1.The First Song I Wrote
I suppose in high school with my best friend Anabel, we used to sing Lauryn Hill and Wyclef (I know right?!) songs in two-part harmonies, and then tried to make up our own songs when we taught ourselves the guitar around 14-15 years old. I couldn’t remember it for the life of me, but I will ask her next time I see her.
2.The Last Song I Released
I have just finished recording my next full album with my friend Niall Anderson, who is producing it. We recorded it with some wonderful local Sydney musicians including Adam Pringle, Jonathan Zwartz and Jim Moginie. The awesome Surry Hills Festival will be the first audience to hear the new tracks from the album!
3.Songwriting Secrets
I think I have learnt that songs and ideas come to you at any time. If you can control it, or are lucky enough to be a full-time musician to just drop everything and roll with the ideas that randomly pop into your head, that is the key. I carry a notepad and use my iPhone recorder constantly. I love writing in the morning as soon as I’ve woken from my dreams.
4.The Song That Makes Me Proud
I wrote a little saltwater ukulele song about my home in Darwin called the ‘September Song’ years ago. It’s cute but it pretty much sums up how much fun life was, living in that town. I also love the fact that ukulele groups from all over the world contact me and tell me they play that song or email me YouTube clips of them performing it. Even Jimmy Buffett contacted me to tell me how much he loved it. It’s not the type of tune that sums up my songwriting style but it’s a bit of fun and it makes people smile – not many of my songs do that [laughs]!
5.The Song That Changed My Life
‘My Island Home’ I would say is one of them. Mainly because growing up in a big Aboriginal family in the NT, it’s a song people play all the time. Now, as I am older and I live in a city so far from the type of life I know and miss, it reminds me of how important that song is to the rest of the country, and makes me proud of and appreciate that where I came from and that era I grew up in in the NT is significant to the overall Australian musical landscape.
Listen out for Leah Flanagan playing atSurry Hills Festival 2015, on Saturday September 26, takimg place atWard Park and Shannon Reserve.
