“But music is about something much more basic than that. It’s about human connection. It’s about community. It’s this very strong glue that sort of holds us all together.” — Linsey Pollak
Harley Breen welcomes back Linsey Pollak, the first ever return guest on Radio Woodfordia. In the first episode Linsey told the story of the treadle lathe he impulse bought in London for 20 pounds, which kept him in the UK for two and a half years. This time Harley finally finds out what happened to the lathe.
Linsey is an instrument maker and community musician who has spent 50 years designing instruments, from carrots turned into clarinets to hybrid duduks. He is now downsizing: passing on his lathe, sending out instruments to new homes with the proceeds going to refugee support, and finishing an e-book of his instrument designs, Make Your Own, so that anyone can make their own.
This conversation covers the power of music in joyous moments and sad ones, why Linsey believes we are all musicians, the Listening Sessions, saying yes to possibility, and how artists can survive by working within a community. Linsey finishes by playing his flat sax live.
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Key topics: Linsey Pollak, instrument making, Make Your Own e-book, wind instruments, duduk, flat sax, marimba, Kin Kin, community music, Sunrise Sessions, Listening Sessions, improvisation, AI and music, artists making a living, celebrations of life, Woodfordia, Woodford Folk Festival, Jinibara Country
To come to the Woodford Folk Festival this year visit: https://woodfordfolkfestival.com/
FOR MORE:
Harley Breen: https://www.harleybreen.com.au
Linsey Pollak: https://linseypollak.com/
Linsey Pollak’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/SquealyD
Linsey Pollak’s first Radio Woodfordia episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFZTHFUJhAQ
Woodfordia: https://woodfordia.org/
CREDITS: Host: Harley Breen | Guest: Linsey Pollak | Executive Producer: Bree Hickson-Jamieson | Production: Josh Weier | Audio Engineer: Stevie-leigh Batiste | Video Editor: Nick Haddow | Music by: The East Pointers | Recorded on Jinibara Country | Recorded June 2026
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