After 20 years on the Australian folk circuit, Sunshine Coast singer-songwriter Andrea Kirwin is attempting to leave the music industry behind and find a new path through comedy.
Andrea Kirwin has never waited for the music industry to make things easy.
On the Sunshine Coast, where rising costs, venue closures and shifting audience habits are forcing artists to rethink how they survive, adaptability has become less of a creative choice and more about survival. For Kirwin, that instinct to keep moving has taken a new form.
This time, it’s comedy.
“I wanted to get away from being the gay folk singer,” Kirwin says jokingly but with serious intent.
After two decades of slipping jokes and stories between songs, she recently announced she was “quitting music and becoming a comedian”. The move isn’t a rejection of music entirely, she says, but instead a way of finally giving comedy centre stage.
When Music Isn’t Enough: A Musician’s Need to Diversify
Alongside rising costs and venue closures – including The Station at Birtinya, which shut its doors on January 2 – the Peace Run Records owner is also navigating a creative landscape increasingly reshaped by AI and technology.
She closed her bricks and mortar studio at Nambour last year, another quiet marker of how difficult it has become to sustain physical spaces in the current climate.
As free and automated tools continue to change the sector, uncertainty has crept into spaces that already feel fragile. Kirwin doesn’t over-intellectualise the shift. “Yeah… it’s not looking good,” she says. “If we don’t laugh, we will cry.”
“The timing is no accident,” she says. “It’s about how music is becoming more and more unsustainable. So instead of starting an OnlyFans account, I’m trying to choose a more stable career path – in comedy.”
Just days after The Station’s closure, Kirwin leapt into action, pledging to step up her content creation for local and touring independent artists. “I’ve been worried about the state of the music industry for quite a few years now,” she wrote at the time (including a photo of her new look, pictured), citing falling ticket sales and declining merch income as growing pressures for working musicians.
Comedy, for Kirwin, isn’t a pivot away from music so much as an extension of it. Anyone who’s seen her live shows knows humour has always been there – in the timing, the asides, the observations that land because they’re instantly recognisable.
Her debut comedy show, I Wish I Knew How to Quit You, which draws directly from her life and career, kicks off on February 20 at Kureelpa Dulong Hall, supporting celebrated comedian Jenny Wynter (pictured below). Fresh from a hit run at Woodford Folk Festival, the tour favours intimacy over polish, and is a mix of house concerts and regional hall shows designed for connection rather than spectacle.
Building New Pathways When Old Ones Don’t Work
Offstage, Kirwin’s broader slate of projects reinforces the same refusal to stand still.
Last year, she introduced us to her touring bus and mobile green room. It’s a practical solution aimed at keeping artists moving without burning out. The Peace Run Trailer Stage and Bus Green Room is currently under construction and expected to be completed in the coming months.
After many successful years co-programming the Caloundra Music Festival, Kirwin now works with Island Vibe Festival, which is currently working to secure the right venue for its next chapter. She is also bringing international acts Ranagri (UK) and Windborne (USA) to Australia for shows in March, and has a new Peace Run mini tour with Karise Eden and Hat Fitz and Cara set for May.
Community remains central to her work, with Kirwin’s Rainbow Choir continuing to flourish, saying more than 40 people attended the recent rehearsal at Nambour’s The Presynct. Add to that the steady demand for her songwriting and school holiday workshops, including a recent event in Palmwoods, and a clear pattern emerges.
Across music, comedy and community projects, Kirwin continues momentum by staying curious, adaptable and deeply connected. Her career is proof that creative longevity doesn’t come from standing still, but from knowing when to change direction.
Click here for tickets to see Andrea Kirwin and Jenny Wynter at Kureelpa Hall.
What do you think?
Show comments / Leave a comment