1.The First Song I Wrote

Not sure if I remember the first song I wrote, but in high school I was in a band with my brother and friend Pete. I remember around that time (mid-’90s) seeing a Sydney band called Lantern that blew my mind. They were kinda like what the Pixies might sound like if they wrote sea shanties. Or at least that’s what it sounded like to me. Anyway, I wrote a song inspired by Lantern about being in love and lonely and lost at sea. The other stuff we wrote in that band was very experimental, Mr. Bungle-inspired stuff.

2.The Last Song I Released

The last song I released is the first track off our upcoming EP. The song is called ‘Awake’ and I wrote it after seeing a biographical film called Awake about Paramahansa Yogananda. I know it’s cheesy and a cliché to say but both the film and Yogananda’s autobiography had quite a profound impact on me. Also around the time I wrote ‘Awake’ I was listening to a lot of Neil Young and George Harrison, so wanted to write something reminiscent of that sound. ‘Awake’ was also a conscious attempt to steer away from the more brooding side of my previous songwriting.

3.Songwriting Secrets

I’m intrigued about how/when/why songs are written. Sometimes it’s through hard work and method. Sometimes it’s just about being still and allowing the song to come to you. More often than not it seems like a puzzle that needs to be pieced together. Though very occasionally a song will just fall out of your brain from nowhere in its entirety.

4.The Song That Makes Me Proud

I don’t know if I’ve written that song yet. But if I had to choose I think I’d pick a song that’ll be on the upcoming EP called ‘Repentance Song’. It’s an example of that kind of song that occasionally just spills out of your brain from nowhere. I like it because I don’t feel like I can claim ownership of it, unlike other songs that involved some kind of real work. I guess it’s the communal sense of it that I like.

5.The Song That Changed My Life

There’s been many but the most recent is pretty much everything by Cass McCombs. I was at a party a few years ago and his song ‘Windfall’ came on and I remember being breathless when I heard it. It really resonated with me, so much so that I kept playing it until my friend, whose party it was, kicked me off the turntables [laughs]. Cass McCombs’ song ‘County Line’ is also another favourite. There’s a song on the EP that I wrote that pretty much is just trying to rewrite ‘County Line’.

Eush,The Tambourine Girls and Leroy Lee play atThe Gasoline Pony on Sunday April 10.

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