If the Sunshine Coast had a Lord Mayor of Music it would be Andrea Kirwin.

Andrea is a staunch community person and has quickly become the poster girl for the Coast’s burgeoning music scene.

In a bid to make the region’s music scene great again, she set up Peace Run Records in downtown Nambour a year ago.

Sunshine Coast Council this year took the leading-songstress under its wing as guest programmer for the Caloundra Music Festival, which runs this Friday to Sunday, and features dozens of local acts (full list at end).

“I really hope people get out and support and our bands,” Andrea says.

“If people don’t support festivals like this we become in danger of losing them. We have lost so many venues and festivals in the past, it’s important to get out and behind them.

“Word of mouth is still the biggest currency in the music industry.”

Andrea Kirwin brings hope to Sunshine Coast music scene

The Coast lost several live music spaces due to Covid-19 and zoning restrictions in recent years, including Peregian Originals, Nightquarter and Eleven Dive Bar.

But with The Comiskey Group (owners of Eatons Hill and Sandstone Point hotels) revealing plans to bring a Coachella-style festival precinct to Palmview, there is hope.

Picture: Those Folk at Nambour Forecourt Live.

“I think we will see a lot of change in the next five years,” Andrea says.

Council has put Andrea in charge of their Nambour Forecourt Live festivities, which brings a family-friendly live music program to Nambour.

It was up to launch the Nambour Special Entertainment Precinct two years ago, but soon became a much-loved monthly fixture.

Nambour’s ‘Steven Bradbury moment’

In what Andrea calls a “Steven Bradbury moment”, the Nambour precinct was originally planned for Maroochydore’s Ocean Street. But due to a conflict of interest with Mayor Mark Jamieson owning the Duporth Tavern, it was hand-balled to Nambour.

Or as Andrea says “skated” west across the Bruce Highway.

This was welcome news for locals who have for decades wanted to see the suburb – historically known as the Coast’s capital and chock-full of charm – restored to its former glory, with some shop facades not changing since the late 1800s.

Picture: Currie Street, Nambour, looking north along the eastern side from Chadwick Chambers towards the Royal Hotel, circa 1938.

A ‘renaissance opportunity’ for Nambour

Andrea says it would be a “renaissance opportunity” for the suburb when Generation X and Y take over.

She says these generations have experienced life with and without the internet, making them both creative and experimental, but with a desire to retain heritage.

“When I opened up in Nambour, Council saw it as an opportunity to get more music there,” she says.

“I would love to see it become the arts and culture hub of the Sunshine Coast.”

Andrea Kirwin has released five studio-albums: her most recent, Bloom (2021), features 13-piece big band The Yama-Nui Social Club.

She juggles her musical projects with helping give musical leverage to local artists where possible.

She’s even had a beer (pictured) created in her honour, made by Sunshine Coast award-winning craft brewhouse the Glass House Brewery.

But it’s been a sometimes-painful 20 years of performing, personal struggles, and even a partial-law degree, which brought Andrea to where she is today.

Inspired by Eric Clapton, Tupac and Mary J Blige

Andrea, 38, grew up in North Queensland and has both Australian and Fijian heritage.

“Some of my earliest memories as a child are of singing. Church songs, mostly, both in English and Fijian.

“My mum met my Australian dad when they were over in Fiji, and moved to Townsville, where I was born and grew up.

“Being the eldest daughter of three, I remember sitting together with my mum, a Fijian church minister, and siblings and singing in three-part harmony.”

It was hearing Eric Clapton’s “Change the World” on the radio at age seven when she realised the true beauty of music.

“That song had a lasting impact on the type of songs I like to listen to. Easy listening, laidback and soulful songs. The kind of music I now love to create.”

Andrea was influenced by her brother’s CD collections of hip-hop, gangster rap and R&B music, such as Tupac and Mary J Blige – that would hit her “like a freight train of soulful emotions” – and by the time she was 13 she could play and sing around 50 songs on the piano.

Picture: Sunshine Coast Council Community Portfolio Councillor and music lover David Law proudly wears Andrea Kirwin’s Nambour T-shirt.

A religious upbringing and boarding school

As her mum became “more religious”, Andrea became “more rebellious” and was eventually sent off to boarding school.

During an unsettled time when her parents divorced a year later, she was suspended from school three times.

But that painful period brought her to music like never before.

During life as a boarder at Geelong Grammar School in grades 11 and 12, Andrea’s musical abilities started gaining recognition, after receiving a music scholarship to attend the prestigious school, along with a year’s worth of singing lessons.

The school’s choir taught her to sing in Latin, German and other languages, and they toured Europe visiting cathedrals in England, France, Germany and Austria.

A moment in Paris gets Andrea thinking about songwriting

It was a moment singing in Paris’s famous Notre Dame cathedral when Andrea started thinking about songwriting.

“My housemaster, Mrs Helen Seymour, the sister of Mark Seymour from Hunters and Collectors, used to try to persuade me to listen to Australian music.”

She’s a clever cat, following in her mother’s footsteps into an Arts/Law degree at Canberra’s ANU for four years.

And it was this law degree which Andrea says helped her liaise between Council and her community.

Clare Bowditch concert brings epiphany

After seeing Australian folk singer Clare Bowditch perform in her uni years – and during a period of self-discovery – Andrea knew she needed to write music and share her stories with others.

“It was 2006 and I had just realised that I might be gay, which, in Fijian culture was not an acceptable way to feel,” she says.

“In a flood of emotions, a friend of mine took me along to see Clare play, and I realised just how much beauty and soul can be held in a song.

“And that there is no wrong or right, there is only being. Being true to how you feel, is what life is all about.”

Meeting another Claire, and her harp

As fate would have it Andrea met a Celtic harp player, also named Claire (but with an ‘i’), two years after later. And the pair have since worked on many collaborations.

Following in Claire’s parents’ footsteps – who came to the Coast seeking a warmer climate on the Coast, the couple moved here in 2012, with Claire’s daughter from a previous relationship.

They wedded earlier this year.

They now live in Mapleton, however Andrea and her family had lived in Nambour for eight years prior.

But don’t expect her to be rushing off to Nashville any time soon.

With community in the blood, Andrea says she avoids major festivals, except the local ones, and prefers regional over mainstream.

“I want to see quality live music and venues as part of our tourism strategy. Where visitors stay in the hinterland, with good food wine and music to match.

“I want to create something in the town to give people hope.”

And we’re just glad she chose us as home.

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Caloundra Music Festival 2023

Peace Run Records represents two local performers at this year’s Caloundra Music Festival, The Dawn Light, who play on Saturday at 12pm, and Jen Mize (pictured) with her band The Rough ‘N Tumble on Sunday at 7pm.

Andrea has also brought two overseas artists to the festival for the first time, Canada’s Sierra Noble, on Sunday at 1pm, and Ryland Moranz, at 4pm.

Andrea Kirwin and The Yama-Nui Social Club play on Sunday at 6pm.

For more information on Andrea Kirwin and the The Yama-Nui Social Club, Jen Mize and The Dawn Light visit www.peacerunrecords.com.

For tickets to the Caloundra Music Festival, from September 29 to October 1, head to caloundramusicfestival.com/tickets/.

Sunshine Coast musicians performing at Caloundra Music Festival:

ADAM JAMES

ALYS FFION

AMPERSAND

ANDREA KIRWIN AND THE YAMA-NUI SOCIAL CLUB

ANNA & JORDAN

ASPY JONES

AYLA

BAND OF FREQUENCIES

BETTY TAYLOR

BUTTERMELLO

DJ TOTAL ECLIPSE (THE X-ECUTIONERS)

ELLA FENCE

EMMA TOMLINSON FT. PETER KOPPES & TIO KURUN WARUN

FLASKAS

FRANK & LOUIS

GOOD WILL REMEDY

HAPPY VALLEY

HIGH TROPICS

JESSE TAYLOR

KARLOU

LAZY GUNS

MUFASSA and THE PRIDE

OWLS OF NEPTUNE

PAT TIERNEY

PHIL BARLOW BAND

RAW ORDIO

REDWOOD SCOUNDREL

RENEGADE FUNK

SARI ABBOTT

SHEN PANTHERS

SUGARBAG BLONDE

TESS FAPANI

THE DAWN LIGHT

THIS NEW LIGHT

TOBIAS

CHRIS AH GEE

JAZZELLA

JC & THE TREE

ADAM-JAMES

CIRCUS TRIBE CO OP

SAM BANNICK

TROPICALIA DANCE STUDIO

HENRY CANTINA

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