Songwriter’s Biography: September 2008
Patrick Faherty is a 52 year old Australian who only began song writing in 1998 and recorded his first CD album in 2002. He has no formal training in music and is self taught with guitar and song writing.
He was born to an Irish father and Australian mother in 1956 in Melbourne, Victoria Australia. His family has a working class background, he was baptised a Roman Catholic and educated in the Roman Catholic Primary and Secondary Education Systems. His Irish father was a non... (+) expand

Songwriter’s Biography: September 2008
Patrick Faherty is a 52 year old Australian who only began song writing in 1998 and recorded his first CD album in 2002. He has no formal training in music and is self taught with guitar and song writing.
He was born to an Irish father and Australian mother in 1956 in Melbourne, Victoria Australia. His family has a working class background, he was baptised a Roman Catholic and educated in the Roman Catholic Primary and Secondary Education Systems. His Irish father was a non practising Roman Catholic and his mother was a non practising Christian Anglican. Between Secondary and Tertiary Education he worked for one year as a forklift driver in a confectionary factory in the North Western Suburbs of Melbourne.
He was tertiary educated at La Trobe University, (Melbourne, Victoria Australia) having achieved a Bachelor of Arts (Social Science) Degree in 1978 and then completed a Bachelor of Social Work Degree from the University of Melbourne, Victoria Australia in 1980.
He pursued a career as a Social Worker in the Mental Health area as he had always been attracted to and fascinated by mental illness. He first worked in an acute unit in a large Mental Hospital in the North East country region of Victoria. This large institution looked after over 1,000 inpatients and covered the mental health areas of Psychiatric illness, long term mental illness, Psycho Geriatric and many dual disability mental retardation patients. He stayed in the country region for 2 years and then dabbled in General Nursing training(to satisfy a hunger for understanding medical knowledge),before returning to Social Work in a Psychiatric Hospital located in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. This hospital serviced the short term psychiatric patient who resided in the Western Suburbs which was populated by a large number of working class people and was home to some 27 different ethnic communities.
During November 1987, Patrick married his life partner Debra after a long evolving courtship. The experience of marriage was one of Patrick's happiest days in his life. Both Patrick and Debra endeavour to grow as individuals and as a married couple. They continue to search for and generate personal happiness.

In 1999 he moved to the non government sector and worked for a Psychiatric Disability Rehabilitation and Support Service in the mid western area of Melbourne. This organisation was administered by a community based Committee of Management whose members were service recipients and people who had an interest in the welfare of people with a psychiatric disability.
In 2008, Patrick moved away from direct service and to work for a Material Resource and Recovery Centre located in the North Western suburbs of Melbourne. This industry is administered by a non government organisation which service the needs of adults who have an intellectual disability. Currently, some of Patrick’s work colleagues are people who have mental health, intellectual disability, drug and or alcohol problems. Although no longer a support worker he continues to take an interest in his fellow workers who battle with their various conditions.
His song writing began in 1998. He enjoyed dabbling with words to describe his observations on life and his moods which were evoked by his observations. Putting these words into poetry was a natural progression and finding the music which emerged from the poetry became his preferred way of creating a song. The vast majority of Patrick’s songs are created from his poetry only a small number originate from a tune.
Patrick is inspired by the absurdity of life and how people deal with these absurdities. Many of us do not know why we are here or where we will go to after this life has ended. He is inspired by people who continue the struggle to live a good life, despite the destructive forces that are found in human nature. He values friends who have touched his life and contribute to the growth of friendship. After experiencing the oppressive side of Roman Catholicism in his younger years he sees himself as an independent liberal Christian who is not dependent on a formal Church and feels that such historical characters as Budda and the Prophet Mohammad are kindred spirits to Jesus Christ. Patrick would like to take on the stage name of Rumi who was a 13th Century Sufi Islamic poet and mystic who beckoned people to freedom with just two tantalizing lines:
“Out beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing there is a field –
I’ll meet you there.”
Patrick remains suspicious of the structures which society develops to organise its population, he knows that social structures are needed to avoid chaos but often these structures damage, betray and oppress human beings; the collateral cost to an ever increasing complex society.
Patrick’s musical influences have always been singer songwriters. Being brought up in the 1960s and 1970s,artists who come to mind are the likes of Bob Dylan, Lennon & McCarthy, Paul Simon, Jagger & Richards, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Jim Crocce, Bob Seger, Harry Chapin, Brian Cadd, Cat Stevens, Neil Young, James Taylor,Prince,Carol King, Joan Armatrading, Carly Simon, Tracy Chapman and Alanis Morissette. He always thought that he had a flair for story telling and poetry so a very long natural progression to song writing finally emerged during the late 1990s. Patrick had never considered himself as a vocalist and if anything just an average rhythm guitarist.He pursued and discovered a pleasant enough voice with an increasing improvement in his guitar work. His voice developed with much practice and with listening to a tuned guitar.
The material which inspires Patrick to write songs comes from the essence of life. His 52 years have taught him that life is to be experienced and lived and mostly not to be understood. Often it makes no human sense particularly around the themes of pain and suffering.When you add human beings into this mix one gets a very complicated mixture which can be described as absurdity. Patrick is attracted to black comedy and can usually find a laugh in all aspects of life. Patrick enjoys describing his observations of life and the emotions which are evoked in him when experiencing these observations.
Patrick likes to believe that his poetry captures his observations and experiences of life and his music stamps these impressions onto your memory. You will identify with the pictures of his words and remember them as his tunes ring in your mind. (-) collapse