For years, Ben Lee was the indie kid who coulda, shoulda, but never did, have a breakthrough moment.

Then, all of a sudden, it seems to happen – he was everywhere with his TV embrace on Cigarettes Will Kill You, topping the Triple J Hottest 100 in 1998, declaring himself the saviour of Australian music, and being called a ‘precocious little cunt’ by the likes of Powderfinger’s Bernard Fanning.

After the underwhelming Hey You, Yes You in 2002, there was nevertheless a sense that Lee was an artist who was still capable of delivering the sublime album that converted the masses and the sceptics, and after having his heart broken, the self-financed and independently-released Awake is the New Sleep was it – replete with a bona fide hit single in the form of Catch My Disease that seemed to crop up on every hit television show that there was for it to be heard on.

But one of the best things about Ben Lee is that he never looks back – while new album Ripe is barely even off the tree, Lee is already thinking ahead to his next project, where he’ll be recording ten new originals for the soundtrack to the debut feature film for Nash Edgerton. “I’m also trying to do another Bens record,” he says of his collaboration with Ben Folds and Ben Kweller, “and I’ve just got a bunch of things like that to keep working on.”

Ripe itself was something of a new experience for the songwriter, with Lee explaining that it was the first album that he’s made hot-off-the-heels of its predecessor. “I made that record Awake is the New Sleep and then toured for two years and then went straight into the studio,” he explains. “It was a cool experience not to take too much time off but instead keep the momentum that you gather. I think that’s part of what the Ripe concept was for me – I’m ready, and let’s just do this. There’s a window of opportunity, and as they say there’s a time to strike while the iron is hot.”

Ripe also marks the first album where Lee has worked with a ‘big-time producer’, teaming with experienced knob-twiddler John Alagia, who has a genuine pedigree of working with pop stars like Dave Matthews, John Mayer, and Evermore. “Everything about it was a different experience,” he says of the recording experience, which found him working with the likes of Mandy Moore (who sings beautifully on Birds and Bees) and the Madden brothers from Good Charlotte.

“Recording in a great studio like that, breeds a certain sense of competition, and you’re keen to compete.”

Perhaps that explains the stadium rock feel of Sex Without Love, which echoes more of Bon Jovi than it does Bob Dylan. “A lot of the songs have this ‘bigger’ feel,” he agrees, “but a lot of that came just through touring – I did two months with Dashboard Confessional and touring the States to these 15,000 seat rooms, and had to work out how to make a room like that ‘move’. It was a really cool experience…and it was all about learning those tricks to make a room come together.”

The writing process for Ripe was built around the touring band too – Lee claims that he wrote in excess of 70 songs from recording Awake is the New Sleep to going in to record Ripe, and then tidied them up and took inspiration from the bare bones demos from December, 2006 right up to the point of recording the album. “In the few months before [recording] was when the songs came together but it had been on the brew for a while – it was a mixture of gradual long-terms things and things that were off-the-cuff.”

Ripe itself was recorded not with his touring band but instead with a host of session musicians. “I had Tori Amos’ drummer, Tom Petty’s piano player, and Robin Thicke’s bassist – I made a decision that [the touring] band were great but I was looking for a certain something that you need to hire the right musicians for.”

Ben Lee’s Ripe is out on September 15.

You can also catch him on tour this October.

Frontier Touring and FasterLouder present Ben Lee
Thursday 18 October The Prince of Wales Hotel – Melbourne
Friday 19 October – The Woolshed – Ballarat
Saturday 20 October – The Peninsula Lounge – Moorooduc
Sunday 21 October – The Tivoli – Brisbane
Tuesday 23 October – The Metro – Sydney
Thursday 25 October – Wollongong University