July’s Light of Day Australia Winter Gigs in Ocean Grove will tip into a third day this year with the addition of a songwriters circle.
The fourth annual Winter Gigs 2017 night shows are on Friday 21 July and Saturday 22 July and will now be complimented by feature performances and talks at the Uniting Church, from lunchtime on Sunday 23 July.
Featuring in the line-up of accomplished songwriters is Mark Lang from Skipping Girl Vinegar, Ocean Grove settled celt Gallie, local performer and teacher Andrea Robertson as well as convenor Steve McEwan, not shy of composing the odd tune himself.
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Steve said: “Writing songs can be a very solitary thing. It’s good both for other artists to see how other people do it and for the general public to de-mystify the whole thing.
“It’s not that sexy sitting in a room by yourself writing a song. It’s good to see how everyone’s mind processes their songs and develops. Everyone has their own songwriting style so it will be good to hear how other people do it.”
Andrea Robertson has been writing from very young, and will bring another dimension to the talks and music – dealing with bursts of inspiration and culling and compiling albums of songs that fit together.
“I love hearing from other artists and what it is that make them tick and where they draw their inspiration from and I think there is usually a common thread somewhere,“ she said.
“There were days back when I was working as a legal secretary standing at the photocopier and just having a whole song come to me once and I quickly went and scribbled notes and in my mind what I thought the chords would be. At lunch break I ducked home and quickly recorded it into something.”
Mark has played Bluesfest, Port Fairy Folk Festival, Splendour In The Grass, Woodford Folk, Falls Festival and many more stages and his work has received extensive airplay on major national broadcasters Triple J, ABC, Double J and community radio, as well as US college radio play with seven weeks in the Top 100 CMJ charts, 46 top 10s and numerous number one and number two positions across the US.
Co-organiser Tony Armstrong said, who has dabble in writing himself, said: “There are a couple of things that interest me as far as the writing process is about is – does the music come first? Do the words come first? What’s the inspiration for some of the stuff as well? And how does it all meld together? That’s the questions I’m interested in finding out on the day.”
The songwriters circle will be at Ocean Grove’s Uniting Church. The event runs from 1pm to 3.30pm on 23 July. Admission is $10 via Trybooking or on the door (subject to availability).
All of the artists appearing at the songwriters circle will be appearing in the shows on the prior nights.
Tickets for the Light of Day Australia Winter Gigs (21 and 22 July) are on sale via www.lightofdayaustralia.com. Follow the Light of Day Australia Facebook page for up-to- date news.
