Goals that hit the right note

When Shane Searls was in his early 20s, he rocked up to the offices of a Melbourne radio station to hand over a track he’d recorded with a $5 microphone.

The song, called Gateway to Life, ended up being played on Fox FM several times in 1996.

And while music continued to be a passion, Shane moved on and ended up pursuing a career as a landscape gardener.

But he continued to work on his own “new-age rock-pop” tunes in his spare time.

And when Shane was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease about five years ago, music became increasingly important in his life as a creative outlet.

“I have been writing now for over 25 years and a lot of my songs are on (music website) ReverbNation - that’s the story of my life,” he said.

“To write songs about (things that have happened in my life) - it was my therapy.

“A lot of it is about my wife, because I love her so much.”

Shane also wrote a song called Our baby when his wife was pregnant and Dahlah's song about his daughter.

A client with InLife since last year, one of Shane’s personal goals was to work on recording his music.

He composes, sings, produces and is responsible for the sound engineering.

Shane has recently been able to boost the production quality of his tunes with new software.

“I have turned my songs into masterpieces, you can hear the piano properly,” he said.

“Music has been the most therapeutic and rewarding thing - although sometimes it doesn't feel like it! You spend a lot of years practising and learning.”

Still, the desire to be heard that drove Shane to ask that radio station manager for some airplay all those years ago, remains strong.

“You love doing this (music) and you also have something inside you that wants to share it with other people,” he said.

Shane is now working on an album called Road to Recovery due to be released on Spotify later this year.

Listen to Shane’s music on ReverbNation here.