Justin Davies is building a library 

Western Australian singer-songwriter Justin Davies has just released a new single, The Library, which he’s set to perform at the Rec Hotel Waroona on Sunday, July 12, and at the Rec Hotel Toodyay on Saturday, July 18, with a north-west tour also happening in early September. He chats with Bob Gordon about his latter-day journey into songwriting.

Justin Davies was raised in the country and loves the blues. It echoes in his words and melodies, with all the stuff of life encompassed within.

The Fremantle-based singer/songwriter was raised in the south-west WA town of Donnybrook. In many ways it was very much an outdoor life, but music was always in the home.

“My old man was always into music,” Davies recalls. “Mum was really creative, but more from an artistic, painting side. We had a piano, and occasionally dad would come bang out some old jazz standards on it. We thought, ‘This is really cool.’ They also had a piano accordion, which we also thought was a bit cool. My grandmother liked a bit of blue, good old-fashioned blues music… which I ended up liking as well.”

If there was a piano in the house, it only made sense that more than one person should play it. With that in mind, Davies’ father arranged for him to take lessons from the local piano teacher. However, Mrs Miller was more classically inclined and not really echoing the musical influences Jamie was being exposed to from hanging out at Collins Music Store in Bunbury. At home he fiddled with an acoustic guitar, trying—and failing—to play Horse With No Name. But just when it seemed he was caught in a musical no-man’s-land…

“… my brother Todd, my brother, came home with ZZ Top’s Eliminator album and cranked it up to 11. I was about 16. He put that on, and three songs in, I went, “Right, fuck it. I’m buying an electric guitar. That’s it!’”

Justin Davies was off. He started jamming with some mates, and when school finished, he moved to Perth and began in what was to become a long line of cover bands.

“Then you get married, have kids, and the next thing you know, you haven’t touched your guitar in 10 years,” Davies says, wryly. “Then, of course, you get divorced, and suddenly you’re playing the damn thing every single day.”

Davies was enticed into a corporate band event at the Perth Convention Centre. All members had IT backgrounds and were dubbed The Blockchain Blues Band. They performed in front of over 500 people.

“It was the first time I’d played live in front of anybody in absolute years. So that was nice and terrifying.”

Even so, it went well enough for the band to have a crack at regular rehearsal and gigging. However, those first-world-cover-band-problems Justin had experienced in the past—’too busy’ and ‘creative differences’—came back to haunt him.

Knowing full well that he could rely on himself to turn up, Davies played at an open mic night in Northbridge and found the experience so awakening that he was soon performing regularly at sessions all over the city—covers as well as his own early songs. One night at the South Street Alehouse in Hilton, he was joined by a bass player, a drummer and another guitarist. For an impromptu jam session, it went surprisingly well, and it was put to Justin that he should form an outfit around his voice and songs.

“I’d never really contemplated doing that before,” he says. “I thought, ‘Oh, well, what do I need to do? I need to do some more songwriting.’ So I joined the I Heart Songwriting Club, and I’ve written 50 songs now, which is really cool.”

Inspired by WA songwriters Helen Shanahan and Michael Ward along the way, having never really entertained the notion of being an actual songwriter, Davies was now enthralled by the art. He went to Peter Oats’ Kitchen Cooked studio in Fremantle and recorded some tracks.

“It was just like, ‘I’m gonna roll this ball down the alley and see if it hits any pins,'” Justin says.

Pleased with the results, Davies engaged country music syndicator IMC, which distributed his music to 130 stations around the world. I Heart Songwriting Club also included a track in one of their massive mailouts. Justin’s songs were now getting airplay—and gaining feedback—around the world and in the major country music hubs of Nashville and Tamworth.

“Some people picked Cloudy Thinking, so it got way more airplay than I was expecting… understanding I had no expectations for it. And I went, ‘Oh, okay, well, just kind of keep going.’ So then I released the next one (Come To My Way Of Thinking), and then that got different airplay and a bit of different feedback, all of which I was happy with. Then I released another (Stuck), and I just kept going with that process. I think what happens is you just keep going and get a little bit, hopefully smarter, and more sophisticated in what it is that I’m looking to try and where I’m trying to go. And hopefully keeping imposter syndrome sitting in the back pocket with its mouth shut.”

As a lifelong guitar player who has come into his own as a songwriter in the last five years, Davies has also grown as a performer in playing those songs to audiences either solo or with his backing band The Bushbashers. “I grew up sideways in the back of a ute,” he says, “so Bushbashers sounded like a good idea.

“I do think there’s a little bit of terror in performing your own songs live,” he notes. “I also did stand-up comedy, and there’s been a terror involved in that, but I really enjoy playing music. That’s my main love. The hard thing is, every single time you play, you’re winning an audience over from scratch again. I think that’s an interesting skill that people who tour a lot have to really have to develop.”

Since those earlier open mic days, Davies has been regularly gigging around the state, although he still takes every opportunity to partake in order to ensure his songs are as strong as possible.

“If a new song resonates or not, you’ll work it out pretty quickly,” he says. “If there’s a spot in it where people drift off a smidge, you need to change it up a bit. I think open mics are just so great for that purpose.”

As a lifelong guitar player who has come into his own as a songwriter in the last five years, the WAM Song Of The Year-nominated Davies is looking forward to taking his library of songs on the road again, both as a solo artist and with his band. The Bush Bashers throughout WA and the Eastern States in the latter half of 2026.

His new single, The Library, he says, “is a dig into the idea of a past love story.”

“Songwriting has been really cathartic,” Davies concludes. “You can use it to process memories or old relationships… insights, observations, things that you want to share. I’ve got no desire to write anything about political angst, and I don’t want to write stuff which is negative or pulls people down. I want people to listen to the music I write and feel they have shared in something.”

Justin Davies performs at the Rec Hotel Waroona on Sunday, July 12, and at the Rec Hotel Toodyay on Saturday, July 18, 2026. A North-West tour also happening in early September. For more info and updates, head to Justin Davies’ Facebook page.