**Listen to the end to hear the single 'Things I've Learned'Aleyce Simmonds was the first Australian artist I interviewed when I started what became Sunburnt Country Music in late 2011. Back then it was called Jolene The Country Music Blog because I didn’t know what else to call it and I also thought no one would read it anyway, so the name didn’t matter. The blog became a regular thing for me after I was very ill in July 2011 – and if you want to hear that story you can listen to the latest episode of Tori Forsyth’s podcast In the Thick of It, as I talk about it there. I’d done a fair bit of interviewing by that time, of musicians in Canada when I lived there, and of a variety of people at the Seven Network when I worked there. That didn’t mean I was great at it, so Aleyce got a very early version of Interviewer Me. And it was also Interviewer Me in a vulnerable state, as I was still recovering. Writing about Australian country music, doing those interviews, would become a way to not only come back to myself but leap ahead.I’m sharing this story as a way of introducing this interview with Aleyce about her latest single, ‘Things I’ve Learned’, because in our interview Aleyce shares her story of being gravely unwell while pregnant with her daughter, Georgia. So unwell that she wrote the song for Georgia in case she wasn’t around any more to tell it. Aleyce was so brave telling this story. What she has to say is not only the story behind the song but the story of what it takes to survive something you aren’t sure you’ll survive, then to emerge and create art that offers great meaning to others. It goes without saying that the artist who made this song is not the same one I interviewed fourteen years ago – of course she’s not. But she’s also not the artist she was two years ago. She has not only been forged in the greatest fire of her life but forged herself and emerged a warrior with armour that is made not of steel but of dreams and hopes and determination. All that is there to hear in the song, and in this interview too. Aleyce also has some very interesting things to say about the changes in the music industry since she released her single ‘Mighty, Mighty Love’ twenty years ago, as well as pursuing her career while managing serious health conditions. A lot of ground is covered, and Aleyce was so generous with her insights. This is the story of what it means to persist – to insist, actually, on having an artistic life, a creative life, amidst enormous challenges. As she says, ‘This music life is so much more than getting out there and singing songs. It's about making people feel … We put whatever is going on in our lives behind us, and get out there and be brave.’ I thank her so much for sharing her story with me, and with you.Listen to Aleyce Simmonds on Apple MusicListen to Aleyce Simmonds on SpotifySunburnt Country Music website For more Sunburnt Country Music:InstagramFacebook YouTubewebsite Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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