Sydney-based singer-songwriter Lior has been defining the delicate balancing act professional life and personal life, as he both spends time with his family and preps for his first proper overseas tour at the same time. “You kind of have to separate the two,” he states, “and it can be hard.”

It’s also delayed the writing for his second record. “I’m just about head off overseas to release <I>Autumn Flow</I> in England,” Lior explains, “so that’s one side and then I’m looking really forward to coming back and writing. I haven’t really found the time and space I need to do it properly, yet.”

He says that, yes, it is frustrating in some respects but also ironic – before album one no-one really cares and it’s an outlet for his creativity, and something he could do whenever he wanted. “Then suddenly you put out an album and there’s ‘a career’ – touring schedules and the whole thing,” he states dryly, “and you don’t have that freedom to write whenever you want and you have to be a bit more dedicated to devoting the time and space to writing.”

It means that he’s had to reject things, and knock things back, to make sure that he’s got a clear mind to tap into some creative force again. “The more you feel like it’s enjoyable, before you start feeling like ‘a performer’ rather than ‘a writer’.”

He says that he expects his second album to be an extension of where <I>Autumn Flow</I> came from. “A lot of the songs there were written three years ago and I’ve become a lot better as a songwriter,” Lior believes. “I think the songs have more depth to them, and there’s a lot of production things on the first album that I’m looking forward to taking further. I don’t think the second album is going to be a dramatic departure from the first record, but I don’t think I’ll go into the studio until I think the songwriting is strong enough.”

A song like “Sitting With a Stranger” on <I>Autumn Flow</I> features a greater band arrangement than some of the more bare-bones tracks on his debut, and he says that he expects there’ll be an element of that on the second longplayer. “I think one of my ambitions is just to create really diverse albums and after touring with them for the last year and half I’ve become very open to them and songwriting with them, and it’ll just explore the spectrum from very stripped-back and exposed solo guitar stuff to full band stuff – I want the album to be a journey in a sense and not stylised, and not one of those albums where you put it on and by track 4 you’re like ‘oh, I get where this is going’.”

Part of undoubted appeal of <I>Autumn Flow</I> wass that it was a real album-album – nothing has really been able to be selected out of it as an individual moment and as such there was no expectations on it. Part of this has resulted from Lior being an independent artist, which has worked to his advantage. “I didn’t look it as having any singles,” he says of his debut, “and the fact is I put an equal amount of focus on writing, and producing, and performing over 12 tracks and let the songs take a life of their own.”

But, as someone who now has a base from which to grow, will he be able to do that next time around, or will decisions have to be made about what is a single, which one a video should be made for, and so on and so forth?

“Obviously I’m a little bit more clued-up about the way things work,” he outlines, “but I’ve made the decision to stay independent based largely on that – I do want to continue that artistic working progress rather than something mechanical where singles are pointed out, and a certain amount of effort and money goes into certain singles. It starts becoming a factory; I made the decision to stay independent and just work on an album as a body of work, and if at the end of it there’s nothing there that the radio decides to pick up on then I think as an artist you have to look at it as a life-time career and some things are going to connect and some things aren’t, and you’ve got to be true with what you want to do, and accept what works and what doesn’t.”

Naturally, in the wake of <I>Autumn Flow</I>’s independent success he attained a great deal of interest from major labels, but Lior explains that he just wasn’t keen to rock the boat. “The way <I>Autumn Flow</I> was going is that it was travelling so nicely independently and there was something working in the exact way that I wanted it to work and I just didn’t want to tamper with that.”

Nevertheless, the overseas release of <I>Autumn Flow</I> will see it come out through a label. Whilst Lior is really committed to touring and loves doing it, he doesn’t want to relocate overseas permanently, which is something that releasing his music independently beyond these shores would require. A deal with a label is in the process stage, as word of mouth has built off the few times he has toured overseas as part of the Womad festivals in Asia and England. “It’s funny,” he remarks, “you rock up to a place and you start touring again and no-one knows who you are. You’ve got to do the preparation.”

With a sound that is not quite rootsy, but not quite café culture, Lior confirms that this was part of the wariness of labels as he emerged, but also part of his appeal. “Funnily enough, when I was sending the demos around very early on that was the biggest thing in terms of the label word – it couldn’t be classified in any particular way.”

Needless to say, it’s ended up working in his favour “I’ve embraced trying to be diverse,” he grins.

Set to play this year’s Splendour in the Grass, his show at the festival will mark part of the last tour related to <I>Autumn Flow</I>, with the rest of 2006 given over to overseas commitments. “I’ve got mixed feelings,” he says of the difference between festivals in comparison to his own gigs. “On the one hand I love festivals and I love the vibe of the venue and the activity, but then on the other hand it’s kind of an all-you-can-eat buffet, and you get thrown on the stage with no soundcheck and you’ve just got to do the best with what you’ve got. As an artist the environment on stage can be quite challenging, but mostly I find that the vibe outside makes up for that.”

He supposea that he prefers the control of being able to deliver the songs in the best way, as he can in his own gigs. “Festivals are great for the energy and the good times, but it’s very, very difficult to get a sense of intimacy at a festival,” he warns. “A lot of the times you’re doing it in the day time, in a tent, but I suppose you’ve just got to remember that it’s a cool vibe.”

As his star has risen over the course of the last year, he’s started playing more and bigger shows, which he says has been rewarding and enjoyable. He remembers when he headlined Sydney’s the Metro for the first time he was quite intimidated, but since then he’s moved on front it. “Since then doing festivals and supporting David Gray in front of 10,000 people you just get used to it,” he shrugs. “Playing to 2000 or 10,000 is kind of the same thing, and be able to be relaxed and just enjoy yourself.”

Lior plays Splendour in the Grass on Saturday in the Grant McLennan Theatre, from 6.45-7.45pm.