It's Not Nice Trying To Understand Yourself Through Songwriting

“That was a rebellion!” Sydney-born, London-based singer-songwriter Josef Salvat admits of his time studying law before he took himself off to London to follow his dream of a career in music.

“I went to law school because I didn’t feel equipped to deal with the world. Everybody talks about how difficult the music industry is and how cutthroat it can be, and legally tricky. So my head was swimming around with these kinds of things. Mum and dad were fairly bohemian, for want of a better word, so I went to get myself a qualification. It could have been anything.”

In the end, however, his career was always going to be music. Salvat had written his first song at the age of 13, something he felt was strong enough to keep him at it though he admits that those that followed “were pretty average”. He did the final year of law in Spain, on his way to London, “but I had wanted to do music”. “This was meant to be a diversion and had become my entire life. So it was back to the main script.”

“I went to law school because I didn’t feel equipped to deal with the world"

Salvat was lucky. In London he was quickly able to establish himself, releasing a debut EP (yet to be released in Australia), Hustler, in 2013; it included a version of the Rihanna hit, Diamonds, which took him to #1 in the Shazam charts in the UK and iTunes in France. That’s led to performances at Visions Festival and London Calling in the UK and the Howl Festival in France, as well as a support slot on BANKS’ UK tour last year.

The majority of the artists Salvat cites as influences are women – Bjork, Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine, Nina Simone, Amy Winehouse and, in particular, Sia, who of course wrote Diamonds for Rihanna.

“They are,” he admits. “Yeah, it’s funny. I think they emote better or something. I don’t know. But Bruce Springsteen, he was an influence. Coldplay were a very big influence, and Jacques Brel, though he’s not a typical male songwriter. It’s very masculine, what he does, but he emotes like women. So there are a few key male influences.”

Common to all these songwriters, regardless of gender, is the emotional cache they bring to their songs. That’s what struck a chord with Salvat, and pointed him, as a songwriter, in the direction that has led to his forthcoming album and his second EP – the first to be released in Australia – In Your Prime.

“For whatever reason, that’s how the writing of songs and what I wrote about, that’s how it happened, that’s what it is. I didn’t question that at the time ‘cause that’s what was happening at the time, and those are the sorts of stories that I’m interested in and like, and people that can engage in that kind of communication. I’m maybe moving away from that as I get older, but my writing has been very much about trying to understand your environment and yourself within it… And it’s not nice. It’s very bittersweet; there’s joy and sadness at the same time.”