Thank you for taking the time to have this interview with IMAAI.
Tell us about your music.
I am in love with the art of the song. Where lyrics and melody compliment one and other so sympathetically and intimately that their effect is visceral. And the music should only be sympathetic and supporting of that trajectory. I never think a song is a song if it can’t stand on it’s own in any instrumental arrangement. The sound of my music drifts somewhere within the wide realms of indie folk, alt -country and rock, and is very organic in it’s recording and production. Across all my albums my music ranges from minimal acoustic arrangements to densely layered and orchestrated production. Every record has it’s own sound, all dependent on what sort of treatment the songs I’d written were asking for.
When did you start performing?
I’ve been performing for half my life, in many shifting arrangements, but always as a singer/songwriter/guitarist. The guitar has always been my go to for songwriting and performing live, but the more of my own production I do, the more proficient I’m getting on other instruments. These days I am more focused across the whole production of my music, and my last record was done entirely on my own. That’s not to say I don’t love collaborating, but once I know a song is done it’s like I know where I want that to exist, what the environment is, the environment being the sound. It’s very personal. A world inside my own head.
What do you consider to be your hometown and how does that affect your music?
Melbourne is my home town. I have lived here all my adult life and we have a great community here. That community has affected me by being healthy enough to support constant playing, performing, recording etc.. We have strong, supportive community radio and network of venues that believe in the cultural value of the arts. While I love living in the city I feel something like a spiritual connection to the country around Melbourne, my state of Victoria. So much so I have written a whole concept album called ‘Welcome To Gippsland’ (a large rural area of Victoria that stretches over mountains to the oceans in the south east) and my recent record is plainly called ‘Victoria’.
What performers have been your inspiration?
My greatest inspiration is Bob Dylan. His piercing insight and unflinching originality and creativity as an artist, or just human being, is phenomenal.
I love the balance of tenderness, recklessness and earthly spirituality of Townes Van Zandt. I love Lou Reed, I love Michael Hurley. All these guys are true artists, who just happen to be working with the medium of music. But it doesn’t stop there. Inspiration comes from so many places, for so many different reasons.
What do you base your success on?
I’m still trying to work that out. I could tell you what I probably should base it on. But it’s harder to truly believe and live through something than it is to just tell to yourself and to others.
What was your latest musical release?
My latest release is an album called ‘Victoria’
I’ve always felt a great inspiration when I’m behind the wheel on a long drive, and I’ve covered a lot of ground throughout Victoria. It’s my home. When I first started writing new material for the record I was travelling 3 hours out to south Gippsland every week for work. I’d get going before sunrise so I’d be out past the suburbs when the sun was coming up over the farms in late summer, early autumn. I love the energy of the open space. There’s only a few tracks on the record that were written during this time, but it was then I was forming a solid idea of what kind of a record I wanted to make. That job ran into the beginning of the first covid lockdown. For the most part of the recording, and a lot the writing, the idea of leaving Victoria any time soon seemed like a precarious ambition. And I think we felt isolated as a state in our experience of the whole ordeal. So here’s to Victoria!
Do you have any news to share?
My new album ‘Victoria’ will soon be available on cassette! My first album ever to be recorded to cassette. Im so excited. I am a child of the cassette era. Soon to be available on my bandcamp store seanmcmahonmusic.bandcamp.com
How can fans find you?
seanmcmahonmusic.bandcamp.com
www.instagram.com/seanandfrayed/
Lastly, please share some final words with the fans.
I guess I’d just like to say thank you to everyone who’s listened, purchased and shared my music lately and over the years. I’m fortunate to have found my passion early on in life and I can’t imagine my life without it. As the whole landscape around how we listen to, share, and create music in our lives changes so rapidly, I hope the channels stay open for real, authentic, emotional, human content.