Now his own songs are emerging.

Almost 30 years ago, he stood aside from Cold Chisel and released his first solo album, Matchbook, which featured the massive radio single Tucker’s Daughter.

Believe it or not, that was in 1989.

Ian Moss wrote the music to Tucker’s Daughter and the hook “Build me up, tear me down”, but Cold Chisel’s piano man Don Walker wrote the song's story to suit Moss’s guitar drive.

In Chisel, with four songwriters, Moss wrote Bow River, Never Before (on East) and No Good for You (on Circus Animals).

This month Ian Moss has released his first solo album of original songs, the self-titled Ian Moss, where has either written or co-written every song bar one.

The songwriting sessions for the material were done in Nashville with Sydney’s Sam Hawksley who now lives in Nashville as part of seminal US folk-rock outfit, the Bo Deans.

He is nervous when he speaks with Fairfax Media, but as the drum and guitar intro of the slowly building first track If Another Day (Love Rewards Its Own) shows the polished growl that defined Cold Chisel, his confidence builds.

The drummer here is Kerry Jacobson, from Dragon, who now lives in Brisbane.

By the time you are well into the second track, the raw Rolling Stones-inspired rocker A Girl Like You, there is no doubt whose album it is, with Moss’s vocals confident of the rock groove.

“On the song itself I actually dreamt the whole verse melody,” he says.

“It was in that late REM sleep before you wake up. I woke up and thought that’s a cool little rock song.”

“I was thinking I wish I had written that and I woke up and thought 'that’s my song'.

“So I grabbed my phone and recorded it.”

“And when we came to produce it, I’ve always loved that Richards' Start Me Up, real rhythmic, chordy thing and I kept leaning on the Keith Richards thing.”

Lyrically that song harks back to girls, Sydney clubs – the Manzil Room – the 5am hook-ups and departures.

Both tracks will be more dynamic and punchier live. But it’s a fine start to an album of original rock songs and introduces a bass player, Jonathan Zion from Melbourne, who announces himself with a swaggering, thick sound.

Zion was playing with Pete Murray and Ian Moss met him while he and Murray toured Queensland's coal towns.

In the soul-blues Fistful of Money, his bass work has the Midas touch.

“He plays in all sorts of bands in Melbourne and he’s also a very, very accomplished upright bass player,” Moss says.

“The guy is just a phenomenal musician.”

Most attention on the album will go towards the spiritual blues song Broadway about his son Julian and the only song Ian Moss has not written on the album, My Suffering, written by Cold Chisel drummer Steve Prestwich.

Prestwich died in 2011, but this song goes back to a 1990 church-organ driven demo recorded at Moss’s Sydney house.

“I remember I had a little studio under my house and he left it with me. And I added the guitars and the vocals. The rest is all machine because Steve had programmed the drums and I produced and mixed it myself.

“It was the last song for the album. I was about to sign off on the album and I was asked why wasn’t that beautiful song of Steve’s not on the album?

“And I searched through my hard drive and found it.

“It had such a great feel and I am just really of the version we chose. I used the original demo. And I’m just so glad here to pay homage to Steve.”

Ian Moss has another band. Here are his single-word descriptions of each of Cold Chisel's members after almost four decades.

Don Walker: “Measured”. Jimmy Barnes: “Impulsive”. Phil Small: “Serendipitous”; Ian Moss: “modest”; and Prestwich (in memoriam) “Cheerful.”

Ian Moss was released on March 9. Moss plays acoustic shows during May, then with his band from June.

He returns to Brisbane for two shows with his band at the Tivoli on Friday, June 29, and Saturday, June 30.

Tickets from his website here.