While the former Powderfinger singer admits his music has become more mellow and bucolic since embarking on a solo career, he insists that his work not be associated with the “booze and babes” genre popular in America.

“I don’t want to be bro country – that’s country impinging on rock – all of the whisky talk and girls in tight jeans stuff, it doesn’t wash with me at all, I find it really cheesy,” he said.

Instead, he said he more closely allied with the country influences that underpinned some of the classic rock music of the 1970s.

“When I was growing up, I was into rock but always in that context where there were elements of country in what Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart – they had these blues and country leanings,” Fanning said.

Fanning, who recently released Civil Dusk and is soon to release its follow-up Brutal Dawn, also said while he found the experience of watching highly-produced music so popular at the moment “terrible”, he understood it had its place.

“You need to hear the air in it. That’s what the computer stuff is really missing, the air, the sound is really dense,” he said.

“I like something in a microphone because it’s real air from a real diaphragm. I find that more satisfying. By the same token, you may speak to someone like Flume who finds that kind of stuff so cheesy. It’s really a matter of personal taste and what you’re exposed to.”

Fanning has teamed up with friend and co-musician Kasey Chambers, with the pair visiting Ballarat and performing at Lakeside Twilights on February 19.

He said the pair’s friendship was forged after Chambers covered These Days.

“We’ve always liked what each other does musically, but we’re also just mates,” Fanning said.

“I don’t know if it was inevitable, but it made sense to go on the road together – not just in Sydney or Melbourne, but in interesting places like Orange.”

Tickets to Bernard Fanning and Kasey Chamber’s Sooner of Later tour are available at www.soonerorlatertour.com