Taste Test: Husky Gawenda

THE FIRST ALBUM I BOUGHT WITH MY OWN MONEY
Songs Of Leonard Cohen. I was 12 years old. My mum was giving me a ride somewhere and the tape was playing in her car. So Long, Marianne came on and something in his voice and the melody just lit a flame in my heart. Without really hearing the lyrics immediately or knowing who it was or what he was on about, there was a kind of beauty and truth that spoke to me. It was like it brought to life a part of my brain I had never used before. So I went out and bought the album.

THE ALBUM I'M LOVING RIGHT NOW
Grizzly Bear's new record Shields. I'm starting to really get into it. I think they're just about the best band going around now. I've also been listening to Beck's Sea Change again. It's a great album to listen to on the road, so atmospheric and overwhelmingly moving. It has this incredible way of being really complex and detailed whilst coming across perfectly simple and understated. It has a rare kind of beauty.

MY FAVOURITE PARTY ALBUM
Kick by INXS. On the right night I can dance and sing along to that album from start to finish. It's happened a couple of times. It's a great party album but also an album of great songs. That's hard to find.

MY FAVOURITE COMEDOWN ALBUM
Nick Drake – Pink Moon. It's mellow and dark, with the perfect frequencies and tempos.

THE MOST SURPRISING RECORD IN MY COLLECTION
The Bangles – Everything. When I was a really young kid I was on some kind of school excursion and these girls, a few years older than me, were singing Eternal Flame. It was this magical moment, I was fascinated and for a moment totally in love with those girls. It was my first experience with love. Anyway, now when I listen to The Bangles it's like a direct worm hole to the past, it transports me straight back there and I feel like that little kid again. Music is amazing like that – it's like a time machine.

THE FIRST GIG I EVER ATTENDED
Faith No More – Festival Hall. I was too young to be allowed into the general admission or the mosh pit. But I was desperate to get in there. I got caught jumping the fence on my first attempt, by a security guard who flung me back over. But the second time I slipped past them and made a run for the mosh pit and disappeared inside. The next hour and a half was like a chaotic, wild dream, one of the best moments of my life. I was a small kid and I remember being flung around like a rag doll, completely overcome by the power of the music and the performance.

MY BIGGEST NON-MUSICAL INFLUENCES
The authors and poets I read growing up. People like John Steinbeck, F Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, Dylan Thomas, Wordsworth, Donne, Blake. People I've met and known. There's one in particular, my first love.

THE COOLEST PERSON I'VE EVER MET
My big sister. When I was a kid, she was the coolest thing ever. And she had all these beautiful friends. And she went to Guns N' Roses concerts when I wasn't allowed to yet. And she smoked cigarettes out the bathroom window and let me take drags. She taught me how to sing and was the first person to tell me I had a good voice and encourage me to sing. I still think she's one of the coolest people around.

MY BIGGEST CELEBRITY CRUSH
I didn't have many celebrity crushes. I was more interested in girls I knew. I did have an intense but short-lived crush on Jennifer Love Hewitt when I first saw her on Party Of Five. I had a man crush on Paul Newman for a while. I went and rented every movie he ever made – Cool Hand Luke, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, etc. I also had the hots for Sandra Bullock back in the day.

IF I COULD HANG OUT IN ANY TIME AND PLACE IN HISTORY
San Francisco in the '60s. I'd hang out with the beatniks. Poetry, acid, free love, it was a heady time. I visited the book stores and coffee shops where characters like Kerouac and Ginsberg used to hang out in San Fran. It was great, but of course they're gone now and what remains is tourists like me who wish they were there.

IF I WASN'T MAKING MUSIC
I'd be a wildlife photographer. I've always had a mild obsession with wildlife documentaries. My grandmother used to love them and we used to watch them together. This planet is teeming with the most fascinating and diverse creatures. And I always feel like I learn something about myself, even when I'm watching two elephant seals trying to kill each other or penguins singing to their mates after months of separation. David Attenborough is my hero.

Husky will be playing the following shows:

Thursday 11 October - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Friday 12 October - Republic Bar, Hobart TAS
Sunday 14 October - UniBar, Adelaide SA
Thursday 18 October - Old Museum, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 20 October - Gentlemen Of The Road Stopover, Dungog NSW
Sunday 21 October - Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW
Sunday 25 November - The SoundLounge, Currrumbin QLD
Saturday 1 December - Railway Club, Darwin NT
Saturday 8 December - Homebake, Sydney NSW
Wednesday 12 December - Mojo's, Fremantle WA
Thursday 13 December - The Bakery, Northbridge WA
Friday 14 December - Festival Of The Sun, Port Macquarie NSW
Sunday 16 December - The Hoey Moey, Coffs Harbour NSW