Andy Golledge: 'I Don’t Want To Put Any Restrictions On What I Do'

They say change is as good as a holiday, but it’s a fair bet that they don’t know this as well as Andy Golledge. And indeed, change might be better than a holiday; a completely new scene, on a permanent basis, might be the catalyst for a whole new beginning.

Golledge, already established as a songwriter of note and a shining light on the alt-country scene, made the move from inner-city Sydney, where he’d lived for fifteen years, to the NSW south coast last year, and it’s opened him up to a whole new realm of creative possibility. On the eve of the release of his second full-length record, Young, Dumb & Wild, Golledge is feeling perhaps more grounded than he ever has before, and this is only a good thing.

“When we were living in Sydney, we were living in sharehouses and stuff, and with COVID, it kinda… everybody was on top of me,” he recalls. “I’m a musician and worked nights, so I was just used to walking around the house in my undies writing songs all day, and then all of a sudden everyone is at home 24/7, and I’m like, ‘Oh’… it was kinda a hard time for me, creatively.”

“[As well], it was getting pretty dicey, like my lifestyle and my habits weren’t the best, but moving down here and living in this quiet place, it’s very unassuming, it’s changed my outlook,” he goes on. “Now I work on farms. It’s outdoors and quiet, which has given me more time to breathe and focus on my health… and opened me up to maintaining a positive outlook while trying to be a creative person.

“It’s definitely [given] me more space.”

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After releasing an EP, Naomi, in early 2020, Golledge released his debut LP, Strength Of A Queen, in late 2022, an album which garnered the avid songwriter a slew of recognition, including an ARIA nomination for Best Country Album, a Golden Guitar nomination for Alt Country Album of the Year, and a win at the AIR Awards for Best Independent Country Album.

At the same time, Golledge and his band were winning fans all over due to the rollicking good times their lives sets had become, and so when it comes to putting together that fabled ‘second record’, I venture to Golledge that perhaps he’d have felt some sort of pressure to live up to the lofty standards he’d already set for himself.

“I just want to get out and play shows, you know? I don’t really think about… before I started recording music and before I kinda took a-hold of all my personal issues, which enabled me to sorta triumph; I suppose, as far as music was concerned, my only goal was to release a record. And I’ve already done that. So I don’t really care,” he laughs. “I just put pressure on myself to write songs I think are really great.

“I mean, I do have anxiety and stress, and I do stress out about it, but I feel like the only reason you would really stress out about a record being really successful is if you were trying to create a certain type of music that you thought was going to be a big success, as opposed to writing something earnest and honest and trying to be a better version of yourself, I think.”

This approach to making music, this record in particular, coupled with the slower pace of his life, sees Golledge stretch out on Young, Dumb & Wild. The album steps intricately between introspective and outright raucous in a way that seems seamless; it’s an album that’s an album, as opposed to a mere clutch of songs sitting alongside one another, which was a conscious decision on Golledge’s part.

What also contributes to the cohesive nature of Young, Dumb & Wild are the themes that run through the songs (many of which have been sitting about in Golledge’s song waiting room for almost five years) – in the main, the ability to love and accept oneself, that notion of living with who you are.

“Yeah, I did start writing [these songs] five or six years ago when I met my partner, and she definitely opened my world up to the world of self-love and thinking before doing, asking yourself what you need out of life,” he says.

“And it’s a lifelong lesson, learning how to be with yourself… but that is what I wanted to voice and where I was drawing inspiration from, new love and a new change.”

Songs like Lovin’ Myself and Ride perhaps reflect these themes most pertinently. They fit well alongside the likes of the more upbeat Country Band and the album’s title track, on which, as Golledge has said, “It’s anything but a song about being young, dumb and wild; it's more about holding onto that inner child that helps you create more freely. It reflects my efforts to come to terms with performance anxiety and setting myself free on stage.”

It's onstage where Golledge is placing his focus. He has a run of shows upcoming, and indeed, while Young, Dumb & Wild is new for the man’s audience, he himself is beginning to look ahead to the next project, no doubt inspired by the solitude in which he now finds himself.

In the meantime, Andy Golledge will continue to do what he does best: bring his songs to the people. “I don’t want to put any restrictions on what I do; I want to make the experience better for the audience and different and exciting and dangerous.”

Young, Dumb & Wild is out now. Andy Golledge is taking the album on tour this May and June—you can find tickets here.