VAUDEVILLIAN Lisburn singer-songwriter Duke Special is breaking away from past practice on his 2015 album, Look Out Machines!.

Released last week and now being promoted on a 21-date solo tour that pops into the Leeds Brudenell Social Club tomorrow (Tuesday), the songs are his most personal to date, placing himself vulnerably in the first person.

"It's the first one for a while that hasn't been a concept album, and I found there were more songs than I needed – possibly 25 – which is good as they had to fight to make the record," says the dreadlocked Duke, whose real name is Peter Wilson.

Looking back on such albums as 2012's Oh Pioneers and 2009's Stage, Book And Silver Screen project, he reflects: "I really valued and enjoyed going down those other avenues, exploring photography, theatre and literature.

"It was right for me to do that because it's really interesting stuff for me to explore and it's exhausting writing about your own experiences but, equally, it now feels a good time to come back to expressing more personal things again.

"There were personal songs on the last album too, but the concept did come before the songs. This time I allowed the songs to come out as they were."

While Look Out Machines! is not tied to a concept, Duke suggests the record has an overarching theme. "There's a feeling of a man defying machines," he says. "I'm reminding myself that I'm a human being, and that systems that are meant to help us can then tie us down; anything from religion to the way we're meant to conform.

"So the record is a defence against those things, but ironically there are a lot of machines on there! That's contradictory, I know!"

By using Pledge Music's crowdfunding scheme of public donations to finance the recording sessions, Duke gave himself artistic freedom, in keeping with a lyric from the song In A Dive: "I refuse a safety net".

"You have to pick your battles; there are times when a safety net is important, but in that song I'm talking about belief and faith as much as anything, and trusting your own instincts," he says. "As a writer, my job is to fling the arms out wide, articulate things that others struggle to express or feel. It's my job to dare and to take risks, just as the music I like has always been challenging; anyone from Tom Waits to Ivor Cutler to Nick Cave."

At 44, Look Out Machines! represents Duke Special's self-assessment form of life's lot. "This album is a photograph of where I am right now; it feels like a kind of gathering-in. I'm not quite sure how to describe it," he says.

"What's the word where you stay in one place to recharge your batteries, and then you're ready to go again? It feels like that; almost like a little launching-pad."

Duke Special plays Leeds Brudenell Social Club tomorrow. Duke Special's album Look Out Machines! is out now on Stranger Records via Pledge Music.