What was the first song you learnt? La Bamba!
What’s your favourite memory of your early musical life? Playing La Bamba. Learning Bad Moon Rising. Getting an black electric Ibanez when I was in year 6 which was the coolest thing ever. I wrote my first song in year 6 I think. It was called "The Creature Of The Night" and it was quite dark.
What made you want to play music in the first place? I just always loved music and was drawn to it. I played piano a bit (I learnt Memory from Cats but I couldn't do it with both hands so it was a stop/start scenario). I found music very affecting and used to get pretty emotional about sad songs. Like "Wind Beneath My Wings" from Beaches killed me.
How old were you when you started playing? Probably six or so for piano and eight for guitar.
Who were your music heroes/idols back then? Who are they now? Back then I loved lots of 60s music because I found it on soundtracks to my favourite movies - like Dirty Dancing and Stand By Me. I always loved Paul Simon's Graceland and he is still a hero. I got heavily into Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen a bit later and they have stayed with me. I listen to a lot of different music but my proper heroes these days are probably Bill Callahan, Will Oldham, Patti Smith, Lucinda Williams.
What was the name of your first band? I had an all-girl band in year 7 and we were called Illusion. We did a cover of Wild Thing which was pretty terrible.
Holly Throsby is a singer-songwriter from Sydney.