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Interview

The Songwriting for the CD

'Down the Mother's Track'

Next month: Vocal Technique

The songs on the CD 'Down the Mother's Track' are written over a four year period. How did you come to choose those songs?

I knew the album was going to be very rhythm based and very vocal based, so I sorted through lots of songs. I made list upon list and every couple of weeks, the odd song would change. I didn't take the view that I would record lots of songs and pick the ones that turned out the best, because I felt that my material was so diverse that I had to make a commitment long before that.

How much material did you have to choose from?

Probably 20 or 30 songs. Some of them are pure A Cappella some are acoustic guitar based and some are more dance/R&B based.

So the other 12 to 25 songs were rejected.

Not because they weren't good enough, just because they didn't suit. When I write songs, the rejects either go into pile B for more work or out the door. The rest of the songs are waiting to be recorded. I keep upgrading songs continually, even sometimes during the recording process.

So tell us about your songwriting process.

It usually starts with lyrics although lately I'm challenging myself to start from the music first. My music is very groove based, even if it's accoustic, so I find a feel first, on the guitar. The melody comes over that. It usually takes an hour or two to get the concept of what the song is going to feel like and then the work begins. There's usually more lyrics to write or change, more melodic development and a bridge to write.

The lyric side of it is a bit of a mystery to me. I have to really sit down and put my mind to it. The music has always been more natural to me.

Hitting the high notes at the Melbourne Folk Club 26 Feb 2000

Pictures from the launch

Annie shakes that funky thang.

So do you start arranging it as you write a song or after you've finished writing it?

The initial feel that came with the writing of the song is usually the direction that the rest of the arrangement will take. Sometimes it suggests a lot and sometimes very little. Take for example 'Woven lullaby' I wrote that with a simple drum beat on my middle eastern drum. There really wasn't a lot to suggest where it would eventually go. My friend Sigy was around and I asked him to try some harmonica on it but it just didn't do it. I was really stumped with this one, when Sigy mentioned that the melody had a real Russian sound to it. In a flash the whole arrangement came into my head, the ambient vocals, the cello etc...

It was the only song on the CD that came that way, the rest were really a process of experimentation and putting in the hours.

Studio Pt2
Studio Pt1

Earth Beat

Girl with Guitar
Vocal Technique Songwriting
CD Production