Sarah Blasko ProfileThis winter saw the launch of drama series Dalliance, which has been garnering attention for its unapologetic portrayal of life for 60-somethings.
Written by Pip Karmel and directed by Emma Jackson, the Paramout+ show stars an ensemble cast, that includes Hugo Weaving, Georgie Parker, Heather Mitchell, and David Wenham and explores storylines about falling in love, realising life isn’t necessarily all figured out when you get older, and starting over when long-term marriages, careers and friendships end.
We sat down with the show’s producer and co-creator John Edwards and composer Stephen Rae to discuss how the soundtrack was carefully crafted to match the show’s themes and their own shared taste in music.
Edwards has been behind numerous Aussie TV shows and across many of these dramas, there are common themes of exploring life across specific generations.
The Secret Life Of Us looks at twenty-somethings, Love My Way, focuses on thirty-somethings, and Tangle on life in your forties, while Puberty Blues zeroes in on the adolescent experience.
And now we have Dalliance, which explores life for generation 60-plus. Like many of its predecessors, music forms a strong backbone to the show.
For this, Edwards teamed up with award-winning composer and musician Rae, who has previously worked on the soundtracks for Puberty Blues and Love My Way, among many others.
It’s a longtime partnership, one that begins in the late 1990s. You can sense it in their banter with one another, like that of close friends that have known each other most of their lives.
It’s a feeling that perfectly matches the familiar mood of both the show and its soundtrack, Think nostalgia, memory and a strong focus on Australian music, with tracks by Hunters & Collectors, The Angels, Models, Divinyls, and Archie Roach as well as international artists like The Band, The Proclaimers, and Edwyn Collins.
“Dalliance is a 60-something show and we selected songs that suited it,” explains Edwards.
“And that is, songs that were just off mainstream and artists that are not so obviously well known”.
As a result, Edwards and Rae have brought us a soundtrack that reflects the show in how it’s speaking on the experiences of older generations but not in the predictable, typical way that’s been done before.
“It captures the spirit of this group of people in this show, which is, ‘it ain’t over’”.
The theme song is Paul Kelly’s Made For Me, which comes from his 2025 album release, Seventy. Referring to his age, it was nominated at the 2026 Aria Music Awards.
“This one was chosen because it was a duet, because it's sexy, and because it's very much from the point of view of a 70-year-old,” recalls Edwards.
“Paul is relishing the physicality of a lover, which felt particularly fitting for the series.”
As well as original songs, Rae teamed up with singer-songwriter Sarah Blasko to reimagine songs by artists like John Prine, Blaze Foley, Rowland Salley, and Guy Clark, using stripped-back piano arrangements.
In fact, it was Blasko’s previous cover of Cold Chisel’s Flame Trees (recorded for the 2005 film Little Fish) that inspired how Edwards and Rae wanted to work with the former Seeker Lover Keeper band member on the songs for the Dalliance soundtrack.
Rae reveals how easy it was to work with and create the recordings with Blasko.
“While Sarah is a younger artist, it just worked really well to use her voice," he explains. "It was recorded in a few hours. We did it so quickly that John missed out.”
Both Edwards and Rae have a shared love of Americana, which is expressed in the selection of songs.
“The reinterpreting of Americana songs is incredibly simple,” states Rae.
“The show often features two-parter scenes or characters remembering. The soundtrack is an intimate piece that went with the drama of it.”
Rae adds how grief is a big part of this story and wanted to suit the feel of specific scenes and themes of the show through the soundtrack. One example is the use of The Proclaimers hit Sunshine On Leith, which is used almost ironically.
“It’s not a big statement piece. It’s more about drawing people in and going for a less obvious use of songs for key moments in the show.”
There were more songs used for Dalliance than past shows the veteran producer Edwards has worked on.
“Making soundtracks now is not the same as it was back in the day. You don’t make money from them anymore,” Edwards states, who early in his career, produced the series Stringer, the soundtrack for which went double-platinum.
But that didn’t stop him in terms of the effort and thought that went into the creation of the Dalliance soundtrack, which essentially saw the duo approach artists that they know or love to be involved.
“There were so many songs we would have loved to do. We had a huge list initially,” admits Edwards.
“We’ve not given energy to previous soundtracks like we have this one. There’s a depth to the show in terms of what it brought, which the music reflects.”
While the show and the soundtrack follows the theme of music from the past, some of the song choices actually came from someone younger.
“Some of the songs are inspired by what my 30-something son liked or chose and even had for his own wedding song,” reveals Edwards, referring to his son Dan, with whom he’s set up production company Roadshow Rough Diamond.
“It’s that idea that the show has that appeal and that actually younger people tapped into it.”
Edwards and Rae make a formidable team, given their credentials in the Australian TV drama landscape and the commitment they make to the shows and soundtracks they create between them.
“One (scene) that stays with me is a quiet scene between Billy (Hugo Weaving) and his wife of many years, Rose (Georgie Parker),” adds Rae.
“Billy is drunk and asleep on the couch, snoring gently. Rose lies down beside him, nestles in and holds him. It’s a simple act of love, and it says a great deal about their marriage.
“We set it to Killing The Blues, the Rowland Salley song from 1977, which I recorded with Sarah Blasko.
I kept the arrangement as bare as possible. The scene is about the most elementary kind of love, the kind that doesn’t need to announce itself, and anything more in the music would have got in the way.”
Like the characters in Dalliance, the soundtrack is not just a mandatory backdrop but a relatable, well-thought out creation that challenges the stereotypes of ‘getting older’, and what might be typically expected on a soundtrack for a show like this.
It explores pain and heartbreak with emotion, humour and simplicity, and in doing so, is more honest. It’s that honesty that connects with TV audiences and music listeners alike.
Dalliance is now streaming on Paramount+. Listen to the official playlist on Apple and Spotify.
