Sunburnt Country Music

Earlier this year Sydney artist Bianca Joulianou released           the single ‘Gambling Man’, which was based on a story that’s very close to her. We had a chat about that at the time and also talked about Joulianou’s gig schedule. She’s been busier since then, opening for Australian Idol winner Dylan Wright as well as Shannon Noll, Diesel and The Wet Whistles. That’s in addition to playing regular spots at venues such as Jolene’s in Sydney’s CBD and with Out West Country, which is a Sydney-based events company. Joulianou’s latest single is the very catchy ‘Bad Routine’, which is about wanting to break free of something – such as a relationship – but being pulled back into bad habits. It was produced by Jake Davey, who is himself recording and releasing music, and he plays on ‘Bad Routine’ as well. As they recorded two songs, another single is in the pipeline for release in 2026. In this new interview about ‘Bad Routine’, I asked Joulianou if she has any bad routines of her own – you’ll have to watch or listen to it to find out what she said – but it’s probably fair to say that she’s mostly in good routines, given she fits her music career in and around full-time work as a mental health support worker.Joulianou is heading to the Tamworth Country Musical Festival in January and has a few shows lined up, including at the popular Riverside Stage, and she’s making plans for more writing – especially co-writing – next year. And she’s open to writing with anyone, so if you’re keen to write with her, you can find her on her socials!Listen to ‘Bad Routine’ on Apple MusicListen to ‘Bad Routine’ on SpotifyListen to ‘Bad Routine’ on YouTube

Before this year started, Brisbane outfit Chloe Marks & The Mayhem had not released any songs, although Marks herself has released music with duo Scotch & Cider, and as a solo artist. She also plays in other people’s bands as well as performing regularly with The Mayhem, as she’s been doing since 2023. The band’s first single was ‘Carolina’, released at the end of February this year, and since then they’ve released ‘Skip September’ – for which Marks and I had a chat – and ‘Porch Light’. Now with the release of fourth single ‘Cheaper Than Therapy’, it emerges that these four songs form a story arc, with ‘Cheaper Than Therapy’ putting the full stop on that tale. Each song is different to the others, but the thread is there when you listen to them back to back.In my previous interview with Marks I talked to her about her fascinating creative life, which includes photography and extreme sports, so you can head to that if you’d like to find out more. In this chat I concentrated on the brace of singles, with a focus on ‘Cheaper Than Therapy’, which has the refrain ‘When I get stoned I talk to God’. Marks and I talked about belief systems and what does and doesn’t get mentioned in public, or even to friends and family. As she says, the song has ‘opened up a strange but wonderful conversation within the band’. All four songs were produced by Michael Muchow, and Marks has new material that will see her heading back into the studio in 2026. That studio time will be slotted in around her performance schedule, and that of The Mayhem, which includes dates at the 2026 Tamworth Country Music Festival (see below). They’re also playing on New Year’s Eve at Chattahoochee Joe’s, one of the homes of country music in Brisbane. See Chloe Marks & The Mayhem live:Wednesday Dec 31 – Chattahoochee Joes – Brisbane QLDFriday Jan 16, 2026 – Tamworth CMF – TudorHotel – Tamworth NSWSaturday Jan 17, 2026 – Tamworth CMF –Tudor Hotel – Tamworth NSWSunday Jan 18, 2026 – Tamworth CMF – JoeMaguires – Tamworth NSWTuesday Jan 20, 2026 - Tamworth CMF – JoeMaguires – Tamworth NSWListen to Chloe Marks & The Mayhem on Apple MusicListen to Chloe Marks & The Mayhem on SpotifyWatch the official music video for ‘Cheaper Than Therapy’ on YouTube

When you’re talking with Australian country music artists, Robbie Mortimer’s name comes up a lot, whether it’s as a festival performer or a co-writer – several artists work with him either to write songs from scratch or to enhance songs that already exist, even in part.He’s the youngest of five brothers who grew up in the Central West of New South Wales, and perhaps negotiating with four siblings led to him being able to work well in a collaborative environment. Or maybe it was growing up in an NRL family, and having team sports as the default. That same environment also introduced him to poetry – his father writes it – as well as country living, which has influenced the stories he tells, and hard work.Mortimer has several irons in the fire, for himself and with others – but, as he says in this new interview, he’s used to ‘squeezing absolutely everything out of a 24-hour day’. He says his father and brothers are wired the same way: ‘all gas, no brakes’. That ability to make the most of time and opportunities is married with Mortimer’s creative drive, which he has in spades. And it is a creative drive more than a drive for success because, he's discovered, ‘Everything I’ve done for the artistry of it has gone really, really well’, whereas anything he’s created while trying to replicate the success of something else has not fired the way he’s hoped.Mortimer has released several singles this year, the latest of which is ‘The World Keeps Turning’, to go with the ones he released last year – pretty much an album’s worth across that time, but he’s looking ahead to what’s new and what’s next. This is a long conversation because there was a lot to chat about – as there would be, given his work rate! There is much more to come from Robbie Mortimer, so this chat is by way of closing out a big year and looking ahead to an even bigger one in 2026.Listen to Robbie Mortimer on Apple MusicListen to Robbie Mortimer on SpotifyWatch/listen to Robbie Mortimer on YouTube

Each time I organise an interview with a country music artist there is an impetus for it – usually, as you’d expect, a new release, either single or album. I do my research and write questions accordingly, but I do not go into any interview with an expectation of where the conversation will go because expectations tend to become pre-set limitations, and there’s a danger of missing out on something interesting if those limitations are in place.So it was that when I started chatting to Brook Chivell, an artist based in south-east Queensland, the reason for the chat was his latest single, ‘Like a Country Girl’ but the first part of the conversation was about guitars. For one thing, all his guitars are tuned to E flat. For another, he’s been building his own guitars. If you’re not interested in talking about guitars, well, maybe skip the first ten minutes. But I tend to like asking questions about the technical parts of being a musician because it’s really interesting to hear about other people’s work. We also chat about the burgeoning country music scene in south-east Queensland, the blues songs Chivell has been recording and releasing … and, of course, about ‘Like a Country Girl’, which is a song for the girls who start the dance floor at a gig – the ones, says, Chivell, who can shift the mood of a show in a very positive direction. I also ask Chivell about co-writing, which he’s done a bit – so it seems as if he likes doing it. His answer was surprising, and led to him talking about his writing process in general.Listen to Brook Chivell on Apple MusicListen to Brook Chivell on SpotifyListen to ‘Like a Country Girl’ on YouTube

Roo Arcus became a singer unintentionally – he didn’t know he could sing until he was somewhat strong-armed into it in a group setting. The cattle farmer from the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales has been on the land all of his life and spent his formative years listening to what he calls ‘the golden era’ of country music.Arcus spends a lot of time in the United States of America where he’s asked, ‘How can you talk like an Aussie and sing like a Texan?’ His singing voice developed, he says, due to what he was listening to and singing along to when he was younger. His first album was called Station Boy and it’s not available on streaming services, although the albums since are – including his fifth, The Man I Am, which was created in the wake of a devastating fire on his property, which destroyed not only farm vehicles and equipment but instruments and his children’s belongings. (This is captured in the song ‘Just an Old Shed’ on the album.)The recording of the album in Texas was booked, however, and Arcus pressed ahead with it despite not having all the songs ready. What emerged was, perhaps, the truest expression of where he was in his life because he didn’t have time to think about it much or try to edit himself. The resulting album is not raw so much as honest, and Arcus too is honest about the impact of that time in this interview.We also talk about his longtime affection for the US, where he travels several times a year, and especially for Texas, which is his second home. Even after three decades in music, Arcus says he still feels like ‘a cattleman that sings … I don’t know how I ended up in this business.’ While that may be true, he’s stayed in it because he writes songs that reflect his experiences and they connect with people, as does his voice, and you’ll find out all about the development of both in this chat. Listen to The Man I Am on Apple MusicListen to The Man I Am on Spotify

‘Songs can become our best friend. And sometimes songs can save a life.’Laura T Davis, a singer-songwriter from northern New South Wales, says this a fair way into our interview. The reason for the interview was her latest single, ‘Not Your Fault’, and the story behind that song is that Davis is a victim-survivor of extreme sexual violence perpetrated upon her in her teens. So when she talks about songs saving a life, she’s talking about what songs have meant to her and also what writing this song has done for her. We talk at length about this part of her story, in particular, and also the other parts of her life, such as her beloved animals – horses and dogs – who are, she says, ‘part of my healing’. We talk about her musical background, being classically trained in piano and voice, and the time she spent performing for hours each day on ships on Sydney Harbour. About how, she says, there is a calling for music in her heart.Davis released a single in 2020 called ‘Make It Till Christmas’, which was partly about how people on the land will hold on – to make it to Christmas, for example. It was inspired by what she saw around her, in the region she lives in, which is also an area that has been so badly affected by floods. By these acts of God that have been visited upon the residents. Acts that are not their fault any more than what happened to Davis was hers.‘You have to tell yourself it’s not your fault,’ she says of the realisation she came to after years spent in the aftermath of the violence done to her. ‘You have to forgive yourself … That was the catalyst for this [song]. It was probably the only way that I could heal ... I didn’t want to suffer in silence any more.’Davis is no longer suffering in silence but she is also incredibly self-aware and articulate about what it has taken for her to arrive at the place where she could not only write this song but record it and release it. For anyone who has been through a similar experience – and I sincerely hope you have not – I believe her story will give you heart. For anyone who has not, I hope you will listen to her with an open heart. That’s what she is offering to the world, when we have no right to expect it of her.Listen to ‘Not Your Fault’ on Apple MusicListen to ‘Not Your Fault’ on SpotifyListen to ‘Not Your Fault’ on YouTube

Each interview I do is, obviously, different because each artist is different – they have unique backgrounds, sounds and stories. Some of them turn out to be packed with lots of interesting elements – subjects I could have pursued for much longer conversations, except I’m mindful of trying to keep the chats relatively short and focused on music. This interview with Jo Page, a country music artist from Port Lincoln in South Australia, was one of those. I start off asking Page about Port Lincoln – which is Australia’s seafood capital, which I didn’t previously know. Page also mentions that she won Port Lincoln’s Got Talent as part of Tunarama at the age of 20 – and, well, I had to ask her about something called Tunarama! You’ll have to watch/listen to find out what she said …Page has been performing live since that time, although, as she says, at school she was ‘always the nerdy choir chick that would give up lunchtimes to do music stuff’. But it was the competition which led to her being introduced to a local producer with whom she formed a duo and then a band. She has only recently started writing songs, however, because she only started playing guitar three years ago. Now she’s written hundreds – as she says, you need to write a lot in order to find the gems – and one of those is ‘Fire In His Eyes’, which she wrote with Kevin Bennett and recorded with Matt Fell at Wilder in Tasmania. The character in the song, says Page in the interview, is based on how she envisages her grandfather, who was a cowboy – and there’s more to it but, again, you’ll need to watch/listen to find out!Page is pursuing her music while also being a frontline domestic violence worker and mental health advocate. We talk about how she takes care of her own mental health, and a lot more besides. Maybe next time I’ll get to pursue those other subjects in more detail, but I certainly enjoyed this chat and hope you do too. Listen to ‘Fire In His Eyes’ on Apple MusicListen to ‘Fire In His Eyes’ on SpotifyWatch/listen to the song on YouTube

Last year singer-songwriter Saralyn won the Mothertone Gympie Muster Talent Search, which was a terrific achievement – but she was also working on something else significant at the same time, and it wasn’t until this year that we found out what it was.Auditioning on the hit TV show The Voice, Saralyn turned the chair of judge Ronan Keating and joined his team. Although she didn’t make it through to the finals, she cherishes the experience, as she told me in this recent interview. It turned out she applied for the show two years ago and wasn’t selected to audition; this time around she was approached instead, and it was, she says, the right time. She has in competitions from a young age, and performing in festivals for several years. The Voice offered something that allowed her to deepen her already extensive experience. Now Saralyn has released her version of ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’, a song written by Garth Brooks and very popularly covered by Keating. It’s a song that is tied to and emblematic of her time on The Voice, and now she has her own unique version of it.It was clear during our chat that Saralyn was invigorated and motivated by her experience on The Voice, ready to step even more fully into her creative life, which has included some really lovely singles, such as ‘White Butterfly’. If you hadn’t heard of her before The Voice, there are some great songs to catch up on – and, no doubt, to look forward to. Watch the video for ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’ on YouTubeListen to Saralyn on Apple MusicListen to Saralyn on Spotify