#180 Colin Buchanan
Celebrating episode 180 with a child meeting her hero, Colin shares his amazing journey with Rae as they discover his journey inspired her's and the creative circle of inspirations continues.
Born in Dublin in 1964, Colin Buchanan is a storyteller to a generation. On the release of his 1991 debut album, Galahs In The Gidgee, the Sydney Morning Herald declared him, “...simply the best singer-songwriter to emerge on the Australian Country scene in the last decade.”
Three decades later, Buchanan has more than lived up to early expectations, building a diverse and successful career across the media. He is a nine times Golden Guitar winner, both as an artist in his own right and as collaborator with the cream of Australian country music, penning hit songs for the likes of Slim Dusty, Troy Cassar-Daley, Adam Harvey, Beccy Cole, Amber Lawrence and a host of others. Colin’s most substantial single contribution as co-writer remains his work with Lee Kernaghan. Colin has a remarkable 30 songwriting credits on Kernaghan’s 2022 Greatest Hits release, “Lee Kernaghan:3 Decades Of Hits.”
With a long-awaited country album set for release in 2022, Colin Buchanan returns to his roots with a collection of remarkable songs inspired by the people, places and stories of everyday Australia.
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Transcript
Rae Leigh: welcome to a Songwriter tryst with Colin B cannon. Thank you very much for joining me. I'm so excited to have you.
Colin Buchanan: Well, Rae thank you very much. I love the intimacy of the podcast, ramble chat, I feel like we're jumping into each other's sort of brain space and we're inviting people to join us. And I think that's very special.
Rae Leigh: It is, this is, I'm a very curious person by nature, and this is tends to be the conversation I'd have with someone. If I met you at a restaurant or randomly, and we were just starting to have a conversation of who are you, where did he come from? What are you up to today? But it's more specific because we're both songwriters and something that we can have that instant connection and from there.
So I do like to start by getting you to share with in your own words, who are you and where do you come from?
Colin Buchanan: And you realize how dangerous this is to ask me to talk about myself. I'd like to any, you know, so what have you been doing is the question you must never ask a performer because they may tell you
Rae Leigh: I love it.
Colin Buchanan: Who am I Colin Buchanan? You can, I'm someone who at age six minus two weeks. Came to Australia with his family and caught the chicken pox and landed in Brunswick, surrounded by Greeks and Italians. And we'd come from? Dublin in Ireland, surrounded by Catholics and Irish Catholics. It was culture shock.
And I think that's probably where a little call and said, oh, I gotta get this right. Are in my brain working and fast because this is a new place to fit into. Interestingly, and this is only a, more recent discovery from my mum. Who's 92 who, told me that she was growing up in Dublin in a product. She was given, my wife has bemoaned the accent, that lack of Irish accent. I, as you can tell, I have no Irish accent. And my mom was given elocution lessons to make sure that she didn't speak with an Irish accent, but had a more genteel more Anglo. Yeah, she did that in, they didn't want to speaking with this real sort of, you know, lilt and it was, it was just this Protestant Catholic interestingly her dad was Scottish and it just seems very you know, curious, but so when I came to Australia, I didn't come with a thick accent and another my, my dad was English and I'm Irish, but she doesn't have that far tea tree in a terror sort of,
Rae Leigh: But it's such a beautiful accent. I I've always felt a little bit Irish because I was born on St.
Patrick's day, so,
Colin Buchanan: that'll do we'll have you we'll have you all welcome.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Thanks.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah. So I think interesting. I just, relate that to the fact that there's a bit more to my radar as I describe it than I realize in that I wanted to fit in and, my grandparents wanted my, mum to fit out. Sort of parallel, but opposite. When we settled in Sydney, I was just on the lookout of I didn't want to stick with. From my friends, you know, I want it to be part of the crowd and and that, I think they're probably honed my pals of observation.
There's nothing like survival, to sort of, uh, hone those sorts of things. And I think the other thing is,
Rae Leigh: at five,
Colin Buchanan: oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, uh, you know,
Rae Leigh: the adaptive child.
Colin Buchanan: Exactly. You just need to mold into that because you know that chunk of life, and I started writing a bit of a, you know, it's not formal, but I started writing a bit of a mem memoir and I called
one chapter about my Irish era indestructible in destructively happy because, because it was there's that sense of this is where I was from.
Everyone sort of had their place that, you know, in this quite, you know, there was the village at the end of the street and there were the neighbors there and there were those neighbors and there was a school that we drove to and there was a city that we would go to. And there were the shops that we would go to in the city.
And there was the coffee brewer whose nose, I would stick my nose, whose window I would stick my nose up against and watch the big. Coffee roaster work. And then fill my lungs with this, a delicious smell, which I couldn't stand the taste over at the top. And, um, uh, Yeah.
it was all very, you know, in destructively, just joyful and happy and, uh, uh, really quite probably retrofitted as kids tend to, you know?
Um, but, uh, but then I came to this, um, you know, it's like the, whatever, the spliced and beautifully finished end of the rope. Yeah,
I came to the end. That was just sort of quite frayed. And it was, you know, I had a good family secure. They love me, you know, it wasn't, uh, it wasn't traumatic in the sort of, you know, in any dysfunctional sort of way, really.
It was just, uh, uh, you know, a massive change for a six year old. So, uh, I think, I think, uh, the other thing I discovered was that humor was my friend and, um, and that laughter is a great way to, uh, to break down barriers and to, uh, and to control situations that are out of your control. which, um,
Rae Leigh: a good tool humor.
Colin Buchanan: it is, It's a right.
It's a wonderful tool. And, uh, and it's, despite the, you know, it sounds a bit subversive putting it that way, but makes you
happy. It makes everyone else happy as well.
So it's the magic.
Rae Leigh: situations quite well. Yeah. I wanna know what, you said you came over at such a young age. W was there a big reason for the move? How did that inspire you to get into music? Did that start from that experience?
Colin Buchanan: I would say meet music, wasn't a, sort of a huge feature of our home, but it was a, it was definitely a feature and it's, and at my particular moment, my dad loves loud. He's no longer alive, but he loved classical music. And I, if I can admit to this guilty pleasure, I do quite like putting a bit of classical music on from time to time. And we were church goers and, I'm still a Christian, so that's something that's really fundamental to my life.
Rae Leigh: And my parents had pastas.
Colin Buchanan: yeah. Okay. Well, wow. So, so it's, you'd appreciate just how integrated music.
Rae Leigh: Oh
Colin Buchanan: whether you log it or not. And like, this was the very traditional we went to a traditional Presbyterian church in, in, well, yeah. that's right.
There was, it was the Oregon, you know,
Rae Leigh: Yeah,
Colin Buchanan: but it was all those hymns that were amazingly constructed, poetic. Sublime, many of them, not all of them, and melodically, some of them are adjust, but some of them many are timelessly beautiful pieces of music and incredibly modular as well.
If they could choose the words of this human, it would fit with these other tunes, you know, you'd use familiar tunes for, for hymns that people had never sung before and it would, they would fit perfectly. So I think, musically I picked up a lot about melody and meter and rhyme and, from that combination of, you know, my dad's love of classical music and the fact that, you know, week In week out, you're singing hymns,
Rae Leigh: congregation, nonetheless, you know, I love that feeling that you get in a church when people sing together, even if you're at a country music gig or something, and everyone sings along, there's something powerful about that.
Colin Buchanan: it's incredibly powerful. And the other thing I love about it it's incredibly ancient. It's like we
Rae Leigh: sing together.
Colin Buchanan: so shaped by, the, you know, what's the toilet. There's a lot of toilet walls sayings. We've got a big notice board and it's complete chaos, but it wasn't like, like, you know, 20th century people know everything there is to know about the last 10 minutes and nothing about the 10 last 10,000 years or something, you know, like it's one of those sort of phrases.
And so we're, we're such creatures of
Rae Leigh: History is good there.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah, and plugging into ancient, things that w with my kids geeks, I did kids Christian music, and, we use flags in one particular song, and I invariably get adults and parents saying that was very moving. That the song that you're saying, I mean, it's got a, it's partly about what the subject matter of the song is.
It's sort of going to a sort of sovereign theme if you like, to it but there is something, a sink isn't that funny. I flagged that being around, you know, and like you say, voices just singing together right now. We're trying to build apps and nothing wrong with that, I suppose. But, you know, you get a hundred people or 500 people singing together, or unplugging a guitar at a gig and walk into the center of the room and sing a song in the middle of the audience.
And, uh, I'll never forget you. You'll
Rae Leigh: Ah, it's incredible. You don't, you don't forget it. No. Yeah. It's one of those moments that you just, yeah. That's like an old, there are many, I think ultimate goals for any songwriter. It's like getting a group of people to be singing your song. Even having, I don't know about you, but even having one person even knows the lyrics to a song that you wrote singing along with you at a pub.
That for me was like one of my biggest moments. When I saw someone on the corner of my eyes singing along with me, I'm like, hang on a second. That's never happened before
Colin Buchanan: that's nice.
Rae Leigh: it was someone's paying attention. It is it's
Colin Buchanan: yeah. And you want to remain, you do want to remember that and remember how it feels and, that, that's the great thing about, I suppose, creating is that, is that it's, it's sort of, what would you call it? Not it's revolving doors that you, you, you hear music, you love music, you want to sing that music and celebrate it and it makes you feel something and you think, Hey, just a minute, what if I could get in this revolving door?
And I could be that guy, and maybe someone's gonna hear that song and think that's that that's got something in it that resonates with me. I, I wanna, I wanna join that song. You know, I want to be a part of what they're singing about or it's, I just want to hear that song because it, it helps me, or, it makes me feel a certain way, that, that is, that's that's life enhancing and good.
And so it is it's it's a wonderful, but
I'm still, I think I'm still aged six in this podcast, so
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah. We've we haven't progressed much though.
I'm interested. Cause you say, you know, when you're inspired by the church, you know, you came over to very young and you want to fit in. I can totally relate to that. I think everyone can relate to being at that age and not, not knowing the world and trying to work out their surroundings.
But tell me, when did you go from, okay. Music is something I do at church to music is going to be something that I do as a career. What did that, was that something that happened really early for you?
Colin Buchanan: Well, again, I'm not tied to sound like one of these people that's, to a man with a hammer, everything is a nail, you know, so I, I don't want to be one of these Christian people that sounded like, oh, wow. you? know, that's all I want to talk about, but, but my wife and
Rae Leigh: my dad then I go on
Colin Buchanan: My wife and I, who were involved in a church and met in that church and, got married and, and it felt just, you know, some degree of spiritual, I wouldn't call It drawn us. I'd say we were just a bit, a bit of unrest. And then we had some friends who'd spent some time in a little Christian community, out of Bourke in Western new south Wales.
So in the Outback, and who just come back and sit on, it really enrich their life and really invigorated their faith.
and just giving them life experience and sort of given their fake legs and, for just the day to day thing. So we went and visited them and I thought the first impression was this is a godforsaken dusty hole.
As many people do and I get to Burke and then a year later we were out there, in the UN and discovering it, thinking, oh, you know, we want to do this. And it doesn't take long, uh, for the godforsaken dustiness of it to sort of give way to sort of the vastness and, you know, the whole was sort of wilderness.
Thing, which is a very Christian motif, but it is a, people in the desert, you know, are the things happen in the desert. Cause you just, especially when you're, when you're in a, what would you call it? The city is a, is a place where, you know, we express dominion, we seal it.
We air condition. It, we catch, catch trains through it. We drive, like it's, it's, it's controlled. We buy, you know, you can never far from conveniences and, and to go out there and just, to be in a completely different environment was, it's a big impact on, on your emotionally, I think.
Rae Leigh: It will test your faith.
Colin Buchanan: yeah. Yeah.
And I think too, it also revealed. Curiously, it reveals its own story way more powerfully often than, than we, the natural, the story of the land, you know, is revealed it's immediately evident. But it also reveals the stories that, that live within it. So really as much as it, it was probably a journal as much as anything I was writing songs, you know, went to the Burke show not long after we arrived there and was just walking around and thinking, this is, this is incredible.
This is, look, they look at these people, look at this place, you know? I've got the, program and I'm writing down everything. I say, Rams gyms, boobs, biscuits, craft, cattle, sheep, shortbread, stewards, K dust kiosks girl has dark eyes, you know, sale at three bids and buyers, but a scan hold the hammer, you know, and that becomes a song, because I just want, want to write about it.
And I'd written songs before that, some of my kids' Christmas songs I'd written before that, so that was, this was pre 1988. I'd been just as you do music, you know, we we'd, had opportunity to, you know, that opportunity to play guitar and, and make up a few songs for Sunday school, and youth group and so forth.
But, out there it was, you know, some of the songs I'd like. The likes of red gum and go Anna and Eric Bogle. And I met James Tyler, Jackson brown, just seeing a songwriters that I'd, that I'd loved
Rae Leigh: Is that where you interest we're introduced to the country music side of things at a Burke.
Colin Buchanan: Look, I'll always love the Bushwhackers, and I think it, that goes back to my, you know, cause the pushback has been going for so long and yeah, 50 years
Rae Leigh: yeah,
Colin Buchanan: , I snuck into the with my friend, he was of legal age, but I was below age, but I snuck into the, north Bexley actually north hotel and, and we so the Bushwhackers and this was, you know, it would have been. 80 81. I think something like that. And they, you would have to say though, I really, at the peak of their powers, it was like dope. Newton was like, Hey, Angus young. In fact they were all like Angus young, really. They had crazy drama who was just, just crazy. And, probably, probably Roger was the only one who sort of seemed slightly, but Louis McManus is no.
longer alive as this incredible mandolin multi-instrumentalist Michael Harris was playing fiddle.
It was just bare feet. It was, you know, the cap stuck to your shoes, the place smell like beer and, and this incredible energy that was it. Wasn't just, it had this sort of rock and other dry. It was loud, you know, but it was, it was this really interesting connection between, and I love it when this happens, when the traditions meet young heads and I get that.
This music was not made up by old guys with beards who liked to tie strings around their trousers and, you know, play, play a little bottle cap things and go Dardy, duh, this is like, this is sheer is, and like you read about Lawson on the dialing, you know, it's, it's people on the edge of their lives, just, trying to eke out a living and, living by their wits.
And their pins, or they are the work of their hands and it's dusty and dirty and quite desperate. And these guys are young and they, they've found it and just it's exploded. So definitely the, that, that connection was, is probably through that Celtic music. And not long before we went to Berg, a friend introduced me to John Williamson's Mallee boy album, which was really Seminole, I think, you know, and interestingly, you know, like I loved, loved Derek Bogle and he, he was very much of the folk sort of genre as well.
So, my exposure to sort of what you would call classic country music was, was probably limited. You know, certainly growing up as I did to, through, that sort of democratic post folk explosion, Christian chorus world as well, probably meant that, you know, lots of people learned guitars and a lot of the songs had had these very, pretty folk.
And when I say folk, not necessarily Celtic, FARC, just this folky sort of driven thing, about them. So, so all of that was sort of the, that was probably the amalgam. Cause the song that I wrote about the Burke show, I played it on the schoolhouse veranda to a friend of mine from Sydney who was also out there. I said, Hey, I've written a song about the show and I'll play can apply it to you. I haven't applied it to anyone yet. Just, you know, freshly finished. Yeah.
Yeah. So off I got off, I go finish it. Yeah. It's a little bit slim dusty,
Rae Leigh: That's sort of bad compliment.
Colin Buchanan: exactly. Well, it all depends. It all depends who says
it and why, I suppose. But, uh, I think that, you know, at
Rae Leigh: that's true. Actually,
Colin Buchanan: At the time, I probably thought I got a feeling that wasn't a compliment, but, uh, you know, in hindsight as
Rae Leigh: told me, I sounded like Beyonce once and I was like, yeah, that doesn't sound like a compliment, but I don't, I'll take it as one anyway.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah,
that's right. Yeah. I think, I think you, you learn, you learned to take, even insults, you know, in, in this game, you're taking anything you can get, if you can turn it to some positives, I'll just pop that in my, I might be able to use that in a buyer sometime.
Rae Leigh: yeah. I'll put that as a quote. Can I quote you say, can I quote you on that?
Colin Buchanan: It's been, Yeah. she's been described as beyond saying yeah, that's
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Colin Buchanan: That's right. Lacking
Rae Leigh: a country music artist.
Colin Buchanan: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Hang on a
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Colin Buchanan: but that's uh,
Rae Leigh: a second.
Colin Buchanan: So anyway, so music, like I still, I at least I'm older than six now, but I, but I really, what I'm saying is the songs were self sign. And then later that year a friend said you should, you've got all those songs. Like I'd been, I, I, I recorded, I sang at a barbecue, because friends had said, oh, will you, will you, record those songs so we can have them on cassette while we're, out on the tractors. So I recorded a barbecue, a set of 25 minute barbecue concert and a. Of the songs that I've written and, we copied them onto a cassette for friends. And, that was literally just the friends of the farm sort of thing. And then someone would say die, you should get a 10 with which again, you know, it's like, what I saying, you should get to, you should get a 10 with and not come back.
Um, now,
uh, Yeah.
it depends what he said. You sounded like slim, dusty. They said you should get a Tamworth. So I rang the, I didn't know anything about the time with country music festival. So I rang the tr the tourist bureau and said,
I've got on I'm ringing from back. Can you hear me?
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Colin Buchanan: I've got a couple of, songs and I want to enter that. In something, you know, like when, and they said, oh, well, I don't know, ring Bal marketing who ran to TM and rang the, ring, ring them up. So sorry, I rang them up and they said, well, you might want to, you could enter star maker or you could, do there's the CA Capitol country music club run a songwriting contest on the phone while I'm, I don't know that I'm a star.
So maybe, maybe a songwriting contest sends a little more, like it's up my alley. So fast forward to the following January, and I've got three songs in the final and because we'd moved back back from Burke, you know? Yeah.
I mean, hang on, hang on a minute. It's it's it's it's, you know, don't get too excited about this scenario.
Uh, Yeah.
we'd moved back to my mother-in-law's. So this guy was saying,
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Colin Buchanan: Saturday morning was. Was the hates, I know it was the finals, the finals or Saturday morning at what used to be the, the uniting church hall. So there's a sort of smattering of people standing around for family and friends, you know, and people are walking up onto the stage, you know, singing their songs and there's, , the judges sitting at the back, it's all very free range.
It's sort of happening all day because it's, you know, it's vocalists and certain ages and stages. And so I get up and sing my three songs and, and I say, they, the results will be posted out the front of the town hall at
4:00 PM, you know? And if you win, yeah, that's right. And if you win, you get to perform your song with the band.
Lindsey Butler was banned, at the jam brewery. And blind me down. We went, we went up there and, and the local district show. Then that one, I wasn't planning this arc, but there's arcs working for me at the moment because that very song
has won the songwriting contest. And I get to perform it at high speed with, with Lindsey Butler at the hand, uh, that Saturday night.
And, I mean, we borrowed a car to get up there and, and we came back home and said, Hey, look, we won this statue in a hundred dollars, which back then when you've lived in Berkeley for a year, a hundred dollars is like, you know, like, call the king and uncle and,
Rae Leigh: What year are we talking
Colin Buchanan: 1980. Well, that was 89 because.
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Colin Buchanan: So, uh, they're running up to 89 now. So I've just turned 25. I think. Now my 26 boy, it's hard work, you know, and I'm, I think I'm 57 or 58, I think 57. So you've got, your work cut out for you, right? How are we going to get to
Rae Leigh: all right. We've got, we've got my first birthday, so let's, let's keep going.
So you just had a few friends will be like, Hey, you should do this. And you're like, well, why not? Let's see what, see what, what happens with it? You know, you put your foot out there and got, got vulnerable submitted to the song, to the competition and you won. What were you doing in Berg when you weren't we, just like missionary
Colin Buchanan: Now I
trained as a school teacher. And so part of, part of the model for this, Christian community was that you, you wouldn't pay fees, but you just work on the farm half a day. But because I was a school teacher, they had a little school of nine kids in the primary department. And I, so for half a day, I was a pretty cheap cheap teacher actually now think about it, but it was terrific.
I like I loved it. There was nine kids. And I mean, I like to say it completely vandalized my school teaching forever because you know, when you teach 30 kids, you've you sorta got a, treated like a herd. Whereas when you teach nine, It's like, it's, there's that one on that one. And that one on that, you know, and you just really.
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Colin Buchanan: That's got it. Yeah.
it's lovely. Yes, I was a school teacher and I taught full-time for two years in Sydney before we headed out there. Then when I was in grant fellows, we're on a team of guys who'd been involved with cornerstone this community. So I was, I was sort of doing a bit of farm work and sort of helping lead the team there and S and this whole fresh, source material for the songs that I'd started writing, where suddenly I'm in a shape and weight town.
It's like, ah, now there's something different to write about here. It's, this is exciting, but, but again, journal from a journal if you like, but the local Piper who ever, you know, if someone tied their shoe lace, it was a good chance. I put it in the paper, that snapper would come around and take, take county. He'd come
Rae Leigh: That's devaluing yourself. I wouldn't allow that
Colin Buchanan: and take a photo of you gone. Do you kinda new to town?
Um, sorry, double natto, single Colin. But he, yes at came around and took a photo and, I won the prize and, and then there's a knock on the door and it's no Cartwright, right? The local electrician, he says, Hey, look, if you write a song or write a song a bit, and this is the 10 words, songwriters association have a branch in the Lockland branch.
It's the only branch of the time with songwriters association, as it turned out, they made it that they made at the TAFE in Kara. Do you want to come along? And so every, you know, once a month, we drive across from Grenville two or three of us. And, and basically it was share a song in the circle and then hear a sermon from, I can't remember his name, but the guy who was the sort of a branch president would, one of these people who would speak and not look at anyone. And then when he turned to look at you, he closed his eyes, you know, that,
Rae Leigh: Oh, I just actually couldn't handle eye contact,
Colin Buchanan: but he was quite he was quite adamant about, what made a good song and what didn't, but it was, it was this really idiosyncratic group of, of songwriters, you know, like there was a postman and a lady with, with a
Rae Leigh: Sounds character
Colin Buchanan: alcoholic husband and, you know, like it was, it was just a really interesting group of people and it was, but it was a really lovely little creative group as well. I met sort of helped me understand a bit more about country music just from being around these people. And, I might say, oh, I like that song. You know, it's like, oh, oh, that's fun. And I like, it's nice to be able to go and play songs. And, and I don't, I, I might have, it did sound like slim dusty, and,
so I made a cassette and I'm gonna, I'm going to get to the point I'm 90 cassette, in the lounge room of some of these songs. The flying aim is, which was country ban. And again, that.
like they, they were a little like the Bush records in terms of bluegrass. Th they were to bluegrass what the Bushwhackers might've been to folk that they were taking bluegrass music
and just, just giving it, it was just putting it on a young heads and I'm not, not trying to reinvent it, just loving it.
Great, great players. Like, Hey, it seems to me, Karen, John Kane. But John Cain was S was the song rod, huh? And on a header, an album of he's way back in Sydney, Sydney days, I'd got a bluegrass Saul. I record, if he's in, I really liked that. And I got excited that his band was coming through and I gave him a copy of the cassette and that's really where, okay. so this is.
Th this is, people say you really got to pay your Jews and music. And, and I, I did not lock into music on that thing, but I also did not. Troy Cassa daily went round to all the talent. Chris traveled far and wide, you know, and then joined the band a window on the young east tour.
And, you know, like, there's this, just this incredible, you know, and I really respect and admire that commitment that a lot of artists have shine to getting into the
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Colin Buchanan: I, John wrote back and said, I'd really love to make a record with you. I've paid it to my publisher in Sydney and the record company.
And I'd like to hear more and, you know, so I could, so that, that was just like, oh, wow, this is really exciting. And so I carry that letter around in my back pocket and share it all with my friends in Grandville.
Rae Leigh: Boasting rights.
Colin Buchanan: Okay. That's right. So when, so when I got back to Sydney, it was like, the publisher who was back then was Rondo music, which was bought by universal music, or I'm still scientists I've been signed to them for over 30, 30 years. And, they paid for me to make some demos. So I'm back in Sydney, no longer living in the Bush and, made some demos. I shopped them around to a few of the record companies. So suddenly I'm plugged in. You know, it's not, when John turned up at Tamworth and my wife were there, they said, we'll pick you up out the front of the motel.
And he turned up in a balmy old Corolla wagon blowing smoke, Robin said, okay, sorry. So this, this whole music thing isn't necessarily, it's not all stretch limos and,
Rae Leigh: no, not glamorous.
Colin Buchanan: We kind of backed down to it, but definitely being plugged into, you know, sort of the legitimacy of, you know, record company and, and publisher and that sort of Sydney music industry was a really great, you know, it gave us sort of credibility.
And when I went back to Tamworth, after I'd entered, the Tam was songwriters association, music, songwriting competition. There was just this, suddenly there was a bit of a groundswell. I performed it. At the concert, because I'd want to want another one of those. And they suddenly I'm beginning called the find of the festival and,
Rae Leigh: That's going to be nice.
Colin Buchanan: yeah, yeah. I got called the new John Williamson, but that didn't last too long. , yeah, I've got a towel that I can, but I can't talk like it. I've got to say call 'em job. Just want to say as a rural leave, like You're not the new may call. I mean, that's my job.
Rae Leigh: You're just the first year.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah. Exact
thank you, right? yeah, That's a nice way to put it. yeah.
Is he the old column Buchanan, but, we, I ended up getting a deal with ABC music. John produced my first two albums, the, the first I was, I broke a pattern that had been unbroken for a number of years where star Mike would win the best new talent. And it happened with like Keitha and that happened with, with I'm in Lee county.
And I think it halfway through as well, but, blunt Blundell. Yeah. No, but not
Rae Leigh: James window.
Colin Buchanan: Gina, not because I was nominated in the same year as Gina and Jane Saundra's actually. And, and at the town hall, because I said that. They split all the awards for one year when those, anyway, that's another story, but, everyone was most surprised. Probably Jay and Gina, you know, still jokes about it, you know, actually since, but,
Rae Leigh: got a great personality though.
Colin Buchanan: has, she has, she's a gym and, yeah, so that was sort of the beginning, you know, like my album was well-received, it sort of gave me that momentum and, and so the same year, so my album, we had our first child in 1990, so we got four kids. So, so you know, my, my mid thank you. Thank you it's never too late to congratulate you
Rae Leigh: No, I have three it's. You should always graduate anyone, no matter how many, how many kids they have, how old they are. Well done.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. Oh, wow. Wow. How old are yours? Right.
Rae Leigh: I had three within four years. It was definitely, probably similar to, you know, your plan, your ways, and he directs your steps. That was me having children. Yeah, so they're they're five, seven and nine.
Colin Buchanan: Oh, wow. Oh, that's very,
Rae Leigh: Mm.
Colin Buchanan: that's. Well, you've just sort of, it's lively, but it's not quite as chaotic as perhaps it would have been three, four years ago.
Rae Leigh: no, but, raising children through COVID has been an interesting experience.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: first attempt at writing children's music was when we were stuck at home and they're like, let's go to the park, let's go to the pub. I'm like, right. Let's write a song.
Colin Buchanan: Wow.
Rae Leigh: is that, is that having children, was that what inspired you to head in that direction for kids?
Colin Buchanan: Well, no, I would say just the, you know, the, the, the church environment, you know, I sort of learned the guitar and, and it's, it's humming. Yeah.
For those who haven't sort of experienced that it's, there is a sense in which the community of church, you know, you're, you're a kid and then you're a little bit older and they say, oh, do you want to help with the kids, the little ones and sort of it's, it's got this lovely turnover to it.
And music plays a part in that. And of course, you know, there's no real pressure when you're playing a guitar for some children.
Rae Leigh: Loads of pressure. I think I went from being the kid to being the youth worship ministries leader, and I was very pressured into being it, but I mean, it was, it was good. And I look at, you know, I learned so much from worship leading in the church to being a performer now, but like, I would never sing in public unless it was church.
Like
Colin Buchanan: Well,
Rae Leigh: I was a shy kid.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah, but that's a, that's a really lovely, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's interesting. Cause I relate to that. And in fact, when I was in Burke, I would lead the singing in the church and one of the leaders of the community, it wasn't that much older than me really. But, he said, one Sunday, you said, oh, let's go.
Do you want to go for a walk? I want to talk to you about something. It's like, oh, what's this about? And he said like, when you, when you're leading, you sort of got your head down and you want to, you kinda just like, you're, you're, you're good at what you do. And it's nice to connect, you know, that's the song I know, you know, like I know enough about you to know that these songs are meaningful to you.
So don't, don't, it should try sort of looking up and just saying, and it's funny years later, I was at a wedding with him and I said, you're right. You remember that? And he said,
Rae Leigh: Didn't mean anything to him, but it meant something to you. Yeah. But that's that sort of stuff that you just, you learn from experience. I remember we went to these like Bible camps and you'd break up into different areas of ministry. And I always went for the music and the worship leading because music's always been my thing.
And I remember like we we'd get up and sing and people would, they'd give you feedback. Feedback was so scary. Like I would have been, you know, a teenager, 15, 16, and even just things like, you know, no one's smiling, like smile. Are you enjoying yourself while you're worshiping? Like little things like that, that, people don't tell you unless you're in a specific environment where that's their job is to give you feedback.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah. It's a curious thing.
Rae Leigh: for that experience.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah. well, I do remember going to see, on a subsequent tour that the flying emus did, they, they came to the, I think the Cara bowling club and, after the gig, I was talking to one of the, one of the guys on stage and the lights were still on it.
Wasn't a big gig. And during the gig, because I'd met Jenny the lead singer before during the concert, it was like, and I was sitting more towards the front. It was like, oh, it's nice. Jenny's looking at me, you know, hello, Jenny. And then when I was talking to the guy at the end, it was like, they can't see anything up here.
This is like, these lights, these stage lights are so bright. They could, you can't see the audience. And it's like, hello. Okay. You know what, I'm going to try this. And there was a T a, another talent quiz at, at Grenfell. I didn't go in many talent quests, but this one was a local one where it was just a beautifully communal, like the postman who I mentioned earlier came and played his, he played a rattle stick, you know, with the bottle tops on it. And,
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah.
Colin Buchanan: and saying, if someone with zero accompany meant there was a guy there, um, who whistled,
Rae Leigh: Okay.
Colin Buchanan: like it was.
Rae Leigh: That was, that was one of your comp like
Colin Buchanan: it was. a classic, talent quest, you know, just free range. It wasn't, you know, and then you had, you know, a few of that sort of traveling country music, people with satin shirts and, big boots who came along and saying they're sort of prefab country type, you know, and probably wanted to, because the, all the, the judges were looking for that sort of, you know,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Colin Buchanan: the Pavlov's dogs. Yeah. Yeah. But, but at that, I, I sing my theme, my songs, and I decided I'm going to look at the audience and it was, it completely transformed. I just couldn't believe how engaged the audience were. I couldn't see any of them. And I just looked at them and, it was really, that, that was a very powerful, experience to, to experience that just, I suppose you could call it, I'd learnt a bit of showmanship,
Rae Leigh: Showmanship entertainment. Yeah. It is a journey to watch. As you know, we're all constantly watching and sharing and we watch people. Who've been doing it for a long time and people are just beginning. I noticed, I don't know about you, but I noticed obviously the people who are just beginning 99% of the time eyes are wide shut
Colin Buchanan: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: and they're just in their own bodies. They're in themselves and they're closing their eyes and they're just finding all the courage they can muster to get up there and sing. And I, I appreciate that. I've been there. I get it. But at the same time, it's beautiful to see people come out of their shell and realize that they can look at you and they're not going to spontaneously combust and that they can enjoy that experience as well.
And then that development is an artist as people go on and continue to find that courage to get up there and do it. It's it's beautiful to watch.
Colin Buchanan: Hm.
Rae Leigh: I want to go more into your songwriting, because you do have, you have such a vast songwriting experience and you know, you've been doing it for so long.
Do you feel like now after such a long time as songwriting, that there is a, a method or something behind your songwriting that you're always going to first, we're always asking a particular question about your songwriting that you want to make sure is there to complete it before you finish a song.
Colin Buchanan: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's free. That's no, no, it's not nobody to question. That's a good question. And it's, some samadhi is an interesting thing because it's so, I guess it, it, it will, you know, it will show up under x-ray. Like there is, you know, there is, there is structure to songs and there, you it's, it's, it's quantifiable, but it's never entirely quantifiable and you can never be entirely sure. Why you decided to put that particular bone in that particular place,
And, and or
Rae Leigh: felt good
Colin Buchanan: that's right. Or you can send you the same, same is true of, of other songwriters where you you'll say, well, I don't know why they did that. I don't know what possessed them to, to create in that way. And even to the extent that you'd say, okay, well, these songs, I'm always a bit nervous about the, a songwriting workshop guys.
I haven't done many songwriting workshops. And, I suppose if you go to a songwriting workshop, you are creating, you know, if you run one, you're creating an expectation that people will understand more about songwriting when they finished them when they started. And if all you do is tell them that this is a great mystery, none of us can really fully
understand it's a, they got us, they got out.
Rae Leigh: And why would you want to really?
Colin Buchanan: Well, exactly. They're going to ask for their money back, but that's part of the, that's, that is part of the journey of songwriting is that it has this mystery to it that, I like to
think of it as there's an art and a craft and the craft, the craft is learnable and the art or the gift is, is be starred, is mysterious. It's we don't fully understand where it comes from and why. And so I really, and I think if a if a song is all craft. it it'll probably, hold water. You know, if it was, you know, if it was. Traffic would cross it. It potentially is utilitarian and, as opposed to beautiful, really let's say incomplete, incomplete, structurally incomplete song or a song that doesn't hold water could maybe benefit from having some structural assistance that will create an even better song, because it wasn't built just to haul water.
It was built because it was meant to be. And, so I enjoy, I enjoy collaborating. 'cause I feel sometimes people who perhaps don't think of themselves as songwriters or haven't done a lot of songwriting,
can have ideas. And I watched GAF Porter actually, in gas is very accomplished and an experienced songwriter and, and he's sort of suite of skills was producing artists record.
So he has these incredible production skills as well, but he also has a writer, would mine his artists for ideas and draw them into the writing process. So that it's like, well, you need an album of songs that are yours. Like you need an album, you're going to sell this stuff. So you got to sing it like, it's your own?
Well, what's your story, you know, let's find out and let's, you know, and, just get very, very cleverly. So, you know, like if you look at the increase of like a James Bond or a lake Hannigan, you know, gone through is absolutely. Central to that and January as well, you know, absolutely central to, to just mining them for their, their sensibility and what was important to them.
And, and, and then, you know, bringing his craftsmanship to, to bear and then following it right through and his production skills as well.
So it's, I, I'm
Rae Leigh: So, yeah.
Colin Buchanan: not don't.
Rae Leigh: Did you spend much time? Cause I,
think I, I can understand what you're saying is that there's a certain level of like just natural talent and. Sensitivity to that creative artness, but then there is a craftsmanship that you learn. So, you know, there everyone, like you have to have a certain level of talent, but you could work harder at building on your craft.
And I feel like I've, I've definitely experienced that where, I naturally, as a kid loved lyrics and love writing songs, I love music and I've put this natural tendency towards music, but as I've applied myself to read books, study it, learn it, you know, try and figure out the craftsmanship behind it that the, the overall songwriting has developed.
Was there a time when you kind of went from, this is just something that I'm enjoying and I love doing, and I'm taking down notes of all these different ideas around me to going. I want to, like, did you spend time on studying and working at your craft or is it just being one of those things that's just built on over time?
Colin Buchanan: Yeah, I think of it more at the time?
I was, very conscious of, that the joy is sort of part of the life of it. So I CA I would call them self sign songs and I liked, I just think it's really important, to have self sown songs in my life. That, so by that, I mean, so Yeah.
the other term I use, which my wife doesn't like the term.
I thought it was a good album title, but she thought it sounded a bit negative was, songs for Noah. And, and, and by that, I mean, songs that didn't have to be written, I didn't make an appointment to write it. I don't have an album coming up, someone didn't ask me to collaborate. And not there's anything wrong with any of those things, but it's, it's nice for a song just to, to write, you know, to be written because I just felt like writing a song or I saw something that that's how it all started for me.
And it's like, well, if there's alchemy in it, that's, that's how that's where, if that's where songs sort of came from. I, my analogy is if, if somebody is a farm, there's a section of Virgin Bush, not very big necessarily, but it's just, I haven't found that, you know, that's where anything can spring
up on.
I don't clear, fell that.
to make the farm bigger. Yeah.
Because if I clear fell that and there, and there is someone who I think of who I think they clear felled they're there that sort of sacred creative place to write ads. And I just, I think they, when they came back to writing, I thought actually I had, you know, cause they weren't, that sort of didn't have the satisfaction for them.
I think when they came back to try and write self science songs, they realized there wasn't any Virgin Bush left, you know, it was a lot harder. And so w. know, I like rotting to a brief, I liked the challenge of people sending things through to me, to, you know, to work on with them. I love it because I'm a bit of a kitten with a ball of wool, but I also, I do. love, Yeah. I like it.
That songs can just pop out and I think that's, that's really important and to have space space
for that, you know, and they don't necessarily have to be on albums or it just, to me, it's just a sort of sign of creative health. You know, it's a bit like the frogs,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Colin Buchanan: you know, if there's no frogs around, we know the world's a bit sick, you know?
And, uh, you know, I think that you want to be able to hear the frogs,
Rae Leigh: That's a beautiful, I actually haven't heard the
frog's analogy, but that's actually quite beautiful coming from Queensland and this cane toads everywhere, but,
Colin Buchanan: um,
Rae Leigh: I think it's, I think it's beautiful that, that analogy you, you did mention co-writing did that come in later when you were in the publishing deal and things like that.
What's your experience
with co-writing
Colin Buchanan: Yes. Well, I was so self-signed in my songwriting to start with it was like, well, I can't write a song unless the inspiration, you know, it's lightning striking, you know, you can't plan, you can't plan for that unless it's back to the future. But, I was on the road with Lee kerning and this is the first sort of real collaboration.
And he said, let's write a song. Let's let's re write a song tomorrow, two o'clock, come up to my room, you know, and I'll get rod McCormick
to come up and we'll write a song together about a huge and,
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Colin Buchanan: I, and as
you do, and, I said, I've never done that. You know, I, I would not be confident.
He promised me a MozBar and a can of Coke. So I thought, well, that's, you know, yeah, this is going to be, this is going to be a win, no matter what happens. And we wrote she's my Ute, which he. He was going into the studio not long after. And I remember him giving a call and, saying, looking at it.
And I remember in the studio putting on the vocals and now I just feel that last verse, I feel like there's a, there's a bit more juice in this song. You know, he's got an incredible instinct, where, you know,
just, he calls it going for the juggler and I'm, but he's always like thinking, how does that, what's the, what is the arc of this album?
What's the act of this song? You know, what's where, or how does monologue gig what's missing in my live gig, you know? yeah. yeah, Yeah.
You see very, very focused, um, far more focused than me. So we re I rewrite, I said how are, you know, set at home for half an hour? Like, okay, what about this? And it's probably one of the funniest songs and Lee doesn't sort of go near funny.
Haha very much, his songs. Yeah.
Yeah. I want it to just, it's he? Yeah.
He's more raw, you know, maybe there's a bit of wryness and a bit of like, you know what I'm talking about, sort of, there's not great, whereas this song actually has a real punchline to it. And it really worked.
And I remember the agent saying, common booking agent, Rob Potts is no longer with us and, saying, Hey, I was at a gig. And Lee saying that new song you wrote, they loved it. They loved it. You know, it's like,
I'm just like, oh, wow, that's exciting. And then, you know, when he came to the next record, it was like, Hey, we got to get together and write a song.
And it's like, w w will they be Mazda? Yeah.
and that, that became my. I think to the extent that lays just released these three decades triple album, and it's got 60 songs on it and about half of them are collaborations that we've worked on together. So it's remarkable sort of, Yeah.
I'm really not.
Rae Leigh: When you meet someone that you can just click well with though when you write and that you compliment each other.
Colin Buchanan: Yes. Yeah. It's, it's look, it's very interesting because particularly because, you know, Lee is so focused and I'd been so free range, but I'm a very, you know, I'm very visual, like visual writer. I, need to sort of place myself if we're writing a song together, you know, I, I need to create a scene in my own head.
I need to see the song, you know, the, and I love the challenge of just, yeah. Painting, painting, word pictures,
and, yeah. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: that's beautiful. I love that too. I think it's bringing, putting that furniture in there in the song so people can instantly see what you're singing about is, is a challenge to make it that simple. But it's beautiful when you do that. Tell me over, over all the years of experience, because you know, you've shared so much time, so thank you so much.
Would you say there is one piece of advice that really was a turning point for you other than, you know, maybe look at the crowd or anything like that, something that, you know, you want to share with the audience and prospective songwriters out there that are listening?
Colin Buchanan: Oh boy. I may not. I'm trying to think, you know, I wish there was a, you know, that moment where the old guy, he leaned across to me and he said,
I,
Rae Leigh: Yes. B be wise and profound right now. Go
Colin Buchanan: Yeah, Go. It's only, it's only second to tell us, tell us the
funniest thing that ever happened to you. It's like, well, I'll tell you this before I tell you the funniest thing.
I can tell you, this is not going to sound funny. Okay. Now. Yeah,
And then you, you know, you think of something Elaine, because you can't think of anything in our life. There's one time I realized my
shoe lights was on the down or something, you know, it is terrible. So I,
Rae Leigh: all had that
Colin Buchanan: yeah.
Yeah. So funniest thing. So w w the best piece of advice, I, it's really interesting because I, I I'm sort of caught between saying.
Just just to have joy in the journey. That's really, you know, if you're, if you're making music well, love music and, you know, and, and I could push you towards the, sort of the mystical, wonderful inexplicably, marvelous alchemy of, of, of music. That, you know, that may not entirely serve, serve you.
Because music is not a sort of isolated thing, it, it, it's, it's a wonderful means of communication and community and communing, communion. So, you know, if I push you the other way, I wouldn't want to push you away from that to say, you know, co call your talents to our account and, just, be willing to, to, you know, ask, well, what is, what is it that makes a song great.
And why do I love that song and how, how could. You know, work, work on this song to, you know, make it everything it could possibly be. And, you know, don't put yourself under too much pressure. Cause it's sometimes it's like, well, this song was only ever going to be 50%, but boy, you know, it'd be a shame if you made it a 40% when it could have been a 50%, it's good to just sort of push yourself into that.
That zone and look, I, I carry my phone around and, and, have scraps of ideas and very often those ideas that they're, they're the real, they can be. They're not the Flint or the, they're the, the Tinder to really start a fire. So it's really fun to sort of go back to that.
So even if you feel like you're time poor, if you just hear of one line that it's sort of complete in your mind and the Melody's there, and it's just built out of what you just saw or just something that popped into your head, it's like, grab the phone and sing it. I know the kids in the car and they're there at the drive through and, you know, but just singing it, singing in your phone and, and let it, and then in the quietness of an, you know, a year later, five years later, you're,
Rae Leigh: I have that. Yeah. So, so many song ideas with the indicator going in the background. Cause I might've stoplight
Colin Buchanan: that's right.
Rae Leigh: you, he's got to get a few lines in and a bit of a melody and you're like, all right, I'll come back to that later. And then you never do. And yeah, like you said, five years later, you're in a car.
Right. And they're like, what ideas have you got? All right, let's
go.
Colin Buchanan: That's nice. And it's like, know, yeah, yeah, you can, it can be,
surprising. I've not really offered
Rae Leigh: it can be,
Colin Buchanan: great advice. I mean, I, I, my, my expression, uh, that, that I sort of entered into music with was, was Lord opens the doors. I say that as a, as a Christian person. And, but I feel like, even if you don't share my Christian faith as many don't, to sort of have a transcendent. yeah,
yeah. But to have a transcendent, something beyond yourself, you know, that it has been. Great for me, you know, I don't have to sort of fight the creative process. You know, I don't have to wrestle it to the ground. It's not my enemy, if it doesn't produce in, in a career, I don't, I'm not really competing with other people.
And I just have to remember to be sort of as generous as possible to people and if thing I'd, I've always felt like I just want my songs to be my best advocate, you know, not my, and my, my performances as opposed to, Yeah.
I've always said I'd rather people find out an album or a song is good for themselves.
Like then may tell them, that's just seems sort of that's that's James Thailand. If it told me a goody was, it, you know, I just found that out for myself and it's like, and if you don't and some people don't like, remember a great engineer, Ted Howard signed in, I was telling you how much I loved Jackson brown.
And he said, man, I never really liked his voice and hold it shocked me, you know, like you don't like his voice can
Rae Leigh: I didn't like my voice for a long time. It's I know it's one of those things you have to get to you stay don't you.
Colin Buchanan: and you do have to live with, I, like I did say, look, I'm not really a singer. I'm more a delivery man.
High, 10, really, you know, I think of a TriCaster Dale, he's a singer, you know, like he's got this grudge, this great voice. Whereas, but I do think that the great singers don't know, I was listening to, I was on a bit of a Dylan binge and. And, you.
know, people classically say, ah, Dylan, he's not much of a singer though, is he?
Well, I would big different because you listen to his records, every single word matters and he expects you to, he seems like it matters. And he expects you to listen to every single word, even if you don't understand what it means. And there's a good chance, even, he doesn't understand what it means, but it it's there for a reason and he sings it like it matters.
And it's quite remarkable. And I just actually last weekend while I was doing the it's probably sacrilege, I was listening to the new gang of youth
record, uh, while I was doing the gardening and all my, uh, the lead singer sings, every word like it matters. And it's, it's quite potent. And in fact, track nine of that record, I don't, usually kids are funny because their parents would say, tell Collin what's your favorite song is on the new album.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Colin Buchanan: and eight. But anyway, as it turns out Trek non, because a friend of mine said, oh, there's another amazing game views song that was tracking on, on previous record. All made in his piano, singing a song about his family and it's, you can hear the creaking and the piano stool. So from this incredibly, like they've got big lush, vast sort of songs.
And then you've got these, this really bam moment. And it's some, it's incredibly potent, but it struck me. He is a great singer. Totally. But part of what makes him a great senior is that every word really
matters and he's singing like a
medicine that's really important.
Rae Leigh: I'm probably a bit conventional in the sense that when I can't understand the lyric in a song, it does frustrate me a little bit when, when I'm listening to some songs. I, I really do love to be able to understand and hear the lyric. And if I can't, it kind of, it takes a box for me. I get a little tick in my cheek in my eye starts twitching, but, yeah,
Colin Buchanan: it's a, he's he's a question. Here's a question though. Cause I thought this with the Dylan songs and there's only recently I've thought this it's, because he sings with such intent and because some of them are so ambiguous, maybe the question asked is what am I, what am I feeling in this song?
Like, and then that's an interesting, it sort of takes a step back in the meaning of the song to say, actually I'm feeling like that there's a lot of anger in the summer or feeling confused or consoled or there's this song really captures wondering, and it sort of gives you a way into the song, even though you go, I don't know who Descartes is and I don't know why he's playing, playing croquet with
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Colin Buchanan: with the king of england. I don't know what that
Rae Leigh: What's he trying to say? Yeah,
Colin Buchanan: But,
Rae Leigh: no, I love it.
Colin Buchanan: Hi, but anyway, that's that?
Rae Leigh: one of those things. I like what you said about just essentially just trusting God's plan essentially, but it is one of those things that just trusting that everything's went to work out the way it is. And I think someone told me the other day that it's like, rejection, if you can take that and just say, it's actually redirection.
And it's like, whatever it is that you're feeling rejected from, it's just directing you in the place that you meant to be. Having passed a Bob as my dad, you know, I had one of those pastor Bob's he, he actually was the first person that gave me the confidence to sing because he said, he said, Ray, you have the voice that God wanted you to have.
And that was all I needed to hear. It was like all of a sudden it was like, actually, that's right. You know, this is, this is all I've got to work with. I'm just going to work with what I've got. And like you said, you just want to be the best that you can. And I think that that's something that a lot of people can learn from is just to accept what you have.
You don't have to be someone else, you know, you get to be the first year
Colin Buchanan: That's right.
Rae Leigh: and, and that
is amazing.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah. Yeah. And that's very it. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that is exciting. And, part of, part of the impact, I feel like, your music stands to have is that it comes from a place of, of peace and joy and, and end of difference. You know, to, to, you know, I feel fight faith, has, if they're going to expression, you know, you hit a dog smell fee, you know, there, there are things that are real that you can't actually pin down and, and to sort of be S be secure in the creative process, but also secure in, in, trusting God and, and knowing that.
He's always sort of better and best, but he's also, you Yeah. it goes before you, and you know, if it all falls in a heap, um, there are things that weren't falling. I hate when you know, you're in his care. That's, you know, that's, That's a great, that's a great comfort it's um, yeah. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: it's gotten me through a lot. I'll tell ya. All right. One thing I really like to ask people, and this is sort of my, my favorite question to ask is if you could work with anyone or co-wrote with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why
Colin Buchanan: Hmm. It's very interesting. I will say, you know, in the tradition of not answering the question before I answered the question, although then forgetting to answer the question,
Rae Leigh: a classic.
Colin Buchanan: I, I have always felt that friendship is a great foundation. And then you, can't always sort of be besties with, with everyone you work with, but there's this interesting. It does help to be friends, to, you know, to like each other. I always find, there's this sort of dead space you could call it.
And it, sometimes it goes for like an hour and a half. And I mean, in Nashville, I've heard you make an appointment. It's like going to the doctor's and they open their briefcase and get out their pens and pen, you know, the blue, red, and black and you ride for two hours or three hours or whatever it is.
And then they say, thank you very much. Bulk bill you on the way out. Whereas, whereas I feel like so many times are arrived at rank them straight studio and Garth and Lee are there. And Lee turns up from the airport when we go for a walk, then. Coffee shop. And we have a bit of a yarn along the way about whatever, you know, shoot the breeze and, or if someone's come to co-write with me and I just sort of get talking to them and, you know, we just, you know, we just sort of hang out for awhile.
It's it's always just better to. You know that it sort of creates this space. So, anyway, that's just, just in fact, just as an aside, I wrote, co-wrote a song with Amber Lawrence called the ma the man across the street. And that was not a song that we are planning to write. And just Amber happened to, I said, what else is in the ambulance story?
You know, we should write another song we'd written one. Which was, which was a bit more sort of, I dunno, predictable and sort of, you know, uh, yeah.
it was, you know, I don't remember much about it, but I do remember writing the other one because it was, it was a memorable story. She said, dog, you know, when I was little, I crawled out on the street and this guy who was a recluse who lived in the street, who was a Vietnam vet, he would never come out.
We'd never see it. Everyone was a bit scared of this guy. I didn't, you know, he was sort of shell shocked. He ran out of
his house and picked me up off the road. And I just
Rae Leigh: Oh, wow.
Colin Buchanan: The man across the street saved my life. That's like that that's, that's the lawn. That's just come out of this song, you
know, like That's a, what, what a, what a lovely, and just sort of tell a bit of his story.
But that sort of came out of the space, the air, just having a bit of air to
just chat, you know? So to answer the
question, I, look when I discovered the music of guy Clark, I would say that, that, that was a great inspiration because he's, he's a man who seemed able to, what to do two things.
One is to just write a great song, great story, vivid sort of whimsical song. You know, what w with just enough what this Mister wisdom and, and making a bit of fun of himself along, along the way. And I love that, that, that the song of the albums that I really loved. Dated from his probably early fifties, late forties, early fifties.
So I thought, you know, and it's always surprised me that.
the songs were so beautifully sort of bespoke, they felt so bespoke and, and, and idiosyncratic and personal. And then you jump into the, you know, Ryder credits and you go, oh, he Kara, Kara at that one. Oh, you know, I, and I found that really quite fascinating that he was so
Rae Leigh: Yeah, I, love that.
Colin Buchanan: yeah, I think he was, the guy lived up the road in the old shack, you know, I wish I lived up the road up my road and you wonder up and he's out in his workshop and, but building a guitar and say, you want to write a song.
He said,
come back tomorrow. You know? And, Yeah.
So, so, you know, the thought of collaborating with guy Clark, but the thing with, you know, I just, I, I like, it's nice not to feel sort of a. By, by the talent of your car rider, but just really, you know, it needs to be a sort of, it's quite a trusting, vulnerable sort of space and,
being, being patient
with the process, because I think a lot of songs are substandard just because they're rushed, they there's better lines just if you just, Y a bit longer or, or, you know, or
even, you know, go and go and collaborate, you know, and just, cause I always, I don't know if I've said this because always, no matter what, you know, you may be proportionately, you might feel like, you know, how much you contribute to a song in a collaboration. It always is a song that you could never ride on your own. And I love that.
Rae Leigh: exactly. Yeah.
Colin Buchanan: read that a lot. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: great line.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah. Just like that.
Rae Leigh: I I like what you're saying about space as well. Cause some, I dunno, but I didn't have to carry out the other day with Allan Caswell. I don't know if you've written with him, but we literally talked for two hours and it wasn't until we got to the point, we were like, right.
We're not going to write a song today. And then we wrote a song and a half an hour after we'd given up hope of actually being on a rhizome because we'd just been talking and catching up as friends and giving it that space and not putting the pressure on it. As soon as the pressure of we're not going to.
Right. When, when I went out the door,
Colin Buchanan: Yeah, that's interesting. Well, and you can
Rae Leigh: I do like.
Colin Buchanan: putting off the inevitable catching and it's like, well, we really should get down on this, you know? And it's like, time's ticking on. And so it's almost like, you've got to jump into the cold water to swim, you know, and it's like, you put it off, you put it off, but it's like, suddenly you go, oh, actually it's not so bad. So, you know, I mean, it's part of this whole thing could be justifying if I make casual talking for two hours, is, is the most plausible thing that's been said on
this podcast by either of us?
Rae Leigh: He's a good chatterbox, but I see I'm a bad chatterbox as well. Hence the podcast, but so put me in Allen and the roommate. I mean, he actually introduced me to country music. So it is, it's a bad combination. And his podcast went for about double the amount of time that this has gone for. And this is definitely hitting your record.
So yeah, I don't want to, I'm conscious of time. Please, why don't you share with me what's going on because you've, you've just got an album after 10 years that I read the it's been since your, your last album, what's going on with your music now, what are you
Colin Buchanan: Well, because I've been, you know, doing? my kids, Christian music and, and collaborating with other artists in the country saying that, although I felt like I'd been present in the country scene, I haven't been recording my own stuff in mine and raw. So I, I decided actually a retro, which church it was, it was a good encouragement to me.
We did a couple of gigs together and she said, you know, people want to hear your music. I want to hear your songs and you should, you probably should record a new album, you know, to, to. New music is important in terms of just having a new story to tell and all that stuff. Yeah.
I've been writing songs songs for no reason for a, you know, a long time.
So I had shoe boxes for the songs and it's like, Okay. So I thought, you know, as I've never done before I, I said the demos off to a couple of friends and said, let's, let's sit down and just call these songs. Like, I'm, I'm willing to, you know, call these songs to account, you know, a bit more sort of, um, Yeah. I just thought this is not, I've not really done that before.
So we just sort of a bead and seed them, you know, and,
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Colin Buchanan: And part of it was not really finding the best songs necessarily, but finding the songs that seem to live together well, you know, that seemed to want to be friends on a project. So, uh,
Rae Leigh: album together.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah. And, and of course it was compulsive. Some road is do though.
I wrote, it wrote a couple of you once, which, you know, you're always, I dunno, I tend to get, get a little infatuated or I
dunno whether we all do with, with, newer songs. So the first
single
Rae Leigh: I'm the worst. I'll always performance only if I've just written one. If I've got a gig the next day I'll perform it straight away. I can't help it.
Colin Buchanan: yeah,
yeah.
Rae Leigh: The band hates
it.
Colin Buchanan: yeah, yeah.
yeah.
Rae Leigh: in. Hey guys, I just wrote this yesterday. We're going to perform it today.
What?
Colin Buchanan: Yeah.
Now I know too, man. I, Yeah.
so I mean the first single is a song that I that.
I wrote, quite recently. But that's it, that's it, you know, it's, I, I feel like it belong then it's got a sort of, hopefully a sort of a currency and also a timelessness to it because I, you know, I have written songs off the back of a moment in the past, I wrote a song about the Beaconsfield mining disaster, and I wrote a song when, when Steve Ellen died and, and it was a really interesting sort of, you know, the, both of those songs actually found that way under ABC news bulletins.
And, you know, just had, had this sort of interesting Bard. Presence that.
you know, a Bard sing a song of my victory. Yes. My leash, you know, bold, bold king Arthur slew, his thousands upon the Plains of Neri. But, um, Yeah.
And, uh, so it was interesting to have music sort of capture, you know, B, B the reporter in a way as it, as it sort of has been over the years, you know, especially in the folk tradition,
Rae Leigh: I appreciate that.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah,
so, the single is about just someone, someone had signed off an email with IRL in real life. And I just had got me thinking about how, you know, the last couple of years have really, sort of underlined the beauty and value and preciousness of real life encounters. And it done had a done that in such a universal way that, and I, and I'd been on a couple of gigs that I just loved being out on the road.
So out of my, as we now know the term LGA, but, you know, out of my local area, out of my state state, in one case, just an open road and nothing stopped, you know, I would not have really thought to I'm in, I would have said, well, it's great. I've written a lot of songs about driving, you know, but, but I, I, I just encountered that in a really fresh way.
No, I want to, I want to celebrate that and I, I didn't meet my grandson until he was 10 months old in January because I live on the other side of the world. So, that just, that really underlined the, the beauty and preciousness of in real life. So, you know, if you walk past a, our places are walking track behind our price.
And if you saw a bunch of people having a barbecue on the back deck, you, you might've thought, oh, well, that's a bunch of people on the back deck, but, in years past. You know, actually, if I told you what that was, and, and it's quite plausible for any of us at the moment, you, you look at a group of people and it's quite possible that there are people who haven't seen themselves each other, you know, there could be blood relatives who haven't seen each other for years.
There could be children who are meeting their grandparents for the first time. And, uh, so there, there are all sorts of thoughts that I, and, you know, I definitely wanted a happy record. So generally, although the sad moments on the songs, I wanted it to be optimistic. And, uh, and certainly
this album, the other song is
optimistic.
Rae Leigh: I think it's good to have an optimistic attitude in general. And just, it comes back. My favorite verse of the Bible is probably one of the shortest verses the Bible. That was be joyful always. Because it's like, it doesn't mean you have to be happy, happy, enjoy, you know, two very different things.
Joy is the sense that no matter what happens, everything's going to be all right. I think that's a beautiful way to. To bring out your stuff. And it's probably one of the reasons I like, you know, how you do general writing. Like for me, my journal writing and like I would do D God, you know, that was my journal.
That was my, my praise and my processing, and always talk through and work out to be some sort of positive. It would start off really negative and I'd always end up with a positive. And I thought that was probably where
that kind of came from. So it's,
Colin Buchanan: Uh, that's, that's, that's lovely.
And a lot of the Psalms are like that too, where they have an offer to them. And that's part of what makes them really powerful is that they have an honesty. They sort of really look into the, a times into the, into the belly of the beast. I looked at, they look at suffering and hardship and heartache and doubt, in the eye. And they've got these lovely hinge hinge verses that are like, yet I will trust God or
Rae Leigh: yeah,
Colin Buchanan: yet, he's still, you know, uh, yo you know, Yeah, I'm on.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, things will be okay. Yeah. And I think that's, we all need to hear that sometimes is that no matter what we're going through, everything's going to be all right. You know, there is a flood or a pandemic where as human beings, we're resilient and we, we get through, that's what we do. It's when we give up hope or don't think there is a way out that, bad things can happen as well.
So
Colin Buchanan: Hm.
Rae Leigh: stay optimistic. I really appreciate you sharing. I'm going to put in the description, all the links to your socials and your music. So people can go check you out and find you if they're looking for you after hearing you on the podcast. But is there anything else you would like to
share
Colin Buchanan: Well, I expect, I expected,
I had been joking about it. You know, in fact, the thought cross, my mind that, you know, on Caswell's podcast, you could get sponsors to sponsor the podcast so that they would just, if you would like Allan Caswell to stop talking, uh, you know, please response sponsor this podcast.
And I th I feel like this is if you would like to hear less of Colin Buchanan
now just click on the link below.
Rae Leigh: So those people would have stopped listening at about 15 minutes. So
Colin Buchanan: That would have gone out this Puffin.
Rae Leigh: I think it's too late. We could probably put that in there. I'm kidding. But I, I,
Colin Buchanan: no, it's great. It's lovely to, it's always, you know, it's creativity and music is, is, is mysterious and wonderful. And in some ways, the more you talk about it, the more you realize there is to talk about. And the more you realize you don't know about it. And so it's, it's, there's endless.
And everyone will have a different spin, so it's nice to, nice to chat and I know you can reset and the next person you speak to, or just have
their, their own take on things. And it's nice. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Well, you're going to probably be around 180 episode. And Allan Caswell was six. I think. So. I mean, I've done a lot of talking about songwriting and I realized that I just, I could talk about this forever. And I, I think I will be talking about songwriting forever, but more than that, I'll be songwriting and singing until I have no voice left.
And I can't see, and I can't sing and I can't
write,
Colin Buchanan: Yeah. Yeah. Well that's yeah. That's I mean, and that's, that was the, that was part of the thing I thought when you asked what, what advice is just to find joy in the
journey, you know, we really
Rae Leigh: um,
Colin Buchanan: Yeah. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: to hear someone like yourself. Who's been doing it for such a long time, in my opinion, that you do still find joy in it. That gives me hope, because I guess I have witnessed, I think from the outside looking in, sometimes I've seen people do music and really throw themselves into music and then give up.
And that scares me because I can't imagine my life without music or, or ever not wanting to do music. So it's nice to, when I get to meet people like yourself who still find so much joy and passion and like Allen, he, you know, he still has so much fun 50 years on, so
Colin Buchanan: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: it's good that you're enjoying it and you're following your true passion.
And for me being. Christian nineties kid growing up in a small country town and not being as protected as, as, maybe you were as a kid. I just want to say thank you very much for everything that you've done. I probably could speak for hours on how much you've inspired me and how much seeing your work and what you did inspire me as a, as a child who wasn't allowed to listen to radio.
You know, my parents had a Christian bookshop we're in a small country town, it was Christian music or, or nothing. Yours was one of the few CDs that I got to have in my little CD player in my bedroom. It, it was company that I needed at that age, you know, and I, I feel very blessed that I get to have this conversation with you and, and, um, be able to share that with you, because I know that now as a songwriter, I hope that I inspire children just the same way, but.
No, not anything that I get to do. We'll always get to come back. And sometimes we don't know the full impact of what our arts and craft does in the world. So I hope that encourages you. And I'm glad that I get the opportunity to actually share that with you as well. How much, how much has meant to me in
my life?
Colin Buchanan: uh, that is, uh, well, the word sacred comes to mind. It's very sacred in our childhood is.
sacred and, it's part of why. You know, when I started talking about music, it just, it's easy. I find it easy to get bogged, but you like in childhood, because, it's such a sacred formative season and, and that in turn gives me great.
Yeah.
I never, I'm never dismissive of, if someone says you meant, you meant a lot to me as a child, or even if a child says as, as a young guy, after a concert and it was a boy, probably that 10 years old said, are you, I really like your music. And, and he sort of looked me in the eye and I said, oh, thank you for saying that.
And he said, no, no,
no, I really like it.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Oh, that's so sweet.
Colin Buchanan: isn't like, it's like,
this, this is. This is a moment. And, you know, I guess, I guess,
it sounds like
a silly thing to say maybe, but kids grow up,
but you know, it's Yeah. that's right. And and,
Rae Leigh: Yeah. And have kids are of our
own.
Colin Buchanan: Yeah. Yeah. And if you, if it to be dismissed as a child or to be dismissive of children is, is, I think very short-sighted and it's quite, it's quite profound. Yeah.
that's right. It's, it's sort of intuitive in some ways to think, oh, it's little and it's, life's
important stuff to do, grown up stuff,
Rae Leigh: Exactly. Yeah.
Colin Buchanan: know, you
open their eyes, you know, to see those moments. Yeah. And to remember, and, and really we've all got the raw materials to understand that because we're all Kids And I think, you know, there's a lot
of adults who forget that they were ever kids.
Rae Leigh: yeah, and that they're not possessions, they're still people they're just young and naive and they need our guidance and support and inspiration. But yeah, I get it. Like when I've met little girls, I was the little girl in class always saying, and I would get told to shut up because I was distracting everyone else.
Like it literally in the middle of mass, I'd be singing along
Colin Buchanan: Nice.
Rae Leigh: and.
I, and I never really recognized how important music was except for you. I went back and looked at all my reports recently, and it was like in every single school report from prep was she loves to sing. She loves music, she's music, music, music was just like, I was going to be a doctor.
I don't know what I was thinking. Now when I see girls and I can see them, when they're looking at me and they say, oh, you've got a beautiful voice. Or I really like your singing or, you know, they, they say like, what you said that little boy said, and I could look at them and I'm like, do you like to sing?
And they're like, yeah. And I said, never let anyone tell you to stop singing because that's what happened to me. And I, you know, I, I lost that confidence and that joy music was my joy. And when people said to start singing it, it broke my heart. So now it's like, okay, these girls, they just got to keep singing and they just need someone to say, it's okay to keep singing.
Yeah, kids need to be seen and heard and validated more than the rest of us, but we all need that
at some point anyway,
Colin Buchanan: there was a, there was a
great quote in a book that I read a couple of years ago, but, by Andrew Hagen, who's a Scott and it said, there were some things that you, there, there are lots of things you don't know when you're 18 and there are lots of things that you only know when you're writing.
And I thought, wow, what a great quote. It's like, so there's a whole lot of things that kids don't know cause they're 10 years old, but there's actually things they know that I've, I no longer know because I'm not 10 years old. So it's an interesting sort of health system profile. But anyway,
Rae Leigh: you love people where they're at no matter what their age it's called grace and compassion. That was what my auntie says anyway.
Colin Buchanan: Beautiful.
Rae Leigh: All right. Well, I really appreciate your time. Thank you for, sharing. So vulnerably, I'll let you know when the podcast is ready to come out, but yeah. I'm really excited to share this and I'm looking forward to hearing a new music.
Colin Buchanan: Oh, well, thank you. And thank you for your patience. And you're very good at listening.: that. And so.
