"Don't you have a maths test to study for," she yells at some recalcitrant boys more intent on riding their scooters than hitting the books.

A lot's happened in the 25 years since Thorn and her sister Donna Simpson first threw their guitars in the back of a combi van and headed up the West Australian coast, where they stumbled across Josh Cunningham in a pub in Broome and morphed into The Waifs.

Thorn has three sons and divides her time between Utah and Australia. Simpson's in Western Australia with a family of her own. Josh Cunningham and his family move back and forth between the US and the sleepy NSW south coastal town of Moruya.

A lot of "life" has happened, says Thorn, now 43, life that has been squeezed in between recording and touring, relationships, heartbreak, children, love.

"And that's the great thing about it. When we come to gigs I can feel that the people we're playing to have been through the same stuff and I feel that connection on stage."

When it came to commemorating their 25 years, that personal connection with their fans was important to The Waifs.

"We thought how can we make this anniversary feel different for us and for our fans," says Thorn.

"We asked ourselves what did our fans want to hear ... and we joked maybe all they wanted was to hear us sitting around the kitchen table playing guitar so that's what we did."

Thorn, Simpson and touring regulars Dave McDonald and Ben Franz headed to Moruya, and plonked themselves in Cunningham's kitchen for a couple of weeks. Simpson would cook meals, rhythms would be banged out on some old suitcases, and the crickets and the birds would provide the background sounds.

"We had no idea of what we were going to do once we got there, what songs we had, we even talked about doing some covers of Australian classics that we loved," says Thorn.

"But once we got in there and we sat around facing each other … we started kicking around some things we had and it ended up being 30 songs."

And so the eighth Waifs album, Ironbark, grew organically and the result is as warm and spontaneous and seductive as anything in their impressive back catalogue.

"It was a really nice way for us to acknowledge the time we've had together," says Thorn.

"The music flowed really intuitively and easily, we were relaxed, we had fun, this is what it's meant to be like."

The experience seems to have reinvigorated the group. Thorn admits there have been many times in the past 25 years when they've all looked at each other and said "this isn't fun any more, let's give it a break" but then something happens that fires them all up again. And usually it's about that connection with the fans.

"A woman came to a gig once and snuck backstage and told us this story about how she and her son son had done a trip through Canada together, he was 19 or something at the time, and he played The Waifs all the time in the car.

"She said she hated our music, hated our CDs, but he would insist on playing it ... and it became something of a joke between them.

"She told us that he passed on tragically not long after that trip and for her, the music was a connection to him and she came to our gigs to spend time with her son.

"You hear a story like that and you're reminded that what you're doing has some meaning and purpose in a community, in a life."

Ironbark is out now.

Tour dates:

WA: Perth, March 2; Margaret River, March 4; Denmark, March 5, Quindanning, March 6; Fremantle, March 9; Broome, April 15.

SA: Adelaide, March 11, Port Fairy, March 12 and 13.

VIC: Shepparton, March 14; Bendigo, March 28; Melbourne, March 29 and 30.

ACT: Canberra, March 16.

NSW: Albury, March 15; Katoomba, March 18; Thirroul, March 19; Sydney, April 1; Bangalow, April 4.

Tasmania: Hobart, March 25; Devonport, March 26.

Queensland: Brisbane, April 6; Gold Coast, April 8; Cairns, April 9.

Northern Territory: Alice Springs, April 12; Darwin, April 13.

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