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STORY BY MAHMOOD FAZEL, PHOTOS BY @INKDFOTOGRFA.DAYLESFORD

“You've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut,” writes Johnny Cash. “And you've got to make them think that you're one of them sitting out there with them too.”

As singer-songwriter Sean Dixon strums his guitar, his voice welcomes you into his past. On live stream videos he posts online, Sean stands barefoot with shaggy hair that sways as he wrestles with his guitar and cries out a poetic lament. “I can only do the best that I can,” sings Sean, “I find it hard to know what it is to be a man.”

His experience of live music began behind the scenes. “I grew up going with my dad to live shows. He was a sound engineer. I would help him set up and help control the lights for the performances,” explains Sean. “I always loved being around the stage and the equipment.” Although his parents raised him on records by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Santana and The Kinks, whose echoes can be heard in the rhythms and words that Sean distills, his real inspiration came from somewhere else.

Having been born in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Sean quickly learnt that the world offered more than one stage. “My mother gave me the gift of travel from a very young age. My earliest memories are walking around Kathmandu, staying in monasteries, and living for a time in a small village in Thailand - at the age of 10,” says Sean. “Travel has given me a wider sense of the world and an understanding of many different cultures and their traditions.”

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In 2015, Sean and his partner Sally began fuelling their imagination with adventure. “I had been travelling and volunteering at schools, orphanages and communities throughout India, Thailand and Malaysia. But we had come to a roadblock - we felt we had more to explore but with limited funds we didn't know what to do.” Together, they decided to embrace the unknown. After booking the cheapest flights they could find to Europe, they landed in Stockholm.

“We hitchhiked everywhere and stayed at a number of different farms and workaways, trading our work for food and accommodation. The only money we allowed ourselves to spend was going to be the money I received from busking on the street.” Sean nostalgically remembers, “My first day of busking in Stockholm was a really wonderful experience. I was so nervous before I started, I had to draw inspiration from other musicians. I played the Beatles, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Jack Johnson. I started busking again for the first time in 5 years. And I began to find my voice with music.”

When musicians find their voice, they have a transcendental ability that fuses our emotions into something sonic. Whether it’s Miles Davis sliding between temperaments, the triumph of Wagner or Neil Young’s electric atmosphere - funnelled through their experiences, musicians becomes artists that deal in feelings.

“I thought deeply about my intentions for playing music. Who was I doing it for? What was I doing it for? Who's approval was I seeking? When I was able to feel the answers to these questions, and know that my intention was pure it gave me the courage to share myself with the public. I had to go within and trust the inner journey. I was bringing light to a darkened space.”

When Sean moved back to Australia, his musical journey evolved from playing at markets to gigs and music festivals. This year, Sean will be performing live on February 23rd at Flanagan's hotel in Bacchus Marsh and on the 28th of February at the Holgate Brewhouse in Woodend.

SEAN DIXON MUSIC, @SEANDIXONMUSIC