But it was the experience of 2018's Artstate Bathurst, and later the annual Peel Jam event, that reinvigorated Love's 'love' of making music, and cut to four years later, he now has at least an album's worth of songs ready to record.

"I remember seeing Jack Fry's performance at one of the Peel Jam events, and felt if he can do it, so can I," Love said.

"After that event, I went home, picked up the guitar for the first time in a decade and I haven't put it down since; I've since written about 50 songs."

Love's renaissance with music has adopted a range of forms already, from rock and roll, to alternative pop, and even hints of punk.

Love is currently working towards an album, which he's in the process of recording with fellow local musician Kris Schubert, who has produced music for a bunch of artists across the region at his O'Connell home studio, The Boatshed.

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The Peel Jam was also the venue where Love said he first came across Schubert.

"He's just as much of a music nerd as I am, and when he asked me to compose a song for the Dreaming of a Green Christmas compilation album, it helped reignite my passion for writing music," he said.

"So I approached Kris about doing some more recording, and we've ended up with about 80-odd minutes worth of demos, which we plan to whittle down to a solid 40 minutes of music for an album."

Love said there'll be quite a variety of genres on show.

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"I've always been a bit of a rock and roller, so there's plenty of slow and fast rock elements," he said.

"I grew up with the punk era, so there's a clear influence there, but there's also touches of jazz and a few ballads."

Love said there's no release date scheduled for his own tunes yet, as they're still in the demo stages, but is now in the process of finalising vocal and acoustic guitar tracks, with drums provided by Tony Bibby, Schubert's The Safety of Life at Sea bandmate.

"In the demo stages, Tony smashed out around 11 songs in a day on drums, it was incredible," he said.

"We're now in the process of discussing what else to add to the album. It's very exciting."

Over the last few years, Love has made it his mission to perform live for as many listeners as possible, whether it be at scheduled gigs, open mic nights or serenading patrons at The Victoria Bathurst: he did this prior to Sir Elton John's landmark local gig in 2020.

Outside his songwriting, Love has regularly endeavoured to see as much live music as possible, with Bathurst having deepened its breadth of original artists over the last few years.

"I just love seeing original music performed, whether it's at a school, a pub or a festival," he said.

"It's quite invigorating to see original musicians getting up and giving it a crack, and while covers have their place, I much prefer listening to originals."

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After two years of disruptions caused by the pandemic, Love said he's looking forward to see how live music picks back up.

"There's so many opportunities for emerging musicians to have a go, such as open mic nights at Jack Duggans on Wednesdays and Sunday afternoons in Berry Park," he said.

"They've helped grow my confidence as a solo performer, and I'm so grateful for the amount of support local musicians give each other in this town."

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