“As a dude, Wayne A Halifax walks between worlds”

There’s a touch of Chris Isaak to Wayne A Halifax, and it’s about more than the kind of songs he favours and the way he delivers them. Doing that requires anything but the life well lived anodyne self-help books urge us to make our aspiration.

That road less travelled is one where there are burned-out cars and the howling of an unknown crittur somewhere close. Judging by the smell the wind carries it could be a bunyip, and is that a warning sign or an invitation to check out what happens next? Most men wouldn’t get to a place where they’re faced with such choices. Wayne, like our other Soundscape artists, is a dude.

As a dude, Wayne walks between worlds. He’s been involved in and around film and television, sometimes popping up as a cameo actor in movies including Thunderstruck (Sam Worthington), Windrider (Nicole Kidman) – other times delivering the vocals for commercials. A man has to pay his way, after all.

Wayne has range, and his take on adult contemporary sounds draws on instrumentation including mandolin. Something about it connects him and many of us to country – not just the music style, but the landscapes it brings to mind. And he’s sure enough of himself to open up and bring himself to a song in ways a younger Wayne would have been intimidated by. Now, he’s at the “bring it on” stage where such vulnerability is concerned. Which might sound like a paradox – but creativity grows out of those tensions, and we’re here to nurture it and share the results.

Charlie Reynolds