bentenlaughing

Janice: Gwen, I'm guessing your first connection with the music scene was in Brisbane? If not; where and who was it that took your imagination to become involved? Gwen: Good question! It was most definitely Brisbane but not really so much in a "who inspired me" way. I was doing Psychology at University of Queensland, 1st year, and around halfway through the year I did some "prac" observations at a place called The Open Door, which was run by an ex Minister of Religion Hayden Sargent, who was on talk back radio, and was involved in many things. My plan for my degree was to work with Drug Addiction, hence the connection to the Open Door He created this venue as a "Drop In Centre" for kids who needed a place to talk. Counsellors etc were on board and he also introduced regular gigs to attract the age group he was aiming for.  Friday night was "Blues" night, Saturday night was mainstream "Pop?" music with interstate guests who the loca...

Janice: Do you begin recording with a basic guitar and vocals track?  Gina: The way Mark and I work is that he will create an instrumental backing track and I will write the vocal part to fit the track. Sometimes I already have a set of lyrics that I wrote independent of music and it will fit the track, usually with some rearranging/tweaking. Other times I will write the lyrics as I listen over and over to the instrumental.  Janice: Are you both in cohorts in developing the  ambience and layering of the backing track?  Gina: The ambience and layering I leave entirely to Mark. After I've added my vocals to the mix, he will further play around with the instrumentation and create the final song. Sometimes he will consult me about something he's done, whether or not I like it. Sometimes I will notice something in the mix that doesn't seem to enhance the song and I'll mention it. But basically, I trust his experience and judgement and I like to allow him the freedom to ex...

Janice: Gina, I'm listening to your new album, Wheels in an Elsewhere. Your winsome vocals and seamless marriage of lyric and music allow one to enter a spaciousness...where are you taking us? Gina:  Interesting that you mentioned spaciousness, as the album is largely about the spaciousness of being apart from worldly life, troubles, insanities and the treadmill… in the sense of being something more like pure spirit. Not trying to paint our lives as a bleak picture but it can certainly seem like that at times for many of us, I believe. And we’ve all at times thought “stop the planet I want to get off”! Now the phrase wheels in an elsewhere is taken from the fourth song on the album which was inspired by my randomly pondering what death might be like. In the song the elsewhere is the world you leave behind. And the wheels of course are just the material matters of life including cars, work business. problems and the ongoing nature of it all. It is quite a philosophical a...

Janice: Gina, I'm listening to your work as I write. Tell me about your inspiration for your songwriting? Gina: Hmmmm, inspiration can be a tricky thing to pin down, as often it is just a subtle, wispy thought or different perspective on something. And the something might be anything, even including the mundanities of life. But then having noticed this perspective it is then a matter of letting that become a truth for me and then the song lyrics are a way of illustrating and expressing that perspective in a (hopefully)vibrant and aesthetic way. Sometimes a song is built around a single line that comes to me when I hear Mark's music.  The way Mark and I write, is that he sends me a fairly complete song for which I supply the lyrics and vocals. Sometimes on listening to the track, a line of words will suggest itself and then I create a scenario around that line.  For example, on one of our latest batch, as I was listening to the track over and over, the words, ...