Some people are dealing with the devil on their shoulders just like me. I am not going crazy, I am normal.

"And I am going through all the same things you are. So don't put me on a pedestal."

HEAR: Flesh and Blood out tomorrow.

SEE: Palais Theatre, Melbourne, April 1 and 2

Tivoli, Brisbane, April 7 and 8

Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, April 11

Bluesfest, Byron Bay, April 19.

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