1. The First Song I Wrote
It’s hard to remember. I used to mess around with silly songs as a kid in our family band but the first serious one… I think it was a love song written to impress a girl in high school and never worked. So maybe my brain has just blocked that out.
2. The Last Song I Released
It’s called ‘Heart Shaped Tattoo’ and was written for a friend of mine living in LA. I was thinking about how as children, we get told to chase the stars et cetera, but in a city like Los Angeles there’s so many different types of stars and it’s easy to get caught chasing the wrong ones.
3. Songwriting Secrets
‘Heart Shaped Tattoo’ is also quite different for me as it kind of slides in and out of time and flows from word to word rather than any guitar idea that I would usually base something on.
4. The Song That Makes Me Most Proud
‘The Nightingale’ is one that’s been used at a few weddings and gets requested from the crowd most nights. It’s a lot of fun to play and was probably the first thing I wrote that combined some cool percussive guitar work with a catchy groove and melody that seems to connect with people. Another song that comes to mind would be ‘I Grew Up Where I Could See The Stars’, which is a love note to the far South Coast of New South Wales, where I come from.
5. The Song That Changed My Life
I’ve always chased artists who combine great musicianship with beautiful songs and ‘London’ by Jeff Lang has always done this and more for me. I grew up thinking that I had to choose between being a guitar player or a songwriter, but watching Jeff do both so well when I first saw him play Narooma Blues Festival when I was 15 really changed my thinking there. His slide guitar playing is out of this world on this track and the song is absolutely beautiful: one that could resonate with anybody I think.
Daniel Champagne’sThe Heartland Hurricanes: A Live In Studio Recording is out now through MGM.
