5 years ago, I was sitting at a café in Bali (of all places) and thought to myself: “F**k it. If others can do it, so can I.” And I pressed “publish” on the very first post in this blog series.
It was actually in March 2019. But because May is my birthday month, it lends itself to unpacking this music blogging adventure so far and wishing for what’s (hopefully) still to come.
So buckle up because this is a Silly McWiggles story you’ve never heard before.
My first musical memory is when I had to play a short piece on a recorder to pass a class in primary school. [A recorder is a flute with a whistle mouthpiece, a thumb-hole for the upper hand and seven finger-holes: three for the upper hand and four for the lower.]
I absolutely hated that experience. Even though I’d rehearsed it before, I was stressed because I’m a freakin’ perfectionist. So I bombed it spectacularly. (That already tells you heaps about what I’d go through every night if I was a rockstar.)
Funnily enough, that music teacher whose class I was in became one of my favourites. She was super laid-back, smoked like a chimney and understood teenagers like nobody else at that stage in my life.
I later joined a medieval-style quartet she put together and played the alto recorder. We dressed like students from the Middle Ages and competed in comps. If you look really closely, you’ll find a photo of me from those days, courtesy of my mother, in this short movie. (It will also give you a bit more context as to who I am and what I do.)
My parents didn’t listen to music much at home when I was young. But I know that one of my dad’s fave songs was Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale”. A beautiful track, wouldn’t you say?
When I started listening to music properly, I went through different genres in a fairly short period. I kicked off my adventure with… a boyband period (hello, New Kids on the Block). There was also a punk stage and an emo stage. I was into Guns N’ Roses and Metallica later. I toyed with rap and hip-hop, too. But it wasn’t necessarily my vibe.
I finally landed on grunge in the mid-90s. You’ve probably heard me say that before, but Pearl Jam is still the one group I’d literally jump in the fire for. I have Eddie Vedder’s lyrics to thank for a decent command of the English language, for example. And Mike McCready convinced me in a brief, casual and super unexpected convo that even the celebs you worship can be cool, down-to-earth and approachable human beings.
I was about 13/14 when I attended my first gig. The band was Hey (which gives you a sneaky hint of where I’m originally from). They are a rock band. And their singer, (Katarzyna) Nosowska, is still my music industry hero and role model.
I blasted heaps of music in my bedroom in the late teens. Obviously, my parents weren’t too happy about it (the volume, I mean). I don’t think they understood my relationship with music then at all. But they respected it. Today, partially thanks to my pursuing the blogging gig, my mom knows who Beyoncé and Dua Lipa are (not bad for a 73-year-old, I’d say).
At 18, I begged my parents to get me an acoustic guitar. That was the first time I tried to learn to play it. A couple of decades and two attempts later, I’ve given up. That’s okay ‘coz I’m good at other music-related things.
I still have that fateful instrument, though. And my brother accomplished what I couldn’t. So it wasn’t in vain, after all.
Even though I’m not instrumentally gifted, I can follow a melody, read the notes and sing in the shower. So, in high school, I joined a wanna-be (cover) band whose name I can’t even properly translate into English. It was something along the lines of “Razorblade-Sharp”. So you can imagine what sort of music we aspired to make. I even briefly wrote lyrics, but, sadly, don’t have any of them left.
As the high school’s president (ehem, ehem), I organised a lot of events with music involved. One of my worst nightmares happened at one of those performances. I forgot the lyrics to… a Christmas Carol at a festive concert. A Christmas Carol! Again, talking about stage fright, hey?
In 1999, I was an exchange student in the States. By pure accident, I attended the infamous 30th anniversary Woodstock, aka “The Trainwreck”, then.
And all I can say is this: having watched the doco about it on Netflix, my memories from that event are slightly different. Yes, it was an utter shitshow on many fronts. But I still have fond memories of having watched SO. MANY. OF. MY. FAVOURITE. BANDS. in one place over the three days.
Somehow, music got pushed into the back seat throughout my late 20s/early 30s. I was just busy with other things.
Then, I had this brilliant idea to conquer the music biz and started sending out my CVs and expressions of interest left, right and centre. I had no experience and no contacts whatsoever. As you can imagine, I got zero responses. Nill. Nada. Knowing how the music industry really works, I can only laugh about it now.
Thankfully, what I did have back then was the “Screw you, I’ll do it my own way” attitude. So I completed a music journalism course at the College of Media and Publishing in London in 2017 and started writing this blog.
To be honest, it had a rather chaotic vibe at the beginning. I had no idea which part of the music world I wanted to focus on. Hence, the first posts on here are all over the place. But I’ve left them for your (and my) amusement. So one day, when I’m a rock’n’roll grandma, I can go back and appreciate how far I’ve come since publishing them.
That same year, I jetted off to Oz and fell in love head over heels with the local scene.
In 2018, partially forced by a tutor of a social media course I was pursuing in Australia, I created the Silly McWiggles brand. A year later, I published my first post about the Aussie music scene. And the rest is history.
I still can’t believe I’ve achieved so much on all my channels. But I’m ambitious. So, to mark the five years of the blog, I wanna share five bold wishes that are my top challenges for the near future. Some of them are S.M.A.R.T.-er than others, using the business goal-setting terminology. But in this venture of mine, I’m constantly between the “I can and I’ll f**king do it” attitude and the “stay in your lane” professional piece of advice. So let’s see what happens if I thematise them here.
WISH #1 – INTERVIEW DMA’S
A music blogger’s life is a constant hustle. Finding timely and relevant topics to cover, getting through to the right people, convincing them to talk to you and hoping that they’ll actually show up for that catch-up is my daily bread. It’s exhausting and disheartening at times, especially if you’re doing all that hustling on your own.
But some things are worth chasing after. So I’ll admit, I’m mildly obsessed with the DMA’S story and music.
I’ve made numerous contact requests, trying to slide into the individual members’ DMs or via their official band channels. Sadly, to no avail (so far). So I resort to other means (for now).
If the Sydneysiders wrote a song for every time I’ve mentioned them on this blog, they’d easily have a double album ready to release. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll come across one of those posts one day and decide it would be rad to catch up with their author.
WISH #2 – ATTEND BIGSOUND AND THE ARIAS
Firstly, let me fill you in on what those two events are in the Australian music industry’s calendar.
BIGSOUND is the biggest and most important music conference and showcase festival Down Under happening annually at the beginning of September. And the ARIAs are Australia’s Grammys. Sadly, in my time in Oz, I didn’t get a chance to attend either.
Nowadays, I live-tweet (or whatever it’s called now on X) about the Aussie industry’s awards every year in November since they’re live-streamed on YouTube. And I religiously follow all conversations happening at BIGSOUND on its official channels and through accounts of the industry peeps I follow.
So I guess it would be super beneficial to finally show up to one (or both) events to say hi in person to all those amazing people from the Aussie music biz I’ve got to know since starting the blog, right?
WISH #3 – SCORE A GIG AT AN AUSSIE MUSIC PUBLICATION
I won’t lie – running your own blog is an awesome thing. You can write about whatever you want, whenever you want and the way you want.
That, however, doesn’t exempt you from following simple rules of the journalistic world, like doing research, crediting photographers for images used in the posts wherever possible or assigning quotes properly to whom and where they belong.
So there are some similarities between blogging about music and writing for a proper music publication. Plus, this is post no. 185 on this platform. So I guess there’s some substance to it if readers keep coming back.
The bottom line? There are a few Aussie music mags and platforms I value and read myself. So – Australian Musician, Purple Sneakers, The AU Review, Rolling Stone Australia and the rest of the titles from The Brag Media group – I defo have the credentials. Should you wish to have me, I’ll be honoured.
WISH #4 – ORGANISE A (MINI) FESTIVAL WITH AUSSIE ARTISTS
When COVID brought most of the world to a halt, I couldn’t understand why many punters from Oz complained about their festival bills consisting of mostly local artists. An all-Aussie line-up sounds like Christmas come early to me.
On a serious note, though – I totally get why Aussies want to see international stars on their turf. Who doesn’t! But sometimes, it looks like they kind of forget they have all this amazing talent at home.
So I’ve done what few promoters would – I’ve created my own “Aussie” festival, the Silly Fest. So far, I’ve “announced” two editions, with 12 acts each, for every month of the year. Since it’s fictitious and I can do whatever I want with “booking” bands, I choose them arbitrarily based on my interest in them throughout those 365 days (and not their streaming numbers, social media followers or the so-called “market value”.)
Whilst I’m aware that getting those 2022/2023 acts from the posters above in one place is beyond what I could possibly pull off right now, organising a mini-festival with emerging Aussie artists doesn’t seem like such a far-out idea. So watch this space!
WISH #5 – GET MY ‘SILLY TALKS MUSIC’ PODCAST ON A SPOTIFY RANKING
If you ask me what I dig about this whole blogging thing, it’s defo talking to people. Hence, as part of this blog, I also run a podcast called ‘Silly Talks Music’. I also produce it myself from A to Z.
Now, it will sound a bit cocky but I really think there are some cool interviews there. For example, I’ve conversed with artists about looking for their musical identity, marrying the classical and contemporary scenes or running a virtual band. I also recently started a new segment shining a light on the different music regions within Australia seen through the eyes of the acts that come from there.
Interviews with people linked to the Aussie (and non-Aussie) music industry in a different capacity are the second group of guests I focus on. Those chats touch on mental health (with a psychologist who used to be a muso), sustainability (with an entrepreneur who runs an innovation lab) and accessibility (with an artist-researcher with a disability).
The bottom line? I really think the podcast is worth your while – if not for me, then for all those amazing guests I’ve hosted on air. But because my marketing resources and reach are rather limited, the only way it can get anywhere is by word-of-mouth. You know what I mean (wink, wink)? Pretty please. And thanks heaps.
Last but not least, I’ve previously shared my 5 wishes in the first year of the pandemic. And some of them have come true. So, fingers crossed, this time they will as well.
Heere are other personal posts I’ve shared over the years:
Is the ‘Love & Pain’ book the closure we need? Confessions of a Silverchair fan
Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, The Beatles. They are some of the most recognisable names in the modern music history. Trailblazers in their respective genres. Acts whose music I cherish and respect. I wasn’t around when they recorded their hits, played memorable gigs, and gave famous interviews. But I was 14 when Silverchair released…
“If finding success means killing my soul for some likes and comments, then I don’t want it”. Why I 100% agree with Aussie singer, Eves Karydas
Last week, I wrote about an awesome new social media platform for musos started by two Aussie artists. This week, I still think that platform is great. But I’m about to tell you why I’m fatigued with social media. In general. And based on Eves Karydas’s recent Instagram post, it looks like I’m not the…
If you care about lyrics in Aussie songs, this post is for you
Let me pose a few questions to start. When you hear a new song, what do you listen to first, the melody or the lyrics? How often do you check out instrumental music? Can a shallow message throw you off a track, even if it’s got an awesome beat? Do the lyrics matter to you…
Silly McWiggles blog & podcast 