“I’ve found myself in plenty of dark moods over the years,” Walker admits. “Or I could be talking with a friend who shared a similar experience, and from that I might be able to take those ideas and develop a story. That’s the challenge, to tell a good story in three to five minutes. I guess others are going to be the judge if it works or not. I’ll try to have some story that needs to be resolved somehow, songs that overcome something. In saying that, it’s also fun to leave things open ended. You always try and give people a bit of a mix.”
His latest album, Through The Forest, finds Walker wearing his struggles on his sleeve. You suspect there is little separation between singer and creation, and that the catharsis of sharing personal insights and observations must be quite strong. Yet, even when these songs were little more than a melody in Walker’s head and some words on a page, there was perspective to be had.
“Usually there’ll be that kernel of truth you find that I try and build a song around. You try not to make things too personal of course, but I try to write songs that a lot of people could relate to, but still have quite a bit of intimacy to them, if that makes any sense. But it can be a challenge. Anyone who has gone through [anxiety] knows how hard it is to make something constructive from it. With the title track, I was in a bit of a down period. But I had my stuff set up, and felt like playing guitar. So I started playing, hit record, and caught what came out. I played it start to finish and sang the words off the top of my head. Then I went back, put headphones on, wrote it all out. I felt like that gave me a chance to look at the words on paper, and realise that, a lot of the time, you can get yourself worked up over nothing at all. People can have plenty of legitimate reasons to get anxious, but I was finding if I could wrote it down, it made things easier.”
Finding a way to steer those doubts and fears into songs that resonate with an audience is no simple task, but after four albums, Walker’s songwriting prowess has come a long way; in a very real sense, it has grown confident with experience.
“I think I’m [more] comfortable in expressing myself lyrically than I was in the past. I think with each album I’ve found that. Maybe in the past, I wouldn’t have necessarily shared certain songs, certain points of view. But I like who I am as a person more now, and I’m looking forward to exploring more. I don’t want to find myself doing the same record twice. But that said, I also don’t want to see myself releasing that bubblegum pop record any time soon. Who knows?”
Walker laughs, and for now, at least, he doesn’t sound anxious at all.
BY ADAM NORRIS
