I'm happy to admit I've been a fan of Pete Lyon for a long time, for about 30 years in fact since we lived a couple of doors apart in Bruce Hall, long may the old girl rest, in the mid 1980s. You'd hear him on his guitar all hours of the night, playing a little Paul Kelly, maybe some Hunters and Collectors. Forestry student by day, rock god by night.
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As often happens, university finished and we all went our separate ways. And as often happens here in Canberra, 30 years later I run into him at the Lyneham shops. Where have you been all these years? Apparently living around the corner for the best part of it.
Now a humble public servant, with a family, a mortgage, a little greyer, a little older, yet still full of boyish charm.
And still, so it seems, with aspirations of being a rock god.
And this is what this story is about.
Lyon, now 50, is embarking on a 14-week action plan that he's dubbed the 'enhanced local rock-star project'. He's taken long service leave from the Department of Environment and Energy and has picked up the guitar again.
"I see the next few months as a chance to give my music, which has always been second fiddle, to use a really bad pun, in my life, some kind of oxygen, some time on the front burner," he said.
He was talking to his 17-year-old son Gus, an aspiring AFL player, discussing the importance of following your dreams.
"Gus said, 'you have to chase your dreams dad', and I guess that's what I'm doing. At the end of the three months I want to say I've given it a great shot."
It's not that Lyon is a novice, he was a part of The Cashews for several years, singing with Alison Proctor, he's often seen around the inner north with his guitar, he's even recorded a couple of CDs over the years.
But this second wind has filled him with joy.
"Waking up on the first day and thinking, 'you know what, I can do what I like', and this morning just jamming and singing here on my own, singing my lungs out.
"It's about finding that kind of space that the rest of life just doesn't give you a chance to do it if you're working full time and you have a family and all those sorts of things."
You can take the man out of the public service, but you can't take the public service out of the man, so Lyon has a plan.
"I've applied all the things I've learned at work about strategy and goal setting, thought about how I should go about this."
The plan has certain KPIs to tick off: write songs; practice; play live; record, mix, publish; promote; document and reflect.
"I vacillate between really taking everything seriously but also recognising that it's a bit of a joke," he says.
"But that's what still keeps me interested in songwriting, those endless paradoxes that come up in life, that's one of them: you have to take life seriously but you can't take yourself seriously."
Just a week or so in and Lyon can already tick off a couple of markers. Promote, done. It's not what you know in this business. Play live, done. He'll be performing at Smiths Alternative Bookshop on Friday August 4 from 4.30pm. He'll perform some covers of songs written by Canberra musicians Evan Buckley, Julia Johnson, Alison Proctor.
"I want to pay homage to the rich tapestry of Canberra songwriters," he says.
And if any of those Canberra songwriters would like to step up for a session of Live in the Loungeroom, let me know.
