Sunburnt Country Music

Short version:Bradley Christmas, frontman and songwriter of alt-country four-piece Copperline, talks about the band’s third album, Sleepwalking, which is partly a commentary on the role and importance of art for the artist and for the audience.Long version:This is not the first time Bradley Christmas, frontman and songwriter of alt-country four-piece Copperline, has appeared on Sunburnt Country Music, which is why the first few minutes of this interview sound more like us having a conversation than me interviewing him. There’s a familiarity there, and when that’s the case it makes more sense to embrace it than pretend it doesn’t exist. Which means that we went quite quickly into a discussion about the role of art and AI and related subject matter – prompted, it must be pointed out, by the songs on Sleepwalking, Copperline’s third album which is out now.While each song on the album can be enjoyed for itself, there’s a bigger arc there, framed by the first and last songs. The title song is about the perils of sleepwalking through life; the last track is about walking outside late at night as a form of problem solving, something that Brad does himself. In between the songs address the nature of creativity and of armchair critics, the need to be present and the importance of appreciating love in various forms.The album works as proof of its own argument: that art is vital, that is cannot be replaced by anything mechanical, that life is better when we have other people’s creativity to enjoy as well as our own to express. Brad understands this not only as a musician but as an author, as he is the award-nominated writer of Saltwater Boy and has another book under way.The broader discussion about AI and the pace at which it seems to be overtaking creative practice can sometimes seem to propose the inevitability of it all. Indeed, for a little while I was putting this sort of text I’m writing now through various tools, in the name of making it more SEO friendly, so that it could reach more people and so on and so forth. (Of course, it’s in the interest of the people making those tools to tell us that we can’t reach anyone without them. But it was also hard to escape.) I also thought it might speed up the process, because I wanted to publish these interviews sooner, and writing the text could slow things down. Instead, it made me slower.Eventually I decided to just write what I wanted to write, and you’ll either read it or you won’t. You will choose to watch or listen to this interview or you won’t. I am not going to try automated tricks to make that happen. Choose to be here, engaging with Brad and Copperline and their work, or not, but be assured that the world is richer for having that work in it, and nothing can replace it.Listen to Sleepwalking by Copperline on Apple MusicListen to Sleepwalking by Copperline on SpotifyListen to Sleepwalking by Copperline on YouTube

Short version:This is an interview with Sarah Sands from Perth six-piece The Stumblers. Watch/listen especially if you want to feel inspired to live a full creative life and find opportunities for joy. The band’s latest single is ‘Rhyolite’.Long version:The Stumblers are a six-piece band from Perth, WA, with members Sarah Sands (vocals, banjo, guitar, dobro), Dan Durack (vocals, guitar, mandolin), Becky Lodge (fiddle, accordion, vocals), Kirsty Ploeg (keyboard, vocals), Fiona Kanters (bass, fiddle) and Steven Rea (drums, vocals). It was Sands who joined me for a chat about the band, which formed not in primary school but because of a primary school – the one their children went to. The school wanted some parents to form a band, and Sands discovered that amongst the other parents there were some classically trained musicians. So they grouped together and had so much fun that The Stumblers was born.Sands grew up in a musical household: her father was in a band that played regularly around Perth, and he was a country music fan. Sands says she came to listen to country more in her twenties, drawn by the storytelling, and it’s been a natural progression for her as a songwriter to write in the country genre. Sands says that after becoming a mother she thought that she might have retired from being a musician, having been in bands and played with Durack in a duo for several years. But now it’s come back into her life and, as she says, ‘You find the time’, even if it’s writing a song in the middle of the night – or as she says, she once wrote a whole song while riding her motorbike to work, singing to herself then recording it on her phone once she could. ‘If the creativity is there and the energy is there, you’ll squeeze it in somewhere,’ she says. ‘It’s like a muscle … you get back into the rhythm of doing it and open your mind up to doing it and looking for stories everywhere.’This was an inspiring chat to have – Sands also creates opportunities for The Stumblers and other acts to play in and around Perth, so she’s something of an impresario (or, rather, a dynamo). We did also talk about The Stumblers’ latest single, ‘Rhyolite’! And the band is working towards releasing an album.Listen to The Stumblers on Apple MusicListen to The Stumblers on SpotifyListen to The Stumblers on YouTube

The first time Tom Mac was a guest on the Sunburnt Country Music podcast, we had a long chat – so long that it grew gradually darker in his car (he’d pulled over in order to do the interview) to the point where he was barely visible! This time around he was indoors, with a light, and we had another long chat, because he has stories to tell.The reason for the interview was his latest single, ‘Brave’, which he wrote about falling in love with his partner, Erin, who has two children. It’s a song about loving someone when you know you can’t be their number one, because the children necessarily come first. Mac had been fairly nomadic to that point – the first interview was, in fact, about his song ‘Nomadic’ – so committing to this new life required some decisions, including being brave. He wrote two songs about it, and released the first, ‘Never Gonna Be’, in 2024, and he waited to release ‘Brave’, as he talks about in the interview, saying it ‘went that little bit further’ into the story.Mac also talks about the single before this one, ‘Larrakia Sunset’, which was written during the time he spent in Darwin during the pandemic, and which he recently performed in the NT capital. And he goes into his songwriting process – usually a solo writer, he is opening up to collaborations and contemplating what that means when the subject matter is more personal. Towards the end Mac talks about his background in acting, and even though that hasn’t been his main professional pursuit, he’s had some interesting experiences … and reveals a near-miss role on a reality TV show!Listen to ‘Brave’ on Apple MusicListen to ‘Brave’ on SpotifyListen to ‘Brave’ on YouTube

If you’ve been to see an Australian country music artist play at any time in the past few years, the chances are good that you’ve seen Tameka playing in the band. A highly accomplished and in-demand guitarist, she has performed alongside Ashleigh Dallas, Adam Harvey, Andrew Swift, Catherine Britt, Loren Ryan and Tori Darke, amongst others.Tameka has now released her own music, the country-pop single ‘Like This Before’, which she worked on with Mickey Pye, who she met when she was a teenager, and who taught her guitar for a while as he runs a music school in the Central West of New South Wales, where Tameka also lives. The song was written in 2019, as Tameka tells me. It was mixed by Nashville engineer Jonathan Roye and mastered by Adam Ayan, who’s also based in Nashville. When Tameka and I chatted recently I found out that she has been writing songs for years – although given how often she’s on the road, it’s understandable that she’s only releasing the song now! As she also says in the interview, she needed to feel ready to have the focus on her. She has long wanted to be an artist and release her own music, and says she somewhat fell into being a guitarist, but the time is clearly right for her to step to the front of the stage.I also asked Tameka about her development as a guitarist, and given that when we chatted she had an array of instruments behind her, I asked her about them – and it turns out one of them was the first guitar she ever owned. So for those who are interested in guitars, there’s a little bit of guitar chat!Listen to ‘Like This Before’ on Apple MusicListen to ‘Like This Before’ on SpotifyListen to ‘Like This Before’ on YouTube

When Central Queensland contemporary country artist Trent Richardson appeared in Australian Idol two and a half years ago, not only had he never performed for an audience before – he thought he was a long way from being a father, which is something he very much wanted. His life changed fairly quickly: he reached the final six of Idol, which gained him fans and propelled his burgeoning career in country music, and he has since become a father to Archie. It is for Archie that he has written his latest single, ‘Promise You Now’, as from birth his son had the odds against him, spending months in Neonatal Intensive Care. As Richardson says in this interview, ‘There was a period there when we thought he just wasn’t going to make it.’Archie was diagnosed with septo-optic dysplagia which affects his sight and movement, amongst other things. He will need lifelong medical care yet, as Richardson says, ‘he zips around’, and he has made great progress. ‘We just love him,’ says Richardson. ‘I think that’s the biggest thing. I just adore the little fella.’It’s clear from talking to Richardson that there’s no one more important to him than Archie, and it’s also clear in the song, which is a father’s promise to a son to always take care of him. ‘Archie chose me to be his dad,’ says Richardson.The first time I interviewed Richardson he struck me as someone who is focused and determined yet also philosophical about both downs and ups. That is no doubt contributing to why his son is doing so well and also why he’s able to manage fatherhood and work and also creating music. As he says in the interview, writing the song helped him navigate all of it. There’s more ahead for him, on all fronts, and no doubt he will approach it with gusto.Listen to ‘Promise You Now’ on Apple MusicListen to ‘Promise You Now’ on SpotifyListen to ‘Promise You Now’ on YouTube

Since they first emerged on the Australian country music scene seven albums and fifteen Golden Guitars ago, Tasmanian country-rock outfit The Wolfe Brothers have won fans and admiration with their hard-work ethic backed up by impressive live performances, professionalism and songs that take in good times and bad, sentimentality and straightforwardness.The Wolfe Brothers are Nick and Tom Wolfe, and in this new interview I talk to Tom about the band’s varied activities this year, which have included being inducted into the Country Music Hands of Fame during the Tamworth Country Music Festival, and performances with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and writing their latest single, ‘Wannabe’ in Nashville with Australian Phil Barton and American Dana Heaton-Perdue. The Wolfes are inherently entertaining – you only have to see them live to know that – and this song therefore fits very nicely in their canon. The duo are looking ahead to the release of their eighth album and after several years of travelling back and forth across the land, performing, they’ve learned how to balance their hectic work lives with some peace and quiet back home. Which doesn’t mean they still don’t give 110 per cent to their music – as Tom talks about, they absolutely love what they do and appreciate every minute of it. You can see The Wolfe Brothers live at Groundwater Country Music Festival on 17 October, and they continue their own Australian Made Tour in November. All dates on their website. Listen to ‘Wannabe’ on Apple MusicListen to ‘Wannabe’ on SpotifyListen to ‘Wannabe’ on YouTube

There are pathways for Australian country music artists of all ages to develop their talents and skills, and that includes those who are young enough to still be in school. The CMAA Junior Academy of Country Music is for artists under 18 years of age – and NSW Central Coast singer-songwriter Lucy Beveridge has been a student there four times, in both songwriting and instrumental strands. She’s also taken part in the Talent Development Project, an NSW initiative for school students in the arts. So when I interviewed Lucy about her debut single, ‘A Million Different Things’, I was conscious of the fact that I was talking to a young artist who also has more experience and education than most, and who has therefore worked diligently and professionally at her craft at an age when there’s also school to think about, plus the usual hullabaloo of being a teenager. Beveridge’s maturity as an artist is evident in the song, which is not the work of someone who is still trying to figure out which music she wants to make and which sort of artist she wants to be, even as it’s a song that acknowledges that she’s ‘a million different things’.The clip for the song was filmed in national park in Watagan, in the NSW Hunter Valley, by Lucy’s mother and brother, who run the successful photography and videography business Roaming Creatives. You can see it here.It was a pleasure to talk to Lucy and find out more about how she’s developed as a songwriter, singer and musician – she’s a truly impressive individual and it’s exciting to anticipate what she may release next.Listen to ‘A Million Different Things’ on Apple MusicListen to ‘A Million Different Things’ on Spotify

NB: Saralyn’s sound was softer on the recording than it sounded when we spoke, so there are subtitles on this full-length interview. If you'd rather watch this with subtitles, you can find the full interview on YouTube.From the time she started releasing songs in 2023, it was clear Saralyn was an artist with a distinctive sound and point of view, and that she had a lineage in country music and cared about offering songs that don’t shy away from emotion, such as ‘White Butterfly’ and ‘I Hope That You’ll Remember’. She also likes a driving beat, as on songs such as ‘Cowgirl Blues, which is one of five tracks on her debut EP, Goldline.The title track is an origin story, of sorts, and a moving one at that. We talk about that in this new interview, in which Saralyn delves into her artistry and the stories that matter to her. There are songs about the love that sustains her and the dreams that drive her. As ever when we have chatted, Saralyn is clearly passionate about music, which has been in her life almost from birth. Even though being an independent artist is hard work – especially given she is the mother of two young children – she loves all the parts of it.Saralyn’s music will appeal to people who love a contemporary country sound that is created along traditional lines, with storytelling that connects to the hearts of listeners and strong vocals that reinforce that connection because we can hear her own heart in each song.She has several shows coming up, both of her original material and her Lainey Wilson cover show, Trailblazer – catch the last show of the current Trailblazer tour this Saturday at The Beer Shed in Sydney.Saralyn on tour:3 October – Port Macquarie, NSW 17 October – Muswellbrook, NSW 23 October – Central Coast, NSW 7 November – Sydney, NSW | Day Cruise with Viper Creek Band- SOLD OUT13 November – Hunter Valley, NSW15 November – East Maitland, NSW 28 November – Paterson, NSW 21 January 2027 – Tamworth, NSW Listen to Goldline on Apple MusicListen to Goldline on SpotifyListen to Goldline on YouTube