Steve Wallis - Interview

  by Julie Cruickshank

published: 7 / 1 / 2023

Steve Wallis, who hails from Australia but now lives in Paris, has released a beautiful folk debut album ‘Nothing Stays the Same Way for Long’ featuring mostly fingerpicked guitar accompanying songs of melancholy reflection with a little humour thrown in. Steve took time out from his European tour to speak to Pennyblackmusic about growing up with the Australian music scene, the challenges of living in Paris and his songwriting technique. PB: Your wonderful debut album ‘Nothing Stays the Same Way for Long’ combines uplifting guitar with mostly world-weary lyrics. How has moving from Australia to Paris shaped your musical outlook - for example writing lyrics and style of playing. SW: I first moved to Paris after a band I played with in Australia had broken up and I actually took a break away from music for a few years. When I started to write again it was with a focus of performing the songs solo, so most of this record was written that way - fingerpicked guitar and harmonica, although finally when it came to make the record we fleshed the tunes out more in the studio. In terms of material, I think living so far from home has shaped a lot of the songs. There’s a lot of themes of nostalgia, memories, time passing. Of missing an old life but not wanting to go back and so then not really knowing where home is anymore. PB: Which Australian and international musicians do you admire, and how did growing up in Australia influence your musical development? Is there a strong folk scene there? SW: Growing up my parents played a lot of Jackson Browne, Neil Young, Springsteen. I guess that sunk in. I was in my early twenties when I really got into the likes of Guy Clark, Townes van Zandt, John Prine etc., as well as the younger generation of writers like Gillian Welch, Uncle Tupelo/Wilco, Whiskeytown, Justin Townes Earle. In more recent years, The Milk Carton Kids, Joe Pug, Jeffrey Martin, Anais Mitchell. In terms of Australian songwriters, Paul Kelly is still the master we all look to. Liz Stringer’s recent album is superb, as is Ruby Gill’s. I could go on… I grew up around Byron Bay, which holds a big music festival every Easter (Bluesfest). My parents first took me when I was a kid in the early ‘90s, and I attended every year until I moved to Europe in 2014. I think seeing all that incredible live music as I grew up certainly had an effect on me. After school I moved up to Brisbane, and spent a decade there playing in several different bands ranging from folk to rock’n’roll and country, to reggae and hip-hop, and touring around with them. That period was a really great time to be part of the West End community around Brisbane. I don’t really know if it’s still going strong these days or if the gentrification finally beat them. In terms of a folk scene there it was always pretty good. Lots of great folk festivals (Woodford, Port Fairy, Meredith etc.) PB: How is your experience of living in Paris? Folk is popular there - do you think you would ever write a song with French lyrics? SW: I lived in the centre of Paris for six years. It’s certainly a beautiful city and I enjoy my time there, although the sheer density of it can get on top of you. There’s always so many people. After spending months of the 2020 lockdown in my tiny shoebox apartment I reached my limit and moved about an hour and a half out of town to a place with a garden and wide open space and spent the later lockdowns much more comfortably. Though now things are happening again I still end up in Paris pretty regularly. I’ve not written in French yet. I work hard on my lyrics, and while I’ve learnt to speak pretty decent French now, I’m not sure I can wield it as precisely as English yet. Maybe one day. PB: Do you write lyrics or tunes first, or do they tend to come together as you try out a new idea for a song? SW: It’s always a bit of both. I think quite often I find a single line that starts an idea, and then I try to keep pulling on that thread until I have a song, without thinking too hard about it. At least at first. Later I go back and refine and edit a lot. Sometimes the music comes along with it but I also have a trove of voice memos on my phone of musical ideas and so sometimes I’ll smash one of those into the lyrical idea I’m working on and see what happens. Some songs happen all at once and are finished in two days. Some linger for months with a few lines missing. PB: Tell us which guitars you favour, and any other instruments you play. SW: I fingerpick most of my tunes so I gravitate towards small body acoustics - I play a Guild M-20 as my main guitar, and I also have a little Recording King I use from time to time. On the record I was also lucky enough to play my producer Joe Boon’s beautiful old 1951 Martin 00-18 as well as my friend Bryony’s lovely Gibson J-45 for some strummier stuff. I’ve played harmonica for many years, roaring through loud, distorted amplifiers in my earlier days, though these days it tends to just be with the little metal holder around my neck. I’ve also started learning piano in the last few years. I’m still mostly terrible at it, but this record has a couple of songs on it that I wrote on the piano. PB: You are touring around Europe at the moment - how has that been? Any plans to come to the UK? SW: Yeah, this has been a great run. I’m currently on a train from Berlin to Cologne for a show there tomorrow. Berlin is becoming a bit of a second home when I’m on tour, I’ve spent enough time there now to have lots of friends there, and the folk scene there is really excellent, some incredible songwriters in that town. This tour also took me to Denmark for the first time which was fantastic and a place I already want to go back to. Such lovely engaged and listening audiences there. Definitely plan to get to the UK again soon. I’ll likely be popping over for shows in Devon in early November, but will aim for a bigger run of dates next year. PB: Are you writing songs for a second album, and if so when might we expect that? SW: I have a few new ones ready, though with all the work that’s gone into getting this record out (I’m a one-man operation!) it’s not left a lot of time of late. I hope to dedicate some time to writing again soon. So no immediate plans for a second record, although one of the new tunes has been getting a pretty remarkable response everywhere I’ve played it on this tour, so I might try to get that recorded and out as a single next year. PB: Thank you.

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