Lyrics out of blue
INSPIRATION COMES FROM ANYWHERE, AS THIS YEAR’S APRA SONG OF THE YEAR NOMINATIONS SHOW
SONGWRITERS will tell you composing is as much about perspiration as it is about inspiration.
Those lightning bolt moments, when words and music arrive fully formed and seemingly out of nowhere, are often the result of hours and hours spent writing songs which will never see the light of day.
The craft of songwriting is celebrated each year at the annual APRA Music Awards, with a shortlist of 20 tracks selected out of the hundreds released each year whittled down to just five nominations for the Song of the Year.
Paul Kelly and his mate Billy Miller lead the nominations with their song Firewood and Candles from last year’s Life is Fine record.
Miller often drops by Kelly’s home in St Kilda to watch cricket; inevitably they will pick up guitars during the breaks.
“We were with a friend of ours who was talking to us about his love life. He had organised a date with a woman, a first date and she was coming to his place. He cooked a meal, he bought firewood and got candles,” Kelly says.
“Anyway, it didn’t work out, nothing ever happened. He told the story and he said ‘all that firewood and candles, all for nothing’.”
One of the men grabbed a guitar, strummed an A minor chord, sang those three words and “off it went”.
Indie pop breakthrough Amy Shark, who has found global success with her debut hit Adore, is nominated with Weekends.
Shark describes Weekends as the “part 2” to Adore because they share “that youthful, angsty drive”. “That song is (about) finding someone who you realise really cares about you,” she says.
Dave Le’aupepe feared he would never write another song when he penned What Can I Do If The Fire Goes Out? for Gang of Youths.
Le’aupepe said he struggled through a year’s worth of writer’s block after the band’s debut album The Positions.
He broke his drought after a “15-day bender in LA”.
Jessica Mauboy returned to the pop charts last year with the unusual soulful R&B hit Fallin’, written for the second series of Seven’s drama series The Secret Daughter.
Her producer Louis Schoorl teamed with songwriters PJ Harding and Ivy Adara to compose a song which fulfilled the brief of “reluctantly falling for someone”.
“It means a lot that one of the biggest pop singles of the year came from all Australian writers,” Schoorl says.
The final Song of the Year nomination is Running Second, written by acclaimed indie pop artist Ainslie Wills with her collaborator Lawrence Folvig.
Wills describes it as her “take a breath” song, inspired by frustrations that she wasn’t “quite hitting the mark”.
“We try and do our best but we are not quite getting there and we are putting pressure on ourselves,” she says. The 2018 APRA Music Awards will be held in Sydney tonight.