How did you write that song?

Shane Nicholson is a prolific songwriter, producer and multiple Aria and Golden Guitar award-winning musician. What drives him more than anything perhaps is songwriting and Joanne Craigie and I caught up with Shane in May 2026 just before the start of his songwriting live tour "For the Sake of the Song" for an interview originally aired on ArtSound FM in Canberra. On the Tour Shane shared the stage with two other incredible Australian Songwriters - Shane Howard and Sara Storer. In this interview Shane anticipates the connection and respect between the three songwriter and talks about his own journey as a songwriter and how fundamental songwriting is to everything he does.

In a departure from our normal format this is your front row seat to a fabulous "songwriters in the round" show recorded at Smiths Alternative in Canberra in 2026. Local songwriters Lisa Richards, Jo Evans and Fiona Bolton performed 15 of their songs and covered every possible angle on how they write songs in an interactive discussion between themselves and with audience members. If you are a songwriter, or keen to get the inside story on how it's done, this will reel you in for sure!

You can also find a video version of this amazing performance at https://youtu.be/gKuU3YP1lks?si=PUyt7kSP6CrYLwHa

Brandon Dodd, aka Dingo, guitarist in Kasey Chambers band, solo artist and producer very kindly agreed to stop by for a chat about songwriting. We went back to where it all started for Dingo as a kid playing guitar in his bedroom and then with Grizzlee Train in 2015. We discussed how he got into songwriting, how an amazing array of Australian artists have mentored him over the years and what motivates him to keep writing. Dingo performed a beautiful solo acoustic version of his song Autumn live in the studio and we discussed how and why he wrote it and the new album Nightwire. Any songwriter or aspiring songwriter will be inspired by Dingo's talent and enthusiasm for his craft!

This discussion was recorded collaboratively with Canberra community radio station ArtSound FM and you can see a video version at https://youtu.be/_OzOtq6Pk3w?si=1YEMLmKRNVjJ_ksu

You can also find out more about Dingo's music at https://www.dingomusicofficial.com/

Canberra songwriters Dorothy Jane (DJ) Gosper and Jeff Prime have been doing their stuff for many years in many different genres across the blues, jazz, rock and folk spectrum.

It was great to catch up with them and hear some of their songwriting insights from their many years experience of working on songs both individually and collectively.

DJ is a little reluctant to be too analytical about songwriting as, in her words, "it seems sort of magical". She started composing songs from poems as a young person and soon realised she doesn't have just one approach to writing songs. Driving her car seems to be a place where lyrical or musical ideas come to her. Once she gets an initial idea the song builds around it, sometimes very quickly and other times much more slowly.

Jeff has an interesting approach. As a songwriter who doesn't sing himself he writes the instrumental parts and gets his music software to sing the words he comes up with and then shares the results with DJ as she'll be singing the song once it is finished. For him a mood or sentiment in a guitar riff will often lead to lyrics later on.

We played recordings of a couple of their songs during our chat. The first, "Moving On", was written by Jeff and is about recognising when it is time to move on from a relationship or other life experience. The other song, "On My Own" was written by DJ and tells the story of how she was affected by and then came to accept something extraordinary and traumatic in her life. It's a powerful song and also demonstrates how important songwriting can be.

For more of DJ and Jeff's music: https://dorothy-jane.com/jd_band

Shark & Fox consists of Jaron Freeman-Fox on violin, 12-string viola d’amor and fretless guitar, Emily-Rose Sharkova on accordion and keyboards, and Rose Callaghan on the drums, with all three members lending their voices in a collective roar, or intricate harmony. Their music ranges from crazy up-tempo Eastern European folk with unusual time signatures through to floating atmospheric wonder that will stop you in your tracks.

So I was very fortunate when Emily-Rose, Jaron and Rose stopped by for a chat on their way to a gig in Canberra. We discussed how they've all become amazing instrumentalists through their lives but coming together recently as Shark and Fox has led them more to focus on songwriting and thinking of themselves as songwriters.

It was clear from our chat that they really gel with each other musically, listening and learning from each other as they collaborate on their songs. Wanting to work with each other is key, as is working out the reason for a song to be written. Everything else follows.

We played a recording of their single "Let Your Loved Ones Know" which is about making sure that important conversations with your important people do happen.

It was great to chat with them and if you want to hear more from Shark and Fox: https://sharkandfox.com/

I was lucky enough to catch up with Erin and Lachlan from Victorian folk duo Broken Creek when they were briefly in Canberra for a gig.

They've got a great complementary approach to songwriting - Erin writes the lyrics and Lachlan writes the music..... well it's not quite that straightforward! Erin's crafting of the lyrics suggests melody and rhythm ideas and Lachlan's instrumental skills inspire song ideas. Lachlan also digs right into the subject matter of songs and produces pages of research about the subject of a song and Erin filters the essence of the story into the song.

We discussed and played a recording of a wonderful song they wrote in this iterative way about the convict Mary Bryant who was transported with the first fleet and then led the first successful escape from the colony at Port Jackson..... in Governor Philip's stolen fishing boat!

Many of their songs tell the story of inspirational women from history who rarely have their stories told in the history books.

They are both impressive musicians and songwriters in their own right but together that synergy thing is working overtime! I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I did recording it!

To hear more of Erin and Lachlan's music: https://www.brokencreekband.com/

Chris Johnson is a long time songwriter and lover of guitars. He came to the studio for a chat with his custom-made acoustic guitar built from exclusively Australian timber that he once wrote a book about!

Chris has been writing songs since he was in primary school in Brisbane and has always been keen to perform his songs for others.

It usually takes an idea to kick off the songwriting process and then he usually develops lyrics and music at the same time. Chris likes to tell a story through his songs but keep the music simple.

We discussed Chris's song "Seven Seas" written at a time when his family was away for an extended period and he was missing his daughter. As he wrote the song it morphed into a broader idea about missing people and he finds that people he performs it to often can relate it to their own circumstances. Chris is constantly amazed by how audiences have a range of different interpretations of the meanings of his songs.

Chris related the story of recording Seven Seas in the studio and how the contributing musicians added their own influences to the final mix. Chris played a wonderful solo acoustic version of Seven Seas in the studio which transported me to many far-away places!

Songwriting has been a great friend to Chris and his advice to new songwriters - believe in yourself and give it a go! Also, when you get a musical or lyrical idea, write it down or it'll be lost!

For more of Chris's music with his collaborator Artem Grigoriev in Canberra "outlaw country" duo Capo Creek: https://capocreek.bandcamp.com/album/running-out

I had a phone chat with Chris and Kayleigh from Canadian folk duo Dandelion Highway whilst they were sitting in their car on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls just before a gig in a vintage record store! They both love songwriting and have written songs independently for many years. Kayleigh who hails from Waterford in Ireland met Chris in Toronto through a shared love of Irish music, tea and puppies and they started writing songs together.

They are quite complementary as songwriters with Chris often coming up with a riff that they repeat over and over until some of the lyrics Kayleigh has stashed in her lyric book fit the tune. they observe and interpret each other's work as they go back and forth to finish a song.

We discussed their forthcoming single "We are Gold" which is a very positive story about maintaining a friendship after a relationship has ended and recognising the value that both people have brought to each others' lives.

We played a recording of "We are Gold" and I could see them car dancing at the other end of the video call! Listening to it brought back memories for Chris and Kayleigh of recording the song and the way that their producer became part of the songwriting team.

It was great to catch up with Chris and Kayleigh and to catch up with Dandelion Highway's music: https://dandelion-highway.com/

Matt Holborow writes songs and makes guitars! He approaches both in a similar way - learning by doing, trial and error and gradually gaining confidence. Matt has been known by friends and colleagues for a long time as a musician and someone who can change the lyrics of existing songs for a certain occasion. It's only in the past few years that Matt has taken the plunge and started writing his own original songs.

He likes to allude to aspects of his life through songwriting but hide the specifics behind scraps of truth and fiction taken from other sources. Matt has separate "banks" of lyrics and Musical ideas which come together through a hard-to-pin-down process into songs. He's had the experience of writing a song in five minutes, taking years to write a song and everything in-between.

Working with his band mates in "Box of Hammers" Matt has built his songwriting ability and now can imagine in his head the various parts of a song - guitars, bass, vocal harmonies etc.

Matt played two songs live in the studio - "There's a Bear in There" and "Tradie Lady". Both songs have great stories attached and Matt points out that there is an autobiographical element in both songs and a lot of stuff he adapted or made up!

Matt encourages new songwriters to take it slow, try things out, throw lots of things away and trust your instincts.

I had the great fortune to chat about songwriting with legendary, and now Melbourne-based, singer/songwriter James Fahy when he was back in Canberra recently.

For James, getting going with songwriting during his school and uni years empowered him at a time when things were difficult. He's never looked back!

We talked about two phases of songwriting - the creative phase (very short and needs to be held onto as long as possible) and the editing phase (can go on for a long time!).

James thinks a lot about his potential audience when he is songwriting and often imagines them sitting in the room with him whilst he is writing. He also is and has been strongly influenced by people he has co-written with including his former school mate, Ramsay, Joe Oppenheimer, Evan Buckley and others.

Many of James's songs are about friends or real things that have happened but in order to protect the identity or feelings of individuals, including himself, James often combines several narrative thoughts into a single song.

We spoke about the song "Northbourne", a song written 15 years ago about the road of the same name in Canberra. When James originally wrote the song, trying to bring together threads of his time in Canberra and people he knew, he wasn't very happy with the the result and put it "in the cupboard" for six months. Getting it out again, the songwriting "dough" had risen in the intervening months and gave James a new perspective on what he had written. At this point he realised that some of his Canberra music collaborators' styles were actually reflected in the song after all! He also reflected on how songs evolve over time - the Northbourne Avenue streetscape has changed a lot over the years!

James discussed a stack of technical tips and tricks which help him with his songwriting and then played an acoustic version of Northbourne live in the studio which showcase a lot of these songwriting techniques.

It was great to catch up with James and I think this episode is a goldmine for budding songwriters!

For more about James's music:

https://linktr.ee/jamesfahymusic?fbclid=IwY2xjawGZF_5leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHbFLiiZWuXk2E5R_sDXxC9FWziaUqf3Qqvqj90VgrPTTdfrVYBxOXgiGnA_aem_s0DRsdAfjixecq-_mqGdVw

https://www.facebook.com/jamesfahymusic/

https://soundcloud.com/jamesfahy