Brisbane-based, singer-songwriter Bree Bullock discovered her knack for songwriting while hanging out in her high school's music room.
“I started playing guitar and writing music when I was around 15 or 16, in the music room at high school. I used to hang out there on my lunch breaks, instead of hanging outside like all the normal kids,” she laughs.
“I used to just hang in there and play the piano and guitar and write songs, I guess that was how I liked to spend my time and it's still coming out of me ten years later,” she adds.
When asked which of the songs she has written she feels most proud of, she replies straight away with 'True North'. “I guess it's one of those songs; lyrically it's about coming back to the people, about going away and trying to find yourself and coming back to the people that are always there and have always been there and remain supportive of you, despite you needing to run away and find yourself kind of thing.
“I think musically, that song came together how I wanted it to and instrumentally it's a bit of a journey as well,” she says.
The songwriting process is not as simple as sitting down and putting pen to paper concedes Bree. “I normally have to be pretty moved by something, or enraged by something, you know, feel really passionate about something to be able to write about it.
"And sometimes it takes awhile to process the emotions that go behind lyrics and so, a lot of the time, I'll write a song but it might have been about something that I experienced a number of years ago, but I haven't been able to put it into words until now.”
Music is not the only thing that takes up Bree's time. By day she works as a lawyer. “I do have a full-time job and then I play gigs as well – I'm a criminal defence lawyer. It's kind of a crazy dichotomy between the two worlds, but sometimes in a strange way they kind of inspire each other,” she says.
When asked what music means to her, she is philosophical. “I've always thought music is definitely the language that speaks across all barriers.
“We're spread across the world on all these different continents and we speak all these different dialects, but it seems that music is this one thing that speaks to everyone in the same way and is as meaningful to everyone in the same way; and really has the power to heal and that's the most important thing that I take away from it.”
Bree Bullock plays as part of City Sounds at Lower Queen Street Mall 14 November (12pm start). She also plays Junk Bar (Brisbane) 3 December, Liana Lounge (Brisbane) 5 December and Treehouse On Belongil (Byron Bay) 25 February, 2016.
