Four years between albums may seem like too much for some people but the wait for These Hands has done little to dent NEIL MURRAY's popularity - Iain Watt talks to the Rainmaker-in-Chief.

"I couldn't help that - all these circumstances were just beyond my control. But it's kind of good timing for it to come out now anyway. It's been character-building, put it that way."

Neil Murray is talking about the time he's had since '89, when his last album came out, and says all of this with a wry smile. Sure, four years is a long time for anyone to produce an album, but for Murray fans the wait is well worthwhile. These Hands is an accomplished release which finds Murray using a wide range of musicians to reflect anthems for what he is totally unequivocal about; his main inspiration, the continent of Australia.

"I've kind of gone out with this wanderlust, and I just find it. You can make your own myths out there, and there are some of the most incredible locations just in the middle of nowhere and there's a sense of drama, especially if you have any knowledge of the history or significance of the area - there's room to move...

"I just get charged by the landscape, the country and the weather. The rain, the sunsets, the heat, the cold, the characters you run into in the middle of nowhere. Aboriginal people and their wisdom... it's all been like fuel to me, fuel to burn. And I also wanted to be inspired and write about it in a way that would make it palatable for people who live in the city. For them to take some more interest and pride in what's out there."

Every song on These Hands has some kind of audible theme, among them the sad-sounding tale of Broken Song. Murray explains: "I wrote that after visiting a community in south-east Arnhem Land, a place on the Roper River which had about a hundred years of missionary influence. They told me that the women in particular had lost a lot of their traditions because of the missionary influence cutting across and saying 'You can't do that any more, you're all in the church'. Men had lost a lot, too, and I just felt they'd lost a lot of their culture - I mean, neighbouring tribes can still carry their songlines and can teach them through, but it just made me think generally about the effects of imposed religion on indigenous peoples. In some ways it's been good because it's stopped fighting, but in others it's been hugely destructive because they've lost their culture. And what is there to supplant it?"

Murray was a recent participant in the Mabo Mambo shows in Sydney and Melbourne, which he says were 'huge'. His personal views on the biggest political hot potato to hit Australia in many years, the Mabo Judgement, are clear-cut. "I think it was timely and justified and gave cause for a lot of optimism; the reaction, though, has been regrettable in the hysteria that's been whipped up and the ignorance that's suddenly become visible. Bigotry is the ignorance, which is the greatest sin I think in this country, but I'm hopeful that commonsense will prevail and things will die down and people will realise they've got nothing to fear. They've got fear to fear and that's all."

Aside from the current tour with the Rainmakers, solo gigs and duet appearances with Christine Anu, Murray has another iron in the fire - a book due out in October, which he modestly describes as "a kind of semiautobiographical novel with the narrative in the first person."