Wauchope’s Angus Gill is a 19-year-old who knows where his future lies in Australian country music and releases his debut album, Nomad, on September 15.
WHILE other students at high school were wondering what their future would bring, I knew when I ‘grew up’ I wanted to combine guitar playing and singing.
I started playing guitar and singing when I was around seven years of age. A local retired country music singer William Lane offered to come around to my place and teach me some chords on the guitar and this is where my passion for country music first started.
Bill encouraged me into country music because I was inspired by the records that he had out and I suppose I wanted to be able to do what he did when I ‘grew up’.
I knew sport was never going to be my thing because I always used to run in the opposite direction of the ball at soccer games, so when I was able to combine playing guitar and singing, I thought ‘wow, I can actually do this’.
Country music became my home because of the supportive nature of the industry. The Bushwackers’ Roger Corbett once described as one big family at a barbecue and he hit the nail on the head there.
It is great to be part of an industry that has a big sense of community, where most everyone is supportive of each other and the younger generation coming up into the industry.
I am now releasing my debut album, Nomad, which has been in the works for about three years; during my last years of high school and into my first year of being a full-time musician.
In year 10, when we had the option to do work experience, a lot of people went down to the local vet or cafe, but somehow I managed to get the teachers to tick off on me doing co-writing for school work experience. This was the first moment where I started to write the songs for the new album, and I was very privileged to write with some fantastic artists in our industry.
Although there are challenges in producing your own album, the highlights were having some of my favourite country music artists co-write songs and sing on my album, as well as having session musicians that I really respect play on the album too. Time management was definitely a challenge, making sure that I was able to stay ahead of my deadline and communicate with the many people that I had involved with this record.
Nomad was ready to be made once I’d road tested the songs. As I had a lot of these songs written so far ahead of recording the album, it gave me time to road test the songs, play them many times to different audiences to see which ones my audiences connected with the most. This was how I got my track list. By this point, I also had my own ideas on the arrangements of these songs and a certain curiosity in regards to the art of producing.
I kicked off doing a bit of work experience with some respected producers and getting tips and tricks off others, and these producers gave me the expertise to start up my own studio and purchase the right equipment. I produced a lot of demos for local artists, as well as demos for my own songs and through this I was able to keep honing my craft in the mixing side of things too. I knew that producing my own album would be a risk, but it was one that I was prepared to make and I’m so genuinely glad that I chose to make that call, as producing this album has been an incredible experience.
Many songwriters are producers and I felt it was a natural progression to do my own work, because the songwriter side of me tells the producer side of me what arrangement this song needs to have, and the producer side of me tells the musicians how it needs to be played.
With Nomad released on September 15, I now want to get out and take this album to the corners of our country, to the people that can relate to every word and come back with material for the next album.
The reaction to the songs has been fantastic so far. I’ve just came back from a radio promo tour in Sydney, where I had some amazing opportunities to promote the new single to such a broad audience.
As for my next goals, I’m privileged to be producing and performing as my full-time career, so I would like to continue to grow both sides of that. A lot of my work has been targeted to an Australian market in the past, but there are songs on this album that I’ve played to American audiences with great reception, so I’d like to explore that market a little more closely too.
Links
WEBSITE: www.angusgill.com.au
Angus’ music is available on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/angus-gill/id435765823
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/angusgillmusic/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/angusgillmusic
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/angusgillmusic/