1.The First Song I Wrote

I wrote my first song lying in a hospital waiting for surgery after breaking my ankle when I was 17. It was a complete rip-off of the old “rain, rain, go away” rhyme – I just changed the words at “pain, pain, go away” and added some melodramatic verses to go with it… genius, right? Fair to say the song has been long ripped up and thrown in the bin.

2. The Last Song I Released

I actually just released a version of AC/DC’s ‘Let Me Put My Love Into You’ that will be featuring on an upcoming compilation album called Back In Blue. The album is a dedication to the 35th anniversary of AC/DC’s Back In Black album and proceeds will be donated to the beyondblue organisation in an effort to raise awareness for depression and anxiety.

3.Songwriting Secrets

I wish I knew the secret. As I’m sure all songwriters do! For me it’s mostly jotting down ideas that randomly come into my head and then setting some time aside to build on those ideas. It’s usually a timely process, unfortunately. I just don’t think I’m one of those guys who can just put a song together in a couple of hours and be happy with it.

4.The Song That Makes Me Proud

I guess the song that I find a lot of people asking for is an old tune called ‘Steam Train’, which actually has nothing to do with a steam train at all. It was written in a metaphorical mindset and the lyrics are kind of based around the idea of, “Ain’t nobody gonna get in my way and tell me I can’t do what I want to do.”

5.The Song That Changed My Life

Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’ was a pretty pivotal song for me personally. I remember discovering Dylan when I was around 16, 17 years old after my mum had bought me one of his ‘greatest hits’ albums, and his songs really spoke to me. I always felt like he was getting some serious shit off his chest and at that time, I really needed to do the same and began to do this through writing. I also may have never started playing harmonica if it wasn’t for my “I want to sound like Dylan” phase in my younger years.

Shaun Kirk appears atThe Vanguard, Friday May 6.

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