40 | Empathy is King

This week, an Archive Fever first: live music! Clare and Yves are joined in studio by acclaimed musicians Nigel Wearne and Luke Watt, who collectively record as Above the Bit. Their debut self-titled album is a feast of revisionist storytelling, featuring lyrical tales of mutineers, rebels, warriors and wayfarers in Australia’s history. How can traditional music – like oral history – serve as an endless archive? When songwriters do research, what comes first: the story or the music? How much historical licence can you take in songwriting that has truth-telling (and activism) at its heart? Why don’t some tales heal unless they are told? And why does listening to music make even the most hardened of grown men cry? Spoiler alert: this episode comes with bonus musical tracks. Get out your tissues.