Sunburnt Country Music

For over a decade Sophie Hamley has been interviewing Australian country music artists for her website, Sunburnt Country Music. Now new interviews will be made available in this podcast. Listen to Golden Guitar winners such as Amber Lawrence and Luke O'Shea, and many others, talk about their songs and songwriting, about performance and creativity and so much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sunburnt Country Music is a interviews podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 440 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Sunburnt Country Music, a interviews show with 440 episodes published.

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  Episode #60

  Madeline Leman on the long journey to her latest album Ripen on the Vine

  Aug 19, 202644 minS5

  Victorian artist  Madeline Leman ’s latest country-folk album,  Ripen on the Vine , was recorded in 2023, and while Leman has released some singles since then, the album needed a little more time to emerge – for a very important reason. As she tells me early in this interview, her young son was unwell for several months, so the album’s release was necessarily delayed. Upon release it went to number 4 in the ARIA Country chart and number 5 on the Australia Indie chart, and Leman has also played shows in support of it, no doubt swelling the numbers of fans for her intelligent, often whimsical music that combines beautifully crafted lyrics with rich musicality. Leman grew up in a musical family – her parents met while playing in a band together, and were folk artists. They dubbed her the ‘human radio’ because she would sing so often from such a young age. Piano was her first instrument, and Missy Higgins a big early influence, so Leman began writing songs on piano. She then taught herself guitar and, while at university, listened to a lot of country music. At that time in Melbourne the alt-country/Americana scene was at its height, but it was a folk artist with whom she made the most lasting connection. Sharing a house with folk artist Leah Senior, Leman played her a song she’d written; this led Senior to Leman to play in a folk duo with her.  Leman also talks about recording certain songs on the album and the choices that were made musically and lyrically, and we talk about clothes – if you watch the interview rather than listening to it, you’ll see that her clothing choices are as astute as her musical ones! It was a great pleasure to meet Leman, who is a passionate, articulate artist and one whose music is enriching on so many levels. And listen to the end to hear her talk about the line-dancing class she teaches … Listen to/buy  Ripen on the Vine  on  Bandcamp Listen to  Ripen on the Vine  on  Apple Music Listen to  Ripen on the Vine  on  YouTube For more Sunburnt Country Music: Instagram Facebook   YouTube website   Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Episode #59

  Georgia Scarlett and Joel Spence – two solo artists with one very good idea

  Aug 17, 202631 minS5

  Georgia Scarlett  and  Joel Spence  are two Queensland country artists who have been releasing solo music independently for several years, and who have now found a creative partnership that has produced two singles which have taken them in a musical direction that is distinct from their own music while preserving their musical identities.  The first single is ‘The Wise Folks Say’, which was the reason for our recent interview. The second, released after this interview was recorded, is ‘Honey Let’s Go’. Their story begins at the DAG Sheep Station songwriting retreat, which has now generated several outstanding songs and songwriting partnerships that bring established and emerging songwriters together. Scarlett and Spence were placed in the same writing group and produced ‘The Wise Folks Say’ in a single session.  ‘This spark just connected instantly once we started talking our experiences, our journeys through life, some of the wisdom that’s been passed down to us,’ says Scarlett. ‘Every verse is a different life lesson. It has that old-fashioned country wisdom that I really love.’ The duo brought the song to producer Rod McCormack, who has been working with both artists independently for some time and whose instinct was simply to let the song breathe. Consequently, the duo’s voices are given the space to meld and separate as needed, revealing the way they balance and complement each other.  Spence grew up in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, on a cattle and grain property. He has been writing and recording since his teens, and also has an academic interest in the power of music, conducting research into how community-led songwriting and performance can foster healing, cultural justice, and empowerment for First Nations Peoples in remote communities.  Scarlett is originally from Bundaberg and grew up learning piano but found that she was better suited to clarinet, and has since added guitar and harmonica to her repertoire. She released her debut solo album,  Rhythm of Life , last year.  Scarlett and Spence’s collaboration on ‘The Wise Folks Say’ worked so well that they have now released a second single together, ‘Honey Let’s Go’.  Listen to ‘The Wise Folks Say’ on  Apple Music Listen to ‘The Wise Folks Say’ on  Spotify Listen to ‘The Wise Folks Say’ on  YouTube For more Sunburnt Country Music: Instagram Facebook   YouTube website   Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Episode #58

  Jessie Robins on her debut single, ‘I Should’ve Known Better’

  Aug 13, 202625 minS5

  Jessie Robins  grew up in Katherine in the Northern Territory as one of a set of triplets and the daughter of a helicopter mustering pilot, and – as she tells me in this new interview – she has been singing since she was a small child. Creativity also runs in the family as her sisters are also working in creative fields.  Robins now lives in Brisbane, where she performs regularly across the city and occasionally on Stradbroke Island, and she has released her debut country pop single, 'I Should Have Known Better'. The song was written with Shannon McArthur, a producer and songwriter living in Austin, Texas who is Robins’s longtime collaborator. They made a connection made through YouTube long before Zoom made remote creative partnerships commonplace. Robins has been writing songs since childhood, and tells me that she still has notebooks from those years and occasionally finds a melody or a lyric she could use now. ‘I Should’ve Known Better’ came about through Robins watching a friend navigate a relationship from beginning to end, and the song sat with her for a couple of years before the timing felt right to release it.  ‘Now that those circumstances have passed,’ she says, ‘I felt like it was the right time to move forward.’ The song's title implies regret, but the sound does not. Robins was deliberate about this – she wanted something people could put on in the car and feel okay about, not sad.  ‘It’s okay to test things and trial things and then come out the other side with learnings,’ she says. The genre of country music isn’t Robins’s natural habitat – she didn’t grow up listening to it. But over her years of performing and studying at JMC Academy in Brisbane, people kept telling her she sounded country. Eventually, she stopped resisting, and the result is this nuanced debut track. Listen to ‘I Should’ve Known Better’ on  Apple Music Listen to ‘I Should’ve Known Better’ on  Spotify Listen to ‘I Should’ve Known Better’ on  YouTube For more Sunburnt Country Music: Instagram Facebook   YouTube website   Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Episode #57

  Nashdale on their new music that was ten years in the making

  Aug 5, 202644 minS5

  Nashdale  are a Central Coast country duo – Kerryn Daniel on lead vocals and Brent Murphy on guitars and vocals – who have been playing together for over a decade and releasing original music since 2024. Their third single, ‘Boots Back On’, is out now, and an EP is in the works for the Tamworth Country Music Festival next year. While it seems like the pair came up with the perfect moniker for a country duo, Nashdale is a real place: a small locality outside Orange in the Central West of New South Wales, where Daniel grew up and her grandparents had an orchard.  Daniel and Murphy have been performing together for a decade, a collaboration which started when Murphy heard Daniel sing with a friend’s band and, as he tells me in this new interview, launched a plot to steal her! Obviously he had the right instincts, considering how long they’ve been working together, and in the interview it was clear how much respect they have for each other and also how their dynamic would work on stage and in creating music. After several years playing shows on the NSW Central Coast, the enforced inactivity of the pandemic gave them the opportunity to start recording originals together. Murphy has a home studio, and it was there that they started demoing songs with no particular plan. As they told me, they now have around thirty in various stages of development. Their third single, ‘Boots Back On’ came about when Daniel played Murphy that she loved the groove of, and Murphy reached into his stack of old lyric drafts for something that might fit the energy. The song is about acknowledging that something isn’t working and putting your boots back on and getting on with things.  There are other releases in the works, including an EP timed to come out around the 2027 Tamworth Country Music Festival. And if you’re a ‘Coastie’, make sure to check out Nashdale live! Listen to ‘Boots Back On’ on  Apple Music Listen to ‘Boots Back On’ on  Spotify Listen to ‘Boots Back On’ on  YouTube For more Sunburnt Country Music: Instagram Facebook   YouTube website   Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Episode #56

  Hayden Phillis on new single ‘Stick Poke Tattoos’ and his rich creative life

  Jul 26, 202631 minS5

  Art can emerge at any age, and that’s just as true of younger artists as those who find their creative voices later on. Sydney singer-songwriter  Hayden Phillis  is not yet twenty years old and has spent his teen years developing his skills as a musician, singer and songwriter, attending the CMAA Academy of Country Music three times – twice as a singer-songwriter, once in the instrumentalist strand, which he describes as one of his favourite experiences, forcing him to rapidly develop piano skills and adaptability in a band setting.  His debut album,  Too Young , may have been released only last year but Phillis already has a new single, ‘Stick Poke Tattoos’, which was inspired by a friend’s relationship and written using Phillis’s somewhat wry powers of observation. He’s a songwriter who is interested in human experiences, and exploring them through his songs. He writes on buses, at gigs, in the notes app on his phone – collecting fragments, testing them against what he already has, and discarding what doesn’t fit. ‘I had the attitude of writing what I see and what I think,’ he says. ‘I wasn’t trying to put myself in a box that everyone will like.’ Both the first album and his forthcoming second, which is to be called  What Time Doesn’t Know ,   were recorded at Rabbit Hole Recording Studio on the Central Coast with producer Dingo (Brandon Dodd), a collaboration Phillis talks about in this new interview. He also mentions his upcoming long trip to Nashville, his plans for the 2027 Tamworth Country Music Festival – and his hobby making video games, which is another creative outlet and form of storytelling. Listen to ‘Stick Poke Tattoos’ on  Apple Music Listen to ‘Stick Poke Tattoos’ on  Spotify Listen to ‘Stick Poke Tattoos’ on  YouTube For more Sunburnt Country Music: Instagram Facebook   YouTube website   Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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