KATRINA BRANDON
BORN and raised in Alice Springs, to our fondest memories of belting out Cold Chisel songs, Ian Moss was at Traralgon last Saturday as part of a regional tour.
Following his recent release of his Rivers Run Dry album, the tour shares the acoustic version with rural fans.
The album includes many co-writes, such as Brent Clarke and a duet with Kasey Chambers. All the songs vary in style throughout the album.
“I don’t let styles limit the creative process. The last thing you need to do is to put a hex on things,” Moss said in an interview with the Latrobe Valley Express.
“Rivers Runs Dry was written three years ago or so. I was born and raised in Alice Springs. I left there in my mid-teens and quickly learnt that you have to earn your way in to find new friends and how difficult it is to make friends as you do with those you grew up with.
“I thought that no matter how my career went, I would never lose contact with my childhood based in Alice Springs. I’m glad I did that.”
Many challenges followed, like medical issues for one of his close friends and co-writers. Moss said that the challenges throughout the years have always kept changing. Some of these challenges include the acceptance of Australian artists on radio.
Moss said music has evolved so much over the last 50 years. With easy internet access and better technology, more styles are available, meaning more can better explore different genres. More people are now open to different types of music and widespread recognition.
Moss told the Latrobe Valley Express that writing songs was a precise art form when he was performing with Cold Chisel member Don Walker.
“He wouldn’t play it unless he were sure it was good,” Moss said.
“He would be on sound check and messing around with something we had never heard of, sitting on it for months or years. Now I get it.”
After Moss’s Rivers Run Dry tour, he hopes to get into more songwriting and do festivals and gigs.
Moss performed at the Gippsland Performing Arts Centre last Saturday night.
