Journeyman Jim Ward is a well-travelled individual. Only three US states are yet to bear his footprints - Maine, Hawaii and Alaska – and he’s keen to rectify that as soon as possible.

“I’ve never been to South America or Africa either,” adds the singer-guitarist over the phone. “Those are two places I really want to go to.”

A member of Texan rockers At The Drive In and more recently Sparta, the New Mexico-based Ward has been on the road since catching white line fever in his late teens. “Music’s shown me the world,” he says. “I’ve been all over.”

With ATDI now departed and Sparta in hibernation, Ward has since turned to Sleepercar, a countrified side-project he created a decade ago but only recently realised with this year’s debut album West Texas.

“Doing this was having to find a new way of singing, trying to compliment the music and do what I hear in my head and that took a while,” says Ward. “But it’s a life-long thing with Sleepercar and it’s kind of fun when you don’t just stick to what you know and try to do other things.

“One of my favourite Dylan songs is Lay Lady Lay where he sounds pretty much like nothing else he ever did. It’s always been my favourite. Actually we do a version of that song and if you go to You Tube, somebody filmed it when we were on tour in Canada at a theatre in Toronto. It’s a really beautiful version I think.”

Having grown up watching his father and uncles play recreational guitar around the family home, Ward admits to being a self-taught musician.

“I started going to shows when I was about 12,” he says, “and when it’s punk rock and you’re 12 you just get an instrument and you’re in a band – you don’t have to be good enough. For me it was the song writing where it got exciting, I played in bands for a couple of years playing bass and didn’t really write but once I played guitar things got really different really fast.”

Although at times Ward appears lyrically embattled, his musical vision nominates hope as key to his output.

“To some degree with people it’s the way they were born, some people are a little miserable sometimes,” he shrugs. “I have a great fuckin’ life with my friends around me playing huge shows on this massive tour and yet I still get the blues sometimes. And to make myself feel better I write songs.”

Touring solo this month in Australia, Ward says he’s excited to be delving into his back catalogue.

“I’ll be playing Sleepercar, solo and Sparta songs – a combination of things I’ve sung over the years,” he promises. “I’ll do stuff from all the Sparta records and I like playing such different versions that it keeps it fresh.

“I tend to end with Air quite a bit and when you play that song a bit slower and pluck on an acoustic it takes on this really beautiful feeling when I sing it really soft. It did it at the Soundwave festival last time and it felt like it went over really well at a festival setting so I’m pretty sure you can count on that one – it’s my standard closer.”

JIM WARD plays UQ’s Red Room with One Small Step For Landmines on Saturday Dec 13.

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