Wiradjuri woman Melanie Horsnell first began recording songs on a cassette tape recorder as a five-year-old in the town of South West Rocks near Kempsey.
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She met a nice fella who turned out to be a prince.
- Melanie Horsnell
“I learnt all about love from breakup songs by the Bee Gees and Boyz II Men,” the Candelo-based singer songwriter said with a laugh.
“A breakup song is a love song.”
Horsnell will launch her new album titled The World Has a Gentle Soul, recorded with King Curly frontman Steve Appel, on Saturday, October 27 at the Candelo Town Hall.
The pair met through mutual friend, journalist and former drummer of The Saints Iain Sheddon, and bonded during a tour of Europe in 2017.
“Steve was just putting his feet back into music, and I thought we would write together while we were on the road but it didn’t happen,” Horsnell said.
Horsnell and Appel go song for song on the 12 track LP, which was funded via an incredibly successful crowdfunding campaign.
“He has a really dry sense of humour, and I tend to tease him a little between songs when we play live,” Horsnell said.
“[The Gadflys] Phil Moriarty said to me Steve is like an Anzac. A long skinny body, a hat, and brown trousers. He’s a piece of Australiana.”
The final track on the album titled Let’s Hook Up in a Sydney Pub is an ode to Princess Mary of Denmark’s initial meeting of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark.
“I know she hooked up with the prince in the Slip Inn pub while she was out with some mates,’ Horsnell said with a laugh.
“She met a nice fella who turned out to be a prince.
“Hooking up in a Sydney pub seemed to work out for her.”
Track six on the album was inspired by what Horsnell describes as a “homeless night out” in Melbourne.
“I had a night out, and somehow I ended up staying with these friends. I slept at their house and ended up writing 10 punk songs the next day on a bass guitar,” she said with a laugh.
Fresh from a tour of Europe, Horsnell describes the continent as “a good place for storytellers”.
“They like music like food or water,’ she said.
“They know when you pour your suffering into your music, they know it’s good for you as an artist to do that.
“They soak it up, even if they don’t understand you.”
- Melanie Horsnell will launch her album with Steve Appel titled The World Has a Gentle Soul at the Candelo Town Hall on Saturday, October 27 with support from John Fitzmaurice and Steve Jackson. Tickets cost $20.