How Trials turned traumatic childhood into triumphant solo album

Multi-award-winning producer, rapper, collaborator and proud Ngarrindjeri man Trials has released his first ever solo project. (Supplied: Daniel Hendle Rankine)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names of people who have died.

For 25 years, Trials has been making music with or for others. But now, he's doing it for himself.

Getting his start in the 2000s Adelaide music scene as part of Funkoars, the prolific producer, rapper and songwriter, real name Daniel Hendle Rankine, is best known as one half of award-hoovering hip hop duo A.B. Original.

His credits include a long history with Hilltop Hoods, Australian music royalty including Archie Roach, Paul Kelly and Gurrumul, rock acts DZ Deathrays and Dune Rats, plus TV and film soundtrack work.

Trials now goes it alone with the release of his debut solo album Hendle.

Trials catches up with Dylan Lewis to dig into making his first solo album, Hendle.

Its title drawn from his middle name, and that of his paternal great-grandfather, Hendle is a deeply personal project that packs a life's worth of personal and professional experience into its punchy 29-minute run time.

It's an unfiltered retelling of the proud Ngarrindjeri man's journey, from traumatic upbringing to fatherhood, from substance abuse to sobriety. A tale of displacement, domestic violence and systemic racism.

Trials wrote, produced, mixed and performed nearly every note on what he calls a "guilty pleasure project'" that combines all his musical interests and pulls no punches.

If you need help immediately, call emergency services on triple-zero.

The album begins with rueful acoustic guitars on Run To The River, where Rankine recounts a childhood memory of fleeing with his mother in the dead of night from his abusive father. ("We was home free if we did not wake him.")

They started a new life in the UK, only to find the prejudices they thought they'd escaped followed them overseas, with Rankine the subject of bigotry and school bullying.

That experience is tackled in the claustrophobic Six Letter Word. Need a clue? "It starts with N", Rankine reveals at the end of several verses constructed solely from other six-letter words.

"Every single one," the self-confessed 'word nerd' explains. "The second I realised I had two that rhymed I understood, 'Well, I've walked into a room I won't be able to leave for a while. Might as well get comfortable.'"

Elsewhere, You Could Never Hate Me Like I Do twists Rankine's self-loathing into a muscular, triumphant positive. How can his haters bring hi