That’s how long it has been since The Veronicas, the Brisbane pop duo of twins Lisa and Jess, released their last album, Hook Me Up. The album went double platinum in Australia.

But 2007 is so long ago that MySpace was still a thing for bands, tweeting was a novelty and no one had heard of One Direction, much less Five Seconds of Summer.

In that time the twins kept splitting their time between Brisbane and the US, kept touring the world with their band until 2010, then kept writing and working towards album No 3.

In 2012, a single, Lolita, appeared, said to be the precursor to an album to be released late in the year, rumoured to be called Life On Mars.

But the album never appeared as the twins battled with their record label, Warner, who wouldn’t sign off releasing new music despite an album being ready to roll.

With the turmoil in the record business, declining sales and a turnover of executive staff, The Veronicas no longer felt at home on their old label. This year the band was finally able to ink a new deal with another global giant in Sony Music, with long-awaited third album The Veronicas set for release on Friday.

Jess doesn’t hold back about the fracture with their former label.

“It’s like when you get out of a bad relationship and you meet a new partner and realise how amazing things can be, that’s been our experience since signing with Sony,’’ Jess says. “They have been the most incredible team of people, they are all in it for the right reasons. They are in it for the music and to support their artists.

“(At Warner) we didn’t feel they understood us anymore and we had outgrown that relationship. When we met with Sony, we completely clicked with those people.’’

There must have been times when the behind-the-scenes drama sucked the joy out of making music?

“Lisa and I were very conscious of not letting ourselves get to that place. We are songwriters. We love writing and creating art and connecting with our fans. We were very conscious of not letting ourselves become jaded because of a business experience.

“That’s why we continued to live in America and continued in the studio collaborating with people and immersing ourselves in creativity. Of course, you can’t help but become frustrated but we would just channel that into our music.’’

They travelled, experienced life, including Jess’s relationship with Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, which came to a close in 2012. The songs were still flowing, but how would their fans react after The Veronicas had spent so long with their new music on the backburner?

That was answered with the September release of You Ruin Me, a piano ballad that went straight to No 1 in Australia and this week went to No. 3 on the iTunes chart in the UK.

Clearly, there is plenty of personal emotion poured into the song.

Jess says: “We had our record done but it doesn’t matter what’s happening with our records, we are always writing. We were in Sydney having a meeting about the single we were going to release for the album. We had been writing all day and went out for dinner with our co-writers.

“We got back to the studio and Lisa said, ‘I really want to write a ballad about this situation that I’m going through. Can we start now?’ It was about 11pm but no one was rushing to get back to the hotel. We stayed there and wrote it and recorded it within a couple of hours.’’

At this point no one was thinking of it as a single or the song that could break them to a new international audience.

“We didn’t record it like we would normally do a single, divvying up the vocals or anything like that. It was something we did for ourselves, completely self-indulgent. When people heard it and it got that reaction that it did, we were blown away that people connected with it in that way.’’

But that kind of connection is what the twins have trained for all of their lives. Their dad Joseph played in a band, mother Colleen was involved in musical theatre. The girls started performing at the age of five, and always as a twin package. It helped them stand out from the crowd, whether appearing in musicals, playing covers around Brisbane and the Gold Coast, or playing at a Lord Mayor’s Christmas Carols in 2000.

Two years later Jess got a guitar for her 18th birthday and the original songs started to flow. And while their early demo tape won them attention from the right people, most Australian record companies passed on them before the twins decided to base themselves in Los Angeles.

Even as they released their debut album, The Secret Life of the Veronicas, in 2005, Jess seemed totally prepared for whatever lay ahead. She told me at the time: “When you a sign a major deal with a record company, there are a lot of opinions and a lot of people who think their way is the right way. You have to be strong enough to withstand that. You have to be comfortable with yourself, know what you want and stand by your opinion.’’

It seems like the twins are still firmly standing by those opinions judging by the tracks for the new album, with song titles like Line of Fire, Cruel, Cold and Did You Miss Me? (I’m a Veronica).

“Because the album has been written over such a long period of time, we are constantly evolving and being influenced by different types of music,’’ Jess says. “There is everything from super pop stuff to acoustic songs to trip hop to more rock’n’roll stuff, more blues and swampy rock. It’s a very eclectic record.’’

You Ruin Me is obviously a song about a broken relationship. Not with a record company, by any chance?

“We weren’t thinking that, but it applies,’’ Jess says. “You look around your life and you see things coming to an end and see where the rebirth is, the opportunity to start something new and feel uplifted. Our fans who know our albums know we’ve done ballads but we have never released this kind of song before (as a single).

“It is a different side of us that people haven’t seen before and we’re really excited about that. We don’t want to do what people expect of us, that’s not the kind of artists we are.’’

So troubled relationships are behind you? “Oh yeah, we capture all that stuff on the record, there are songs there that reflect that. But as women we are not ones to dwell on s---. We want to move on and inspire people, sing our songs and tell our stories. That’s what it’s about for us, being able to tell our stories.’’

Sounds like they have quite a few they can’t wait to share.

The Veronicas (Sony) is out on Friday