As it happens, I’ve known Heath Cullen for over 20 years now.
We became friends at school, bonding over Pearl Jam and Neil Young (though I don’t think he ever forgave my affection for ‘A Man Needs A Maid’), drinking cheap liquor and chasing rogue cows through the valley underbrush.I recall brewing tea while he sat at the piano trying to learn The Whitlams’ ‘Buy Now Pay Later (Charlie No. 2)’, and years later, watching again as he played alongside Tim Freedman as part of his touring band. The point is, as long as I have known Cullen, he has been treading a musical path, with a singular purpose that has led to performances around the world. In all that time, he has never doubted the unlikely shape of his days.
“I think any artist always has moments of doubt in what they’re doing in any particular time. But doubt as to what I do in general, no. Not really. I don’t know what else to do. I would go completely nuts if I didn’t do what I do. I taught guitar lessons for ten years, and that was great as a side job, as close as you can get to making music. And that kind of work is good because it’s flexible, you get to be your own boss. But really, the whole time I was sitting there strumming Van Morrison songs, I really just wanted to be out there making my own music.”
Three celebrated albums later, it’s clear Cullen’s jump to music of his own was a success. To this day, however, the actual art of songwriting remains something of a mystery.
“I tried to be regimented. I don’t know how that works. I just try to be ready to catch it when it floats downstream. And it’s not always there. But I do find that if I put myself in a place of pressure, I get better results. As a writer I do well with a deadline. The last record, Outsiders, I booked the session for that record and didn’t actually have any songs,” he laughs.
While those artists who occupied so much of our teenage years still have their place in Cullen’s affections, as the tall, softly spoken man hiding behind his fringe drifted back and forth from Candelo to Los Angeles, his musical tastes inevitably began to expand. North America is still a strong influence – the words of Cormac McCarthy in particular – but his musical sensibilities stretch far and wide.
“American music, in its scope or influence, goes really deep. But I listen to all sorts. I love Australian music, music from the British Isles. Musically I wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t been listening to people like Bert Jansch, Martin Carthy. And songwriters like Don Walker, who is one of my all-time favourites. But there’s just so much music that comes out of America.
“The thing that I really like listening to most of the time is early blues and country music. I love Hank Williams as a songwriter, I love Skip James as a guitarist and singer. I think a lot of Australian musicians and songwriters try to pretend that they aren’t influenced by anything American, because of some kind of cultural pride. But it’s there, and you can’t pretend it’s not. Ironically, a lot of those same people probably have a discomfort with their Australianness as well. We’re an interesting creature, I think, us Australians. But I really don’t see the boundaries so much. I try to ignore them.
“To me, it’s all folk music. It’s all jazz music, blues music, your traditional Irish music. To me that’s all folk music. Even rock’n’roll. Chuck Berry fits in there for me. It’s real music by and for real people, and that kind of music is just going to go on forever.”
Catch Heath Cullen at theNational Folk Festival 2017, running Thursday April 13 – Monday April 17 atExhibition Park, Canberra.
