Confessional songwriting often chronicles lived experience. This allows one to revisit sentiments and perhaps go back to certain stories. It also allows for intertextual references. You will find both in this song.
On Wednesday June 14 2023 I successfully defended my doctoral thesis “Songs in the Key of Collaboration: Engaging with Anthropocene moments through personal and collaborative songwriting,” at Aarhus University. The outpouring of love and support in relation to this moment was deeply touching, and I felt – and feel – blessed to have the support…. Read more »
This is a presentation and song performance of “Dream of the Anthropocene,” a song that came to me during the first pandemic year (Dansk version længere nede) It was sparked by a personal story involving my child and health system care challenges during lockdown. The song develops from there to ask questions more broadly, and… Read more »
Debat om klimakrise og lokale og internationale vinkler med Frank Erichsen (”Bonderøven”) ved Climate Justice Days arrangeret af Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke (Scroll down for version in English) Jeg var inviteret til at tale ved Climate Justice Days om mit projekt med at skrive sange med folk ud fra deres oplevelser af at leve med store systemiske… Read more »
‘The River Remembers It All’ was co-written with social anthropologist Steven Robins and reflects upon the role of private developers and the City of Cape Town in commodifying and thereby destroying natural resources, namely the Two River Urban Park where the ecological resilience of the wetland and the Liesbeek River are being ‘sold off’ to… Read more »
This song was co-written in the countryside outside of Stellenbosch in South Africa where social entrepreneur and environmentalist Peter Shrimpton is building ‘The Great Labyrinth of Africa’ made up of indigenous spekboom trees. We met at the site and talked about mutual interests and Mr. Shrimpton’s concerns with the environment and current state of affairs…. Read more »
In Sutherland in the Karoo, South Africa, a long lasting drought has battered communities for years on end In November 2019 I was invited to visit local farmer ‘Sieb’ and his daughter Janine on the farms ‘Vredehoek’ and ‘Rooikloof’ to see for myself the impact on the landscape and to hear their lived experiences of… Read more »
In this video I present ‘six songs in seven minutes’ – a sample from each of six new co-creations with young people from Vrygrond in Cape Town. The themes of these songs range from concerns with gangsterism, drive-by shootings, drugs, and xenoophobic attacks, to love of family, singing and hope for the future. Where my… Read more »
Had the pleasure of co-writing ‘Why Not Care While You’re Here’ with Verity Price recently. Verity is passionate about exploring the single use plastic crisis and the planetary inconvenience that our convenience-fuelled lifestyles is causing through her songs and talks: “The enemies of our past wielded guns and bombs, but the enemies of our future… Read more »
The song in the video below goes out to Greta Thunberg, Autumn Peltier and all our other youths and children having to fight a grown-up’s battle. I felt compelled to put this out there after having seen and heard all of the abuse that our teen climate warriors are getting on social media and elsewhere…. Read more »
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