Lisa Mitchell poses to promote her new single The Boys. Picture: Stephen Cooper

Singers don’t often star in their own narrative music videos, preferring to leave acting to actors.

But Mitchell proves to be a natural leading lady in the sweetly poignant clip directed by ARIA Award-nominated filmmaker Luci Schroder.

The director, musician and her co-stars in The Boys had the luxury of a three-day shoot in Mitchell’s hometown of Albury on the NSW/Victoria border, with the time and look of the short film-style clip suggesting they may have even had a decent budget.

“Yeah I did,” she says, smiling. “Usually it’s all jammed into one day.

“Luci’s narrative for the video made me feel naturally inclined to become the character, which was inspired by me and the song.”

Like all good pop videos, there is a love interest. Mitchell said she preferred acting that part with a stranger than her partner, fellow musician Jordan Wilson of folk duo Georgia Fair.

“I haven’t done much acting but I think it would be easier to act in that intimate setting with somebody you didn’t know as opposed to somebody you did,” she says.

The song was inspired by a day she spent with Wilson and his childhood friends, the young men reconnecting after one of them had lost their father.

Mitchell said she didn’t realise how special the day was until much later, wondering why it kept coming back to her and eventually making it into a song.

“I think it’s fascinating how men connect with each other and how it is so different to how women connect with each other,” she says.

“I guess I was pleasantly surprised by the buoyancy of this group of guys; because they grew up together, they reconnected with their younger selves.”

It has been two years since Mitchell released her previous single Wah Ha. Her last record was 2012’s Bless This Mess.

Mitchell needed to store up some life experience before she could write and record her third record Warriors, which will be out in October.

She began work with fellow musician Tim Harvey before she and Wilson did what most twenty-something Australias do and headed for Europe to live in London and Paris for several months.

Mitchell jokes her European activities included official cat-sitter for a friend’s feline in Paris and dance and movement classes, particularly hip hop.

The Boys was inspired by a hangout with her boyfriend and his mates. Picture: Stephen Cooper.Source:News Corp Australia

She is aware and amused someone might think it incongruous for this folk pop singer to be busting out hip hop moves.

“I am very curious and like doing a lot of different things. I had been working on an organic farm and more recently, I have been into movement and dance, whether it’s exercise or creative choreography,” she says.

“In the live show, I am doing a lot move movement even though I am not really a dancer.

“I was a soccer kid — Bend It Like Beckham was my favourite film — but when I was in London, I would Google to find the local dance classes, a lot of contemporary and hip hop.”

Living overseas also afforded Mitchell the kind of anonymity which allows songwriters to be observers of the human condition so they have more to write about than their own experiences.

But she is also thoroughly enjoys the interaction with fans, that sweet, shy inquiry “Are you Lisa?” at the cafe or bar.

“I get it a little bit and it’s always so lovely. The incredible thing about having some kind of public voice is you get to have a conversation with the public,” she says.

Mitchell counters the negative public conversation which can arise via social media by focusing on the positive.

“Anyone in the public eye is going to get some form of negative comment, it’s just life. You will always find someone at a party that you don’t understand and get annoyed at,” she says.

“I deal with it by focusing on the good comments and I keep social media out of my bedroom.”

HEAR: The Boys out now; Warrior on October 14, available for pre-order now.

SEE: Lisa Mitchell opens for Grouplove, Oxford Art Factory, August 16 and 17; Corner Hotel, Melbourne, August 18.