Following Up On An ARIA Award-Winning Album Isn't Easy, But It's Not Rocket Science Either

Being the producer on just one album is a lot of work and a time-consuming venture. Producing 12 albums in a year would be a considerable undertaking for most, but for Shane Nicholson, why not throw one more thing into the mix?

Love And Blood is Nicholson's sixth studio - his follow-up to 2015's Hell Breaks Loose - an album which he somehow found the time to create in between playing the producer's role on the 12 aforementioned works.

"It got to the point where I felt like I was spending all my time making music for other people and I felt like I needed to make my own. I blanked out about two or three months in my calendar at the end of the year and ventured off to a little cabin on the Hawkesbury River and starting writing songs," shares Nicholson. "It was just out of the need to be creative again and, I guess, purge a whole heap of stories that have been happening since the last record. That's the catalyst for writing every album for me. You get built up full of stories and things you want to say or get out, then you make the record and move on, and wait until you get filled up again."

When ask if working as a producer for other people has impacted his own work, he agrees.

"I've always been heavily involved in the production level of my own music but to be working as a producer for other people has given me that perspective that I can see from a producer's viewpoint now and not just from the artist's viewpoint," he explains. "I can see from the other side the importance of giving them room to breathe, and that's kind of where the magic happens in a record. I have become much better at sitting at the back of the room as an artist and letting the process happen, rather than trying to steer the ship all the time."

Creating a follow-up to a critically acclaimed and award-winning album is no easy feat, but for Nicholson, he was happy to allow the process to happen naturally.

"I think it's easy to cerebralise it all a lot, analyse it and talk about your process and all that and it's kind of fun sometimes. It's also not rocket science, it's records, we're just making albums, we're not curing cancer or anything. These days I'm trying not to analyse what I do much and I think that's maybe making it more enjoyable."

"I think there's always things you learn on every record specifically about yourself as an artist and I think it's just part of honing your skill set as a writer or as a record maker. I don't have leftover songs anymore," says Nicholson. "I used to write 20 songs for an album and pick the best ones, but I wrote 12 songs for this album and there's no leftovers. I don't finish the ones that don't make the album anymore. I don't think that's because it's easier or you're better at it, I'm just maybe learning what isn't worth finishing or isn't going to stand the test."

"I've got some songs I've been writing for the next one, I don't think it'll be all that long between drinks this time."