"can you write songs for a musical?" and i went, "i don't know, i'lltry." and the answer was, yeah, i can. i mean, a bit. and then somewhere between then and now, i got better at it. your next choice for this cultural life is the 1997 album, whatever and ever amen, by the american singer—songwriter ben folds. what ben did is gave me hope as what i later described myself as a rock �*n�* roll nerd, you know? in that song, i say, "i always dreamt of being a star, but he learnt piano instead of guitar, which in the �*90s doesn't get you very far" — because that was my experience. i was deep in the grunge. west australia, in my part of perth in the �*90s, was just grunge and i was a pianist doing songs for theatre and stuff and thinking, "is there...? i mean, obviously i can't sell records, my band won't go anywhere because, you know, it's too nerdy." and then ben came along, just thrashing the hell out of this piano. it sort of gave me permission