Eats Routes & Weaves

WEAVES: Interview with Andrew Jackson Calvert, organiser of Songriders – semi-regular music & cycling tours around Sydney.

Photography courtesy of Steve Dimitriadis, check out more of Steve’s Street Photography at Zonefocus.net

When I heard about Songriders I had to join in, what better way to explore Sydney cycleways than an afternoon of music, drinks and new friends?

Andrew was kind enough to answer some questions for us:

I found it inspiring to attend a couple of Songrider events, it got me thinking of the possibilities with Sydney cycleways. I felt like I was in a different country. What inspired the idea of Songriders?

The boring answer is simply that I used to do the same ride with my mate Jeff Faraday. We’d just go wherever our fancy took us, maybe jump the fence into a derelict building or polish of a bottle of cheap Chardonnay by the beach or river. And then, usually, we’d come back from a boozy lunch at Brighton Le Sands or the Magpies’ Club go to Marrickville and see a gig somewhere like the Marrickville Bowlo, Petersham Bowlo or the Union. So essentially it’s just combining the two into one event.

But I don’t like boring answers. Really, I’m trying to recreate the “endless summer” or long days of childhood, pre-smart phone. Can you remember just leaving the house with no plan, and by the afternoon you’d have met some friends round the block, played football in an empty lot, ridden your skateboards or bikes down to the bay and then walked around the shore to wind up calling home from some other mate’s house two suburbs away to ask if you could have dinner there? Basically the itch I scratch with Songriders is that; Just disappearing for a day and just covering some ground.

What do you look for in musicians to play at Songriders? Who are the musicians? Is there a selection or way for musicians to get involved?

So far the criteria has literally been, “Do you ride a bike?” And that has highlighted some gender discrepancies. So far we’ve had 7 dudes play, and one woman. And I have asked around and put the word out. You know, so far it’s unpaid, and takes a whole afternoon. So that is a challenge finding people, whatever the gender, who want to dedicate that time when they have competing priorities.

Are there plans for other routes? What do you look for in a route? Have you checked out The Sydney Map for route options?

So far it’s been two trips to Brighton Le Sands, mostly because there are places with acoustic features that suit a single singer-songwriter along that route and a beach to tempt people away from the inner-West. My next plan is back up the river towards Ashfield and the “boat harbour” which will take in songwalkers and amplification. We’re waiting on the Marrickville Golf Club to OK people showing up there in groups. Another goal is to get people out to the Serpentine Cabal in the old section of Rookwood Cemetery among the mausoleums. Very different “frozen in time” feel. I must check that map out though.

If you could run a Songriders anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I am not that well-traveled to be honest. What I like about Songriders is that, as you say, traveling via the river you manage to kind of lose your bearings and rediscover Sydney. And some of the striking “vistas” are not typical pretty views etc. Those places are always crowded as it is. It’s the range you get on a bike that makes you see some underpass or canal or access road or market garden you never really stopped to notice before. So I guess if it was anywhere in the world it might be an abandoned metro section of a city. Or maybe some forgotten transit route like the old “trotting” paths around Steyning in Southern England or the abandoned priory outside of Glasgow. Basically, without sounding too wanky, it’s about seeing a non-default way of getting around and what a “destination” might be that isn’t entirely dictated by convenience and commerce.

When is the next Songriders?

I am doing a series of gigs in by backyard for September as all my band’s gigs (Wifey) have become iffy. I just bought a small PA to get that sorted. So I think early October is looking like the first time everything will come together for one. Here’s hoping!