1.The First Song I Wrote
The first song I ever wrote was a poem about anti-uranium mining protests in the Kakadu National Park. I was nine. It was a kind of love song to the canopy and its musical inhabitants, the native birds. I remember it but I honestly haven’t thought about it in years. I mostly do write love songs now.
2.The Last Song I Released
My latest release is a track titled ‘A Place For Me’. It was originally written about an old friend of mine who arrived in Australia in the early ’90s as a refugee fleeing the war in Bosnia. It has taken on a more universal theme of displacement and references the Arab Spring and more specifically the Syrian refugee crisis. The brilliant pianist Andrew Bruce co-wrote it with me with Miles Thomas on drums and Jarrol on bass, Simon Cohen engineering. You can stream it on Spotify and download it on iTunes.
3.Songwriting Secrets
I don’t think there are any secrets – if you want to write, you will. The practice and craft of art can always be improved but the desire has to be there initially. I hand write with a pen in a diary/journal style, mostly in a stream of consciousness; I’m not concerned with rhyme. The words come first. Then I usually sing them a capella, playing with melodies until something flows and then take it to the band to harmonise and develop.
4.The Song That Makes Me Proud
‘Lungs’ would be the one that has had the best response. It has a visual component to it, a film clip I produced with Virginie Laverdure, so that may influence people’s perception. I developed vocal nodes on my larynx that forced me to stop singing, and in fact made me silent for three months – it forced me to see who I was without my voice, my livelihood and my sense of identity. ‘Lungs’ is about that time.
5.The Song That Changed My Life
‘The Other Woman’, written by Jessie Mae Robinson and performed by Nina Simone. I can’t say if it’s the melancholy, the lyrics or Nina’s fierce tone. I go back to it to remind myself of integrity in songwriting, as an example of how to tell a story. I use it to connect to my solitude.
TheLeadbelly hosts Inês, along withJames Bennett,on Friday November 11.
