She’s Australian born, lives in England and has written an album about America.

Juanita Stein, the singer of dark-hearted indie rockers Howling Bells, has kick-started her solo career with a record that explores her fascination with the USA.

“With Howling Bells we were always deeply fascinated with the American landscape, so it’s not really that surprising,” says the songstress.

“Growing up in Australia I was inundated with American culture. I remember the first time I went there and I was so disappointed. We had agreed to stay a friend of a friend’s house in Los Angeles and he ended up being a junkie who lived in a really derelict pad.

“All my dreams came crashing down seeing that – it was not like the TV shows I’d grown up watching. That was our introduction there and since then I’ve gone back and forth a few times, but my love affair continues regardless.”

Ravelling around the country provides the backdrop to America, the singer’s first taste of solo life outside the Bells, who were one of music’s most underrated acts over the past decade. Juanita’s dark storytelling style blended with intense rock to deliver a cinematic style, that perhaps inevitably earned a few comparisons to fellow Aussie Nick Cave.

After four albums the group decided to hit the pause button, and Juanita focused on a new collection of tunes she’d been writing that focused more on country and Americana, elements her other band always possessed under the surface.

She feels she’s adapted to the solo life well.

“It felt like a very natural evolution,” she says, ahead of a King Tut’s gig on Monday, September 25.

“I suppose when you are in any kind of partnership and you know change is coming then you’re already emotionally preparing yourself, so when the time comes you’re not feeling too lonely or desperate or sad. I kinda always sensed that a solo project was looming and had time to prepare myself for being on my own.”

She’s also had some family ties to fall back on. In Howling Bells she had her guitarist brother Joel alongside her, while for America she sings the track Cold Comfort, a song written by her dad Peter, a musician in his own right.

“My dad is always coming to me playing songs he’s written, and this time he played to me Cold Comfort,” she explains.

“I thought it was such a beautiful country ditty and I felt I could do it a lot of justice, that I could put a different spin on it. I’m not a traditional country singer, but have a deep love for old time country music and I felt that was very present in the song that he wrote.”

Juanita now has two vastly different Scottish gigs on the horizon. There’s King Tut’s a week on Monday, a venue she’s played several times in the past. Then she’ll be at the much larger SSE Hydro, when she supports the Killers as the Mr Brightside and Human hit-makers arrived on November 20.

“I wish it was me headlining there,” she laughs.

“It’s a brilliant tour to get on, they’ve got a massive audience and it’s a great opportunity to get my music out there to people who might not flock to my kind of music. We toured with them a couple of times before in Europe and the USA, so it’s nice to be doing this one.

“Every time we go back to Glasgow, for any gig, it feels very comfortable. It’s one of those places where you really want to impress people because there’s a deep historical part of music and art there and you know it’s somewhere that really appreciates music. It feels like an important one. It’s also a place where you can get really drunk and end up somewhere unfamiliar, and that’s OK…”

Oh, and you might get the odd marriage proposal shouted at you onstage, which has happened to her at previous gigs. Like many female singers Juanita is used to all sort of heckles and cries from crowd members, but she’s not fussed by it.

“I don’t think any guy genuinely thinks I’m going to take my top off or marry me or whatever the stupid heckle is,” she adds.

“You have to take it all with a pinch of salt – if someone was genuinely being disrespectful then I would have no problems telling them where to go.”

Juanita Stein, King Tut’s, Monday, September 25, £10, 8.30pm

JONATHAN GEDDES