William Fitzsimmons

Since I started writing this column I’ve spoken to some incredible artists and heard some amazing background stories, but none more so than recently when I had the opportunity to speak with American singer-songwriter William Fitzsimmons. William grew up in Pennsylvania with two blind parents, both of whom were also musicians, then went on to work as a mental health therapist and finally made the gigantic leap to become a full time musician.

Obviously growing up with two musicians as parents meant music was always around William, and the fact that his parents were blind only heightened its importance for the family. “Music was a very important part of their lives, from my experience that is pretty common in the blind community because you use your ears more and there is nothing better for the ears than music,” explained William. “I don’t remember a time that I wasn’t involved in music, whether I wanted to be or not, it was always there.”

As William matured he took the experiences and difficulties from his childhood and funnelled them into working as a mental health therapist for six years. “The notion of rescuing other people sounded good, but for me and I think a lot of my peers, especially the most aware practitioners in the field, it was really about trying to figure out our own sicknesses and what was going on in our head first,” said William. “I loved the therapy thing, it was really fulfilling but it was also really hard work and took a pretty heavy emotional toll.”

During his entire life music was always there for William “as a way to get away” so it was a natural progression when his hobby began to burgeon into a potential career. “Music was never really a thing, I never had illusions or a great desire to get up on stage, so it was surreal when people wanted to buy my record because I was literally printing blank CD-R’s on my home computer and sending them out when I got cheques in the mail,” he explained. “I had a taste for something that was exciting in a different way to all my previous work as a psychologist, and I think the little kid with the blind parents that never got to do anything liked the idea of travelling the world.”

When asked how he was feeling ahead of his first Australian show, William said: “Very early on I remember getting a lot of MySpace messages from Australia and I thanked them by taking ten years to get over there, but I can sincerely say I’m more excited to go to these shows than I have been in a while.”

Feb 9. Newtown Social Club, 387 King St, Newtown. $49+b.f. Tickets & info: newtownsocialclub.com