I first stumbled across Mia Dyson quite by chance, though it turns out I was rather late to the party.
It was the Woodford Folk Festival, and sharing the stage with Jeff Lang and Matt Andersen was this guitar-wielding typhoon blowing everyone away with vocals so husky you felt instantly compelled to swill fine Scotch and smoke cheap cigars, probably simultaneously. Her songs are bluesy vignettes that have already caught countless ears, and as her new EP approaches, the enchantment is likely to continue. This time, however, her songwriting followed a different path.
“I’ve been writing with my husband, which is interesting,” Dyson explains. “Before, I’ve always written by myself. He’s always written poetry and stories, and I started trying to put his poems to music, because they were really interesting, different forms to the way that I would write lyrics. We found this real, unexpected synergy there.
“I’ve tried co-writing before, and I’ve found it pretty difficult. You don’t want to step on toes, you don’t want to hurt somebody’s vision, it’s tricky. But with him, he doesn’t really have any agenda. He isn’t a songwriter per se, but now we’ve written a bunch of songs together. For me, lyrics take a long time, but because he’s such a wordsmith, they come much faster to him. So we’ve been able to write a lot more than I normally would. I’m just interested in so much more, and exploring so much more, especially the next recording. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here or become a totally different artist, but I want to experiment.”
‘Tearing Up The Lawn’ is the first fruit of this collaboration, a classic rock number with Dyson’s trademark near-anguished vocals and guitar hooks, and the lyrical strength is evident from the very first verse. It’s an intriguing taste of the EP to come in early 2016, and clearly demonstrates that the strength of a good marriage is founded on collaborative songwriting and good communication (well, and love, I suppose).
“I feel like co-writing can be magic, but it requires a kind of luck of the draw,” says Dyson. “I mean sure, I know in Nashville they can get in there from nine to five and co-write songs all the time, but that produces a certain kind of song. I think a singer-songwriter isn’t trying to do that, they’re trying to express something that is meaningful to them. There’s no formula you can stick to.
“I think when two songwriters who admire each other’s writing get together, the danger is that you don’t bring the best out of each other. You don’t want to sit there saying, ‘No, not that idea; no, not that one.’ That’s basically how I write when I’m by myself,” she laughs. “It’s mostly just me saying no. Writers who can sit there and work every day, I try to be that disciplined or I just won’t write. I can’t wait for inspiration. I have to go looking for it.”
Part of that searching has involved return visits to the US, which seems to have become a second home to Dyson over the years. Having first moved there in 2009, Dyson has yo-yoed across the oceans ever since, notching experiences and influences to her musical palette along the way. At the time of our conversation she has only been back in the country a handful of days, having spent the last 12 months in the States following the release of Idyllwild last year, and just in time for her upcoming tour alongside The Waifs.
“I still think of Australia as my home, but there’s an attitude there of openness and inspiration, a sense that it’s really great to go after your art, that it’s not important how successful you are. And yeah, I know there are so many other attitudes over there as well, the whole shallow spectrum of Hollywood success. But there’s also a world of people just making art for its own sake, which I love. And there’s people doing that here too, of course. But it took going over there for me to see it. It’s like not being in your hometown. After growing up in a rural town, when I first moved to Melbourne I was all, ‘Wow! I’m free! I’m anonymous!’ It’s kind of like that going to the States.”
It also doesn’t hurt that the US seems preternaturally aligned with musical odysseys. Jumping in a tour bus and sweeping from coast to coast, leaving a trail of larger-than-life characters and raucous gigs. Dyson is living Cameron Crowe’s dream.
“Absolutely, and honestly, the mysticism and romanticism of America has not gone for me. I think on the first trip you will just see the surface, all of the McDonald’s. The shitty things about America are very visible. But there’s an incredible landscape there, and a mythology behind so many places. I get excited when I drive through certain towns and think, ‘That’s in that song!’ It’s silly, but it’s such a shame that I don’t feel that way when I hear songs about Australia.
“I don’t know if everyone is like that with their own country. It seems like Americans sing about their country with a real reverence that most Australians just don’t quite have. I love Australia and I love the landscape, but I don’t feel the same awe. Like, ‘Khe Sanh’ just doesn’t have the same ring for me,” she laughs.
Mia Dysonsupports The Waifs at Enmore Theatre on Thursday November 5.
