“It makes sense from every angle to protect the people who ensure music’s survival”: Singer-songwriter Jenny Morris on mental health, the arts and music industry

Photo: ABC

With a career spanning two continents and across four decades, singer-songwriter Jenny Morris has had a front-row seat to the changes in the music industry.

From recognising the need to look after one’s health (both physical and mental) right through to the evolving state of live music venues in Sydney, Morris has witnessed it all.

She tells Christie Eliezer about her life after performing, her live music experiences both as a musician and as a local Sydney resident, and suggests ways councils and government departments could help the live sector more.

One of the most important advancements in the music industry is that we have realised that most of us suffer from anxiety, isolation and depression. What sort of policies can the Government put in place to address it?

If you’re talking about the music industry specifically, I don’t think it’s something the government can effectively change (apart from general initiatives for mental health). 

I think the music industry itself has a huge obligation to provide help and guidance to the people who fall prey to the vagaries of our industry.

It makes sense from every angle - financial, emotional, for honour and integrity - to protect the people who ensure music’s survival. Record companies, publishers and the media all need to be willing to play a part.

With 24/7 deadlines and headlines and lifestyles, burn out is quite common. Would more artists (whichever their field) risk taking time off if they were given some sort of financial safety net?

I feel our world has changed so quickly that these types of issues have blindsided us.

Where once an artist had the luxury of developing with enough time and support to hone their craft, make mistakes and gain experience, now, you better be match fit right out of the blocks. 

If you’re not, it’s a very unforgiving environment out there. Second chances are a rarity. I don’t think today’s music industry is built to accommodate ‘time off’ or ‘financial safety nets’.

You went through a traumatic event with your voice, which ended part of your career. Was it a lonely battle? 

I have to preface this by saying I have a very dear friend fighting cancer at the moment so anything I went through is nothing in comparison to that so you have to put things into perspective…

However, I was effectively given a death notice for my singing career. It was devastating… I will never feel happy about not being able to sing.

I don’t know that I felt lonely although I do know that no one can understand what it’s like on a visceral, gut level, to want to do something so badly, even sing along in the car, and not be able to.

I am incredibly lucky though. I have a positive outlook on things and I am strong and I think that saved me from depression and anxiety.

I have the best life. I have my fabulous big family, some amazing friends and I love my position as Chair of APRA, so it’s very hard for me to feel sorry for the way things turned out.

If you Google ‘songwriting tips’ will give you about two million results in 0.42 seconds. That’s a lot of tips. Tom Waits once tried the idea of turning on five radios at once, and listening for overlaps. As a songwriter, how does that go down with you?

Songwriting is different things to different people, as Googling will attest to.

My opinion is that the songs that resonate with me, that stay and last the test of time, are usually written by someone who was probably not thinking of chart success at the time. 

They were more likely trying to communicate a thought or emotion or experience or point of view.

They were probably pushing creative boundaries and were not thinking about the audiences to come.

Today’s musicians and songwriters are finding new ways to monetise their revenue streams. Is this a healthy trend? 

I’m not sure any comment I may have on this would be relevant. The horse has bolted.

As with all change, you may as well embrace it. There are some fantastic things happening now as a result of new trends. 

So many people are making music that is being exposed to the masses where once their audiences would have occupied a much smaller space.

You have so much diversity and innovation. These are all great things for the music world.

Is there anything remotely romantic about the notion that an artist makes her or his best work starving in a garret as a nobody? 

I have to say sitting at the Paul McCartney concert I pondered this notion.

John and Paul and George were in their early 20s when they wrote some of the most iconic songs the world will ever know.

They were babies but they wrote about lost love, politics, social conscience issues and on and on. Some would say they never wrote better songs. 

Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, Lorde, Vander and Young, Björk all wrote iconic songs at a young age, so whether or not they were starving in a garret or not, they were all experiencing life from a youthful, hormonal, edgy perspective and that’s when I think the best songs can happen.

Of course, great songs have been written by older, happier writers - so there is no blueprint.

What would a city’s live music sector be if we got rid of all the small noisy venues and let people sleep? 

Well, they practically have in Sydney, and it has completely changed the vibe where I live in Potts Point/Kings Cross. 

It’s far less lively and has far less evidence of who we are culturally. That’s a bad thing.

Since the ‘70s, live music has always been held late at night so people would be tempted to drink alcohol. But with the current move to turn the nighttime economy into a variety of entertainment options where alcohol plays only a small role as a stimulant, can you see gigs increasingly staged at different times?

There is already a music scene that exists that operates on weekend afternoons (warehouse parties, wine bars, etc).

I think there is definitely room for flexibility. As they say, it’s the disruptors who will have the successes.

In which ways could councils and government departments help the live sector more? 

They need to encourage celebration of our cultural providers. Respect for culture means supporting it, growing it, facilitating it. It does not mean kowtowing to the landed gentry because they’ve paid a premium.

It means showing those people that communities are healthy if they are diverse. Investing in venues, not just arenas but small- and medium-sized as well, supporting smaller entrepreneurs, providing rehearsal spaces and business management courses. 

Nationally, the government needs to invest in music export more. Billions of dollars are already contributed to the Australian economy every year through music-related exports.

The Music Network and City of Sydney have partnered on a series of interviews and essays discussing the future of Sydney music and the industry that supports it.

The City of Sydney is currently calling for applications for cash grants to support the live music sector. The grants assist new and existing venues to build infrastructure, purchase equipment and program live performance.