Graham Reid | | 2 min read
Sally Stockwell: Lair
While it's easy to be dismissive of actors moving into the world of music (does anyone yearn for the return of Keanu Reeves in Dogstar?), there have been some creditable and credible results from thespians and screen stars writing and recording their own music.
And into that crossover now steps actress Sally Stockwell who is best known for appearances on New Zealand television shows such as Outrageous Fortune, Shortland Street and Agent Anna as well as dramas like After the Fall.
She has best actress nominations for her part in The Insider's Guide to Happiness (2005) and Proof (2002), and has appeared in a couple of dozen stage plays.
But with her debut album Weightless she brings her literary and dramatic sensibilities into a collection of diverse, thoughtful original songs.
Timely then we invite her to consider The Famous Elsewhere Songwriter Questionnaire.
The first song which really affected you was . . .
‘Starman’ by David Bowie’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Dire Straits (I was about 7 years old), Lou Reed's New York Conversation
Your first (possibly embarrassing) role models in music were . . .
Madonna…she was pretty cool back then!
The one songwriter you will always listen to, even if they disappointed you previously, is?
Joni Mitchell
As songwriters: Lennon-McCartney or Jagger-Richards; kd lang or Katy Perry; Madonna or Michael Jackson; Johnny Cash or Kris Kristofferson?
Jagger-Richards, kd lang, Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash
The three songs (yours, or by others) you would love everyone to hear because they are well crafted are . . .
Rickie Lee Jones ‘We Belong Together’, Joni Mitchell ‘Turbulent Indigo’’, Talking Heads ‘Once in a Lifetime’
Melody first? Words or phrase first? Simultaneous?
Words first
The best book on music or musicians you have read is . . .
None, I don’t read about musicians.Yet.
If you could co-write with anyone it would be . . .
Rickie Lee Jones or Joni Mitchell.
The last CD or vinyl album you bought was . . . (And your most recent downloads include . . .)
One song, royalties for life, never have to work again. The song by anyone, yourself included, which wouldn't embarrass you would be . . .
One line (or couplet) from a song -- yours or someone else's -- which you think is just a stone cold winner is . . .
From Lou Reed ‘ Don’t you know that the city is a funny place, something like a circus or a zoo’ (but it’s his delivery that knocks it home)
Songwriting: what's the ratio of
inspiration/perspiration?
30% inspiration 70% perspiration at worst, 70% inspiration 30% at best
Ever had a song come to you fully-formed like it dropped into your lap?
Yes, one or twice. It’s always surprising when it does, and it’s taken someone else to say, it’s finished, leave it alone.
And finally, finish this couplet in any way you like: “Standing at the airport with an empty suitcase at my feet . . .” (You are NOT allowed to rhyme that with “meet” however)
Jet me into blue while my heart is on my sleeve
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