'They might kill each other in the yard': Now NSW prisoners gather to make music

While on a journey across Australia, Oli Firth finds himself in a place he never thought he would end up: In prison.

Mr Firth’s journey was cut short in the dusty NSW outback after he was caught on drugs and sent to the Broken Hill Correctional Centre.

“It was the toughest time of my life,” he told ABC’s RN’s Life Matters.

But while behind bars, Firth is involved in a program called Songbirds that teaches inmates songwriting. That changes it.

“[Music] is a real beacon of light for me. It was the only thing that got me through it.”

And Mr Firth is not alone in seeking entertainment through music in prison.

Into the forest

Murray Cook is a musician (as well as a marine biologist) who has played with Midnight Oil, Mental as Anything and Mixed Relations.

But for more than 20 years, Mr Cook has also run music classes in various NSW prisons, including stints as a music teacher in the psychology ward at Sydney’s Long Bay Correctional Center.

He is currently program director for Songbirds, a project of the nonprofit Community Recovery Center, which brings music and other art forms into prison, with a focus on songwriting.

Abby Dobson, Bow Campbell and Murray Cook bring music to a NSW prison. (Provided: Murray Cook)

Songbirds is modeled on the Jail Guitar Doors program founded by musician Billy Bragg and MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer in the UK and US. The goal is to use music as a means to achieve rehabilitation and help break the cycle of detention.

“If you’re in prison — it’s the jungle. Really. I don’t like going there,” said Mr Cook.

“Because if you show emotion, if you allow that you really love your daughter or something like that, [other prisoners] can use it against you. It’s a bargain for them to defend you and get money – threatening to kill your children, that kind of stuff.”

But he said “somehow in the context of a song, it’s okay to say things like that, to say something like, ‘I love my partner’.”

So Mr Cook has put together a team of musicians to run Songbirds workshops across the state, including Abby Dobson of Leonardo’s Bride and Bow Campbell of Front End Loader and Dead Marines.

What happened at the workshop?

Mr Cook tries to get inmates to write about their feelings and experiences, as a way of dealing with them. But getting to this point is not always easy.

In the first session of her songwriting class, she talked about tolerance, about “not putting other people down, [not] too critical.”

“[I also] always say in the first workshop — ‘look, your life is so precious’… ‘your music is so precious’.”

Classes can consist of quite diverse groups.

“When you look at a group, you have islanders, Kooris, Middle Easterners, cyclists … They’re probably going to kill each other in the yard, because they tend to separate themselves into groups of their own,” Cook said.

“[But soon] You see a Koori guy over there working with an Asian guy and a bikie, trying to write a song — it’s fantastic.”

There’s also a bit of humour.

“I’d say… ‘rapper in Triple J from [Sydney’s affluent] North Shore would kill to be you’ and they all laughed.”

Then it was up to the prisoners to perfect their song and, if they wanted to, perform it.

“Once they took it out and sang it, it was very cathartic. Just to know that someone was listening to their story,” Cook said.

Music for the world

For inmates who wished, Mr Cook would record their song and then add other instruments. Or if they prefer not to perform their own song, Mr Cook or an industry guest will offer to perform and record it.

For the past five years, Mr Cook has been making albums from these records to raise money for the programme, with his latest album, ‘Songbirds 3’ released earlier this month.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.

Listen to ‘Yesterday’ by Sione from Songbirds 3(Zion)

The team decided to dedicate the album to a young Indigenous singer-songwriter who appeared in ‘Songbirds 1’ named Anzac, who died in police custody last year.

One of the songs on her new album, Yesterday, sung by Sione and recorded in the library at Broken Hill Correctional Center, encapsulates the feelings of many inmates.

“Why do I feel this way?” He sings.

“I’d trade all my tomorrows, just for yesterday’s one.”

‘Personal transformation that comes through music’

Mr Cook said at the end of the program there was almost always a big payoff, for everyone involved.

Art from the latest Songbirds album.(Provided: Murray Cook)

“[Afterwards] I would say ‘you’ve done really well, congratulations’ and shake their hand. Sometimes there are big, tough guys who are covered in tattoos, you see tears in their eyes, because they are never praised. That’s a big thing for them, and for me too,” said Cook.

Inmates are encouraged to keep their music, both in prison and when they are out.

Some of the program’s participants have become roadies for the band and others have been invited to appear on the reality TV singing competition The Voice.

Asked about some of the more memorable songs over the years, Mr Cook mentioned one of a young Native who was about to leave, but knew no one would meet him at the gate. Another is about apologizing to a wife on the outside.

He recalled one of the most memorable lyrics he had ever heard: “The outside world is like a pearl. It’s too deep to reach.”

“As I always tell people in prison, music is a great way to release emotions without hurting anyone… [But] I think at the heart of this is the personal transformation that comes through music,” Cook said.

The program is currently only in NSW, but there are similar initiatives taking music to prisons in other states and territories.

Not just prison

Songbirds is also out in the community, with Mr Cook holding weekly lessons at the Ozanam Learning Center in Woolloomooloo Sydney.

More stories from Life Matters:

Here, music is brought to some of the less fortunate townspeople.

“It’s a diverse group of people, different ages, nationalities and levels of experience. There are ex-sex workers from Kings Cross, people who are homeless, people who live on housing commissions,” Cook said.

Ivor Thomas visits the workshop from all over Sydney. She says she’s working on a song called ‘Shadow Lands,’ which is about loneliness, or what she calls “the biggest social problem out there.”

When asked about the song, he read some of the lyrics.

“Waiting here in the land of shadows, hoping that time will pass. There’s no point in crying, if you won’t try. I’ve been lonely for a long time. Even though you’re close. Why can’t you? You saw what happened? need.”

He added, “I firmly believe that music is the greatest soul healer. Music brings people together.”

‘Helpful creative power’

Oli Firth spent three months at the Broken Hill Correctional Center. Then, as he put it, “I’m finally completely clean… [I] just lost three months of my life.”

Music now plays a huge role in Oli Firth’s life.(Supplied: Firth Oil)

But his relationship with music continued long after he finished the Songbirds program.

“I decided that’s what I wanted to do when I got out,” he said.

So Mr Firth started a band called Couch Wizard, which he still plays and tours with.

“I also work in disability support. And I have some clients who are very talented in music. So I work with them and help them record music,” she says.

“[It’s] like what Murray did for me, when I was in that place — needing help to lift my spirits and show how good music is as an outlet, as a helpful creative force.”

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