1. The First Song I Wrote
The first song I wrote the lyrics for was for one of my brother’s bands, an underground Bondi cult band called The Few. The song was called Travelling Girl and was a heavily Midnight Oil-influenced punk rocker. I can still sing the words but you don’t want me to.
2. The Last Song I Released
We’ve just released my new album called Australia Restless. One of my favourite songs on it is called The Years Nobody Cared. It’s about a time, not that long ago, when no one really cared what you did and you just lived your life. Now everyone seems to want to monitor you and keep track of what you’re doing. And many people actively encourage that. I don’t.
3. Songwriting Secrets
I am primarily a lyricist and a vocalist. Other people, like my brother Simon, more often than not provide or articulate the music. In terms of lyrics, I look for the small things in life, the little details and unusual angles. Language usage is important to me, as are vernacular phrases. I generally find I do the most and best writing when travelling, when on the road in some dodgy coastal Australian motel.
4. The Song That Makes Me Proud
With my other band The Aerial Maps we did a song called On the Punt. It was about my father and a certain era of Australia, now passed, and seems to have struck a chord with quite a few people.
5. The Song That Changed My Life
Wide Open Road by The Triffids changed my life. It gave me the real sense of Australian distance and space and fuelled a desire to try to also write about such space. I regularly listen to it to try to uncover its mystery after all these years.
ADAM GIBSON and the Ark-Ark Birds are playing at the Yarra Hotel on Saturday May 16.
