How did you write that song?

Canberra songwriters Dorothy Jane (DJ) Gosper and Jeff Prime have been doing their stuff for many years in many different genres across the blues, jazz, rock and folk spectrum. It was great to catch up with them and hear some of their songwriting insights from their many years experience of working on songs both individually and collectively. DJ is a little reluctant to be too analytical about son...

Shark & Fox consists of Jaron Freeman-Fox on violin, 12-string viola d’amor and fretless guitar, Emily-Rose Sharkova on accordion and keyboards, and Rose Callaghan on the drums, with all three members lending their voices in a collective roar, or intricate harmony. Their music ranges from crazy up-tempo Eastern European folk with unusual time signatures through to floating atmospheric wonder t...

I was lucky enough to catch up with Erin and Lachlan from Victorian folk duo Broken Creek when they were briefly in Canberra for a gig. They've got a great complementary approach to songwriting - Erin writes the lyrics and Lachlan writes the music..... well it's not quite that straightforward! Erin's crafting of the lyrics suggests melody and rhythm ideas and Lachlan's instrumental...

Chris Johnson is a long time songwriter and lover of guitars. He came to the studio for a chat with his custom-made acoustic guitar built from exclusively Australian timber that he once wrote a book about! Chris has been writing songs since he was in primary school in Brisbane and has always been keen to perform his songs for others. It usually takes an idea to kick off the songwriting process and...

I had a phone chat with Chris and Kayleigh from Canadian folk duo Dandelion Highway whilst they were sitting in their car on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls just before a gig in a vintage record store! They both love songwriting and have written songs independently for many years. Kayleigh who hails from Waterford in Ireland met Chris in Toronto through a shared love of Irish music, tea and pup...

Matt Holborow writes songs and makes guitars! He approaches both in a similar way - learning by doing, trial and error and gradually gaining confidence. Matt has been known by friends and colleagues for a long time as a musician and someone who can change the lyrics of existing songs for a certain occasion. It's only in the past few years that Matt has taken the plunge and started writing his own...

I had the great fortune to chat about songwriting with legendary, and now Melbourne-based, singer/songwriter James Fahy when he was back in Canberra recently. For James, getting going with songwriting during his school and uni years empowered him at a time when things were difficult. He's never looked back! We talked about two phases of songwriting - the creative phase (very short and needs to be...

Rachel Hore is a songwriter, a teacher and a choir leader who started writing songs in an a cappella group and got into writing folk songs (with instruments) much later. The strength of Rachel's voice skills and experience is clear in her songs but she says that she is so busy with her choral work these days that she doesn't have a lot of time for songwriting. Rachel feels very grateful to have me...

Canberra-based singer/songwriter David Mason grew up in the Yorkshire Dales in the UK. Whilst he's played music at various points in his life starting out as a drummer and then a guitar player, he only wrote his first song during the Covid lockdowns. David's songwriting is shaped by his interest in place, memory, myth and the folk tradition. It is also strongly influenced by his roots and connecti...

Lisa Richards is an acclaimed singer, songwriter, musician and voice teacher. She very kindly found the time to stop by the studio to discuss songwriting and play one of her songs live just ahead of a busy tour. In fact it was the first singing performance she had done for a few months after an illness-related layoff. Lisa has been writing songs for 25 years since she formed a songwriting partners...

I had a fabulous chat with internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter Michael Simic (aka Mikelangelo) when he was in Canberra workshopping a new solo musical theatre production. Michael writes dark, funny, crooning folk songs influenced by his European heritage, often with a raucous theatrical vibe. He's been performing these energetic original works under his stage persona of Mikelangelo for mor...

In this episode it was great to catch up with Margaret Lewis who is literally at the very start of her songwriting journey. Margaret stopped by for a chat with Jo Evans who was the subject of last week's episode. Margaret has spent her whole life loving music and singing in choirs and in her words she's "wanted to write songs for a long time but didn't have the intestinal fortitude". Recently she...

Jo Evans writes folk songs about important times, places and people in her life. She is an accomplished singer from years of choir singing and has actively taken up songwriting quite recently. Jo talked about some of the important influences and mentors which have encouraged her to write songs including a songwriting workshop she attended recently - The Big Sing in The Desert - https://bigsingcomm...

Resh, Sofia, Sylvia and Brian from Napoleon Ice Cream stopped by for a songwriting chat and to play some acoustic versions of their songs live in the studio. Describing themselves as "Aussie Asian Nerds who should be home studying but snuck away to make rock music instead", Napoleon Ice Cream craft funky rock songs with a 70s/80s vibe. Resh is the chief songwriter in the band but all fou...

Ben Drysdale has been writing and performing songs for 20 years in various duo and band projects. For much of that time he was a solo songwriter but more recently has got into collaborative songwriting which has significantly increased his output. Curiously collaborative songwriting has also significantly helped him launch a solo career. We discussed Ben's forthcoming single "Listen Now&q...

Jenny Spear and Bridget Croft are two good friends who write intense, energetic songs with awesome harmonies - think Vika and Linda meet Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings in a roadside diner. They have both written and performed songs separately in different bands over many years but are really enjoying co-writing in their current duo (although sometimes 3, 4, 5 or 6-piece outfit) "What She&#39...

Nick-Lee Murphy lives for music, by day fixing guitars at a music store and at other times playing in bands and musically supporting a bunch of different community groups. Nick started writing songs out of a feeling of envy when he saw his mates performing their own songs so he got a guitar and started writing songs himself. He reckons it took him a couple of years to develop his songs to the poin...

Canadian singer-songwriter Heather Hill and I caught up just after the release of her fourth album "Twilight Mist". Heather's songwriting is strongly influenced by the natural environment around her home in Canada and the twilight is a particularly productive time for her to write both in terms of inspiration and the space to be creative after a busy day with work and family. Heather...

Amber Susan started to write songs after many years of classical music training in voice and piano. She had some jazz lessons, learnt how to improvise and stepped over the threshold into the murky world of playing by ear, feeling the vibe and writing songs - she hasn't looked back! Amber and I chatted about the fun that writing songs brings and she explained how songwriting is kind of a third spac...

Songwriter, multi instrumentalist and ukulele virtuoso, A.J. Leonard has been writing songs for 50 years. Sometimes he can write one in a single sitting, others are still not finished after decades. He sees songwriting as an alchemy which he can't quite explain but he recognises that there are mysterious forces fanning a fire within him to write songs. He does usually start with the lyrics tho...

I caught up with Taiwanese-Australian singer-songwriter Kim Yang when she was in Australia briefly to perform at the 2024 National Folk Festival. Kim started writing songs in her mid-twenties partly to articulate important issues in her life. Kim says that, as a shy person, she finds it challenging to initiate conversations but that writing songs can break the ice for her and get her voice heard....

Kieren and Luke from the band Adventure Street have got to be the most enthusiastic music besties I've ever met! They've known each other and played music together since they were kids and spent many years living next door to each other on (yes you've guessed it) Adventure Street which is a real street in Canberra! We had a fantastic chat about how Kieren and Luke work with each other...

Fiona and Blair have been songwriters and performers in various musical projects for a long time. Fairly recently they pooled their songwriting talents in the band The Lonely Fates. It was a real pleasure to hear how these two talented songwriters collaborate to build songs from the ground up. The offer ideas, they listen, they intuite, they soundboard off each other and they trust each other enou...

Alec Randles trained as a finger-style guitarist strongly influenced by Celtic and classical music. He then started writing songs, pop songs coming first, and then songs more and more connected to his Celtic and classical training. In our discussion Alec describes how he needs to be inspired by an issue he wants to "say" something about to write a song. He often starts with a guitar melo...

Bec Taylor's songwriting started with big ambitions when as a 12 year old she and a friend decided to put MacBeth to music! She's written and performed a huge number of songs over the years across just about every genre you can imagine. One of her friends refers to her as the Swiss army knife of songwriting! Bec and I met on the eve of the release of the first single - Photograph - from he...