Sunburnt Country Music

**Listen to the end to hear the song 'Lullaby of a Breaking Heart'After releasing the EP Original Son in 2018, Victorian artist Rose Zita Falko found herself in an enforced break from recording and releasing music due to the pandemic and all the upheaval it wrought. In 2022 she released the single ‘The Plan’ (which is a heartbreaker itself) and actually had another song up her sleeve – but it has only come into the world now.‘Lullaby of a Broken Heart’ is an exceptional piece of work – as its title suggests, it has a gentle rhythm but that is overlaid with Falko’s irresistible vocal that, even if it did not intone the words ‘breaking heart’, captures the feeling of it. The song originated from a recording on Falko’s phone, a sonic improvisation that had been tucked away for years which she happened to find one day. She collaborated with her mother to refine the lyrics and structure, and the result is an unforgettable song.Voice is at the centre of Falko’s work – apart from her original music, she teaches singing and is a stage performer. So it’s no surprise to learn that singing has been at the core of her life from a very young age. Indeed, she sang before she could talk. She also comes from a rich musical heritage, with her grandmother hosting a radio show that spanned genres from classical opera to Welsh folk music and gospel.While the singing voice may come from the ether, and talent is impossible to define – or capture – in talking to Falko it became clear that there is a powerful inevitability to her life in music. It was there before she was born, through the generations before, and it’s been in her from the start. She wouldn’t be able to hold back its tide even if she tried, and thankfully for us she goes with it – and hopefully shall continue to do so for years to come. Listen to Rose Zita Falko on Apple MusicListen to Rose Zita Falko on SpotifyFollow Sunburnt Country Music on InstagramFollow Sunburnt Country Music on Facebook Sunburnt Country Music website 

Jack Nolan is a Sydney singer and songwriter who has a storied music career which began in the 1990s – back when Sydney had a plethora of live venues around the city and audiences to go with them – has included six solo albums and one LP with The Kelly Gang in 2004. Nolan’s latest album is Songs for Hemingway, which includes the single ‘Mother of All Storms’, which had its premiere on Sunburnt Country Music earlier this year. It’s a tour de force of a song and the album delivered on its promise. The album contains tracks that are elegantly haunting, like ‘Tofino’, and some which are muscular. There is at all times a sense that Nolan pays attention – to life, to songs, to creating in general. Songs for Hemingway was made with Nashville-based collaborator/multi-instrumentalist/producer Justin Weaver (The Chicks, Wynonna Judd) and Nolan had only instruction for Weaver: no electric instruments were to be used on the record.In this interview Nolan talks about working with Weaver, and about how he came to name the album for the late Ernest Hemingway. Nolan was inspired by Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea and the idea of being ‘too far out’ that it evoked – along with pushing one’s limits. Nolan is certainly not an artist who can be said to have rested on his laurels, given that during our chat it became clear that he approaches his craft, and music generally, with an open mind and a curiosity to explore what is possible, which is how it has been since his childhood, when older friends introduced him to the guitar and the joy of playing simple chords and songs.Although the album is newly released Nolan is working on new music, as he now has time and capacity to do so. It’s almost as if the momentum that ‘Mother of All Storms’ introduced has carried on, and will keep carrying him into projected releases in 2025. But there’s still time to savour Songs for Hemingway and it is, indeed, a perfect album for slow summer afternoons when there’s a little more time to stop and pay attention, perhaps in the way Nolan does himself.Listen to Songs for Hemingway on Apple MusicListen to Songs for Hemingway on SpotifyFollow Sunburnt Country Music on InstagramFollow Sunburnt Country Music on Facebook Sunburnt Country Music website 

The first time I interviewed Flora Smith and James Arneman, the members of Small Town Romance, I learnt a lot about their respective musical backgrounds and we also spoke about making music videos, which is Arneman’s specialty. Partners in life as well as music, the pair both grew up around instruments and performance. In Arneman’s case it was as part of an Australian country music dynasty, as the son of Anne Kirkpatrick and grandson of Joy McKean and Slim Dusty. Smith’s path was different but no less interesting and musical. The pair have different yet complementary sensibilities, which is part of what makes their songs so appealing: they know how to work with, not against, each other and they both want to make the best possible music they can. And there’s a lot of wonderful music on their new album, Home Fires, which is cool in the indefinable way that cool is: you know it when you hear it, and it’s both reassuring and unsettling and familiar and new all at once.Home Fires was released in August but we weren’t able to chat until recently, and I relished the chance to ask this talented – and highly entertaining! – pair about the songs on it. We also talked about a Christmas show which has come and gone, because I wasn’t able to publish this interview in time. But they will be at the Cygnet Folk Festival in Tasmania on 10 January and the Tamworth Country Music Festival later that month, and if their live performances are even half as good as the record they will be special. This is music that comes from deep knowledge of the craft that does not bind these artists but, rather, sets them free. Listen to Home Fires on Apple MusicListen to Home Fires on SpotifyFollow Sunburnt Country Music on InstagramFollow Sunburnt Country Music on Facebook Sunburnt Country Music website 

Although I’ve interviewed Brittany Elise before, we didn’t meet in person until September this year and it was in Nashville, where the native Queenslander has been spending time writing, recording and performing. It was not only lovely to meet her but she was so generous with her insider tips about the best places to find live music in the city that is full of options for that.From her first album, 2019’s Something More, Brittany established that she’s a country music artist with melodic sensibilities that lean towards pop and a take on songwriting that is uniquely hers and which leads to songs that have a great little quirk or kick or detail that keeps you going back to them over and over. That continued on her 2022 album Just Be, which opened with the single ‘Feel the Fire’, which was all about creativity and how irresistible its fire can be. Since then Brittany has released several new singles, including ‘Lucky’ and ‘Girl in the Mirror’. Her latest is ‘Hi, It’s Me’, which is a mission statement that sprang from a particularly challenging time in her life. Brittany was a committed and successful athlete with state and national titles, and aspirations to go further, when an injury left her in danger of not even being able to walk properly again. She had to change her perception of and plans for the future, and that’s when she started to commit to music.In the years since then she’s proved as dedicated to her musical career as she was to sport, and ‘Hi, It’s Me’ is a statement of that dedication and a declaration of dreams that just happen to come true. It’s an anthem that others can find themselves in – so if you’re ready to be your own cheerleader, this is the song for you!Brittany Elise is touring Queensland and also heading for the 2025 Tamworth Country Music Festival. The dates are available at https://brittanyelisemusic.comWatch the video for ‘Hi, It’s Me’Listen to Brittany Elise on Apple MusicListen to Brittany Elise on SpotifyFollow Sunburnt Country Music on InstagramFollow Sunburnt Country Music on Facebook Sunburnt Country Music website 

One of the benefits of being able to interview an artist more than once is that I can not only hear from them about the new things they’re up to but start to see connections between things they might have been doing a while ago and where that activity and those ideas have led them.Gold Coast rising star Chloe Styler has had a big year, taking home Breakout Artist of the Year  at the Gold Coast Music Awards, charting in the CountryTown Hot 50 airplay charts and appearing in CMT’s Top 10, along with Spotify playlists ‘Fresh Country’ and ‘All New Country’. She’s also toured with Nik Kershaw and Go West, Shannon Noll and Karise Eden. This is on top of spending time in Nashville to write and record. While it might look like a lot has happened ostensibly out of the blue, Styler has been working consistently and diligently over the past few years to create music that has an identifiable and unique style. It is country pop with whimsy and self-awareness, tender and heartfelt. Style has also crafted a visual presence through her videos and stage attire that make her immediately recognisable.  ‘I've really tried to focus on developing a strong visual identity for my music,’ Styler explains in the interview, then adds that working with her sister Amy on her videos in particular ‘has been invaluable in that process, as she has such a great eye for capturing the essence of my sound and style.’ There can be a notion that creativity just happens, that being creative means going with the flow so therefore planning and judicious assessment of your activities aren’t creative. But creativity can’t flow like a river without riverbanks to guide it and contain it, and it’s impossible to build a career without scaffolding. Styler –  whether by instinct or design – knows this, and happily has the academic qualifications to support it. By putting those structures in place she can, indeed, make the most of her creative practice, and that’s what we see and hear in the music she releases. Her latest single is ‘Little Lady’, and the lyric is delivered literally and ironically in the song. It’s about the fear of failure, which, Styler says, ‘eats her up’. The video was made by Styler in northern New South Wales with Amy, with whom she has collaborated before. ‘Having my sister behind the camera just makes me feel so at ease,’ Styler explains. ‘We can communicate on a level that no one else can, and it allows me to really let my guard down and focus on the performance.’So we see here too that Styler has the structure in place to let her creativity flourish, and as she continues to create music and build her profile, it will be fascinating to watch.Listen to Chloe Styler on Apple MusicListen to Chloe Styler on SpotifyFollow Sunburnt Country Music on InstagramFollow Sunburnt Country Music on Facebook Sunburnt Country Music website 

Over the past couple of years Queensland artist Billie Rose has been releasing alluring, swirling, sometimes mystical singles including ‘Can’t Bring Back the Dead’ and ‘Black Dress’. Her latest is ‘Slaying Ghosts’ and it’s also the name of the EP that captures those single releases and marks the conclusion of that creative chapter in her life.Themes unintentionally emerged amongst the tracks, give that the others are ‘Heartbreak Subway Train’ and ‘Label Me a Killer’ – themes of darkness and death (as ‘subway’ could be seen to suggest darkness) that are only reinforced by Billie’s voice with its lightness and clarity that suggest she is telling these stories from a perspective of distance and self-awareness. Part of the function of art is to help the audience manage times in their own lives that they may see reflected in the art itself; part of the role – and sacrifice – of the artist is to be prepared to pour their experiences into their work so that others may benefit from it. In being willing to work with darkness, Billie gives her audience the chance to also move towards light, as she has by creating these songs. Billie worked with her regular producer Garret Kato on the new track, and the pair drew inspiration from Nirvana for the production of the song, which she wrote with regular collaborator Peta-Cherae.In this interview we talk about both of those long-term associations and the benefits of working with collaborators you know well. Billie is also frank about the challenges of being an independent artist, and how she is committed to her art all the same. This is something that artists around Australia can do no doubt relate to: working in small territory, releasing music into a market that is flooded with music from overseas, trying to mark amongst it all. Her dedication to her craft, her persistence in showing up for her music, are inspiring, especially since what that is funnelled into is the work itself: making the best songs possible, then working to take them to as many people as possible.Listen to Billie Rose on Apple MusicListen to Billie Rose on SpotifyFollow Sunburnt Country Music on InstagramFollow Sunburnt Country Music on Facebook Sunburnt Country Music website 

Shara Rose is an all round entertainer who is not only a singer and songwriter, but a dancer as well. And as a result of all those skills, she is in demand, touring with Jason Owen, and Tania Kernaghan, and opening for Tones and I. She has also been releasing heartfelt country pop songs and the latest is ‘Finding My Way’. As she says in our interview, Shara was determined to release four songs this year, and she has done that, the other three being ‘Purpose in the Process’, ‘Falling’ and ‘Heart on Her Sleeve’. That’s in between her touring commitments and Dance the Night Away, the show she created and took on tour. And even then she still has a ‘day job’ as an exercise physiologist, to which she brings her experience and perspective as a performing artist. The first time we spoke, a few months ago, I was impressed with Shara’s determination to make the most of her opportunities despite some debilitating health problems, and since then she has taken on even more creative endeavours. In talking to her it’s clear that she couldn’t leave any other way because she is passionate about music and performance, as well as connecting with audiences.Her latest single, ‘Finding My Way’, is a personal story and a mission statement of sorts, and it’s no doubt a reminder that as much as she seems to have very much found the path that is best for her, she can also remind herself that she is, as the refrain goes, ‘happy, free and beautiful and finding my way’.It is upbeat and motivational, where ‘Purpose in the Process’ was much more contemplative. Yet both that song and ‘Finding My Way’ are an acknowledgement that the work of coming into being – as a person, as an artist – is never complete. Working as an independent artist, Shara Rose has built a team around her to help her achieve her goals and is working towards them mindfully and purposefully. Given what she’s achieved this year alone, it will be worth following her next year to see what she can bring into being. Listen to Shara Rose on Apple MusicListen to Shara Rose on SpotifyFollow Sunburnt Country Music on InstagramFollow Sunburnt Country Music on Facebook Sunburnt Country Music website 

Some songs arrive quickly; others take years to gestate, waiting for the songwriter to find the right moment to bring them fully to life. For her latest album, Fighting Chance, Townsville artist Tammy Moxon wrote several new songs, but in the case of her new single, ‘What Am I To Do’, she discovered a song she wrote a decade before, in the wake of her first break-up, in some old notebooks.As we discuss in this new interview, the song was quite different then. Under the stewardship of producer Shane Nicholson, however, it became an up-tempo number that embodies Moxon’s love of Patsy Cline, on whose music Moxon was raised, which gives it an old-school swing and turns what could be a song of disappointment and frustration into something far more hopeful.In this way the song matches Moxon’s own outlook on life and music. While there is darkness on Fighting Chance, overall it is an album about finding out who you are and setting out to have the life you want and deserve. Moxon has put in the work to create that life and it is clear that music plays a huge role in that. Moxon recorded the album around lockdowns – with Nicholson in New South Wales, this was not straightforward – and also around her full schedule as a performing artist in Townsville. She plays several gigs a week, often of several sets each, and that’s not only because she’s in demand but because Townsville has the venues to support that much live music. So we chatted about that as well – especially about the fact that her career as a live performer was in doubt for a while. Moxon had problems with her vocal cords, eventually diagnosed as reflux and granulomas. Happily she has learnt to manage these conditions now, and she’s back to full performing strength.So if you’re in Townsville you’ll no doubt find her performing most weeks of the year – apart from one week in January next year when she will be playing at the Tamworth Country Music Festival on these dates:20th January – Tamworth Services Club – Tamworth, NSW (w/ Midwest Molly & Cameron Cusack)20th January – Tamworth Shopping World – Tamworth, NSW21st January – The Welders Dog – Tamworth, NSWListen to Tammy Moxon on Apple MusicListen to Tammy Moxon on SpotifyFollow Sunburnt Country Music on InstagramFollow Sunburnt Country Music on Facebook Sunburnt Country Music website 

After releasing their singles ‘Best Thing’ and ‘Leap of Faith’ earlier this year, brothers Mak & Shar have done what they most love to do: made new music, and this time, with new single ‘Untamed Heart’, they are paying tribute to their late father, who died when they were young.‘Dad was a performer,’ they say. ‘He played Dodger in Lionel Bart's Oliver when he was younger, on the West End of London, which is really, really cool. So he was a performer and a musician and he played guitar. And I remember actually not that long ago, it's probably two years ago, we found … a little notebook and it had all of these chords and lyrics written on it. And it was just songs that he'd written. And then also with that was this record of just him singing with a guitar and these songs that he'd written.’Clearly music is in the brothers’ lineage – indeed, as Brothers 3, with third brother Tayzin, they grew up as performers themselves, and each has followed separately yet complementary musical paths since. They each have a Bachelor of Music; Shar has toured in musical theatre productions and Mak is a producer, with the production of the duo’s songs ultimately in his hands. The brothers work closely together on their songs, although no two are created in the same way. They have a form of push-and-pull that means they bring out the best in each other, and that’s as true in an interview as it is in the creation of music. They are thoughtful and interesting, and it’s a pleasure to talk to two people who have a high regard for each other and who can speak articulately about their work. Mak & Shar’s love for their craft is as strong as their respect for each other, and ultimately they want the same thing: to make great songs. In ‘Untamed Heart’ they not only have a song that honours their father but also that lineage he gave them, with no doubt much more to come. Listen to Mak & Shar on Apple MusicListen to Mak & Shar on SpotifyFollow Sunburnt Country Music on InstagramFollow Sunburnt Country Music on Facebook Sunburnt Country Music website