INTERVIEW: Alice Ivy and Telenova's Angeline Armstrong on new SongHubs documentary: "I love a collaborative spirit and seeing multiple people bring the best of themselves."
Telenova image: APRA AMCOS
Alice Ivy image: Ian Laidlaw
Published: 4 June 2025
This article was written in collaboration with APRA AMCOS
At it’s core, APRA AMCOS is an Australian and New Zealand organisation that manages music rights for songwriters, composers and publishers, but it also plays an integral role in supporting and promoting Australian artists through its many programs.
One of their flagships initiatives is the SongHubs writing camps, and to celebrate its 100th session, a brand new documentary SongHubs: A Story on Collaboration has been released that explores and celebrates the stories of the many artists across Australia, Aotearoa and globally that have taken part in the program.
First launched in 2013, SongHubs brings together published and unpublished writers and mentors to create music, and has evolved over time from a songwriting camp to a collaborative program that provides career support and advice, networking, and development of new skills as well as writing songs.
Over the 100 sessions to date, It has provided opportunities for over 2,000 songwriters across 30 countries, with over 6,000 songs created in multiple different languages. And the results have been tangible - more than 200 songs have been released that have generated over $6 million in royalties.
Some of Australia and Aotearoa’s most notable performers have participated in a SongHubs session, including Briggs, CHAII, Courtney Barnett, GFlip, Bic Runga, Theia, Lindsay Rimes, Sarah Aarons and Troye Sivan.
Notable success stories include the formation of Melbourne band Telenova, fronted by Angeline Armstrong , at a 2020 SongHubs after they were thrown into a room together as complete strangers to write a song. The band went on to sign with EMI and attract critical acclaim, with their debut album Life is a Flower peaking in the top 30 of the ARIA Album Chart last year. Ivor Novello nominated singer-songwriter and producer Joran Rakei was inspired to write his album The Loop after a 2022 SongHubs event, with the album becoming his first to break the top 40 on the UK charts.
“SongHubs provides a collaborative learning experience like no other that opens up opportunities for songwriters that they may not otherwise have the access to,” Adam Townsend, Director of Writer Services at APRA AMCOS, says. “Being able to celebrate the story so far and the incredible success of songwriters who have taken part in the documentary is fantastic as we look forward to the future with the latest iterations of the event just announced in Australia and the US including Brisbane, Nashville and Sydney.”
Songhubs: A Story of Collaboration features interviews with Telenova, Alice Ivy, Bic Runga, AR/CO, Jordan Rakei and more. As well as providing a glimpse into the creative world of songwriting, the artists speak of their experiences at SongHubs, how it instilled in them the value of collaboration, and in most cases how it fundamentally changed their career for the better. It is an inspiring, and at times moving, documentary that will change the way you look at the creative process, and will also provide any aspiring songwriters and artists with tips to bring into your own craft.
Women In Pop recently sat down with former SongHubs participants Angeline Armstrong and Alice Ivy to find out more about the program. Armstrong is the lead singer of Telenova, who released their debut album Time Is A Flower last year and have toured extensively both within Australia and overseas. Alice Ivy is an ARIA-nominated artist, songwriter, and producer who has accumulated over 100 million streams Her 2019 single with Ecca Vandal ‘In My Mind’ was used in a global Apple iPhone advertising campaign, and last year she released her third album Do What Makes You Happy.
Hi Angeline and Alice, thank you for taking the time to chat with Women In Pop. You both feature in the new APRA AMCOS SongHubs documentary talking about your experience with the program. What was the process that lead to you attending SongHubs?
Alice Ivy: I was super lucky enough to be invited by M-Phazes who was curating a camp on the Gold Coast in 2023 as a special guest producer. As soon as I got the call I was like hell yeah, I'm in! I love collaborating and the camp environment, I feel like I write my best stuff when I'm super tired, in a new session every day and surrounded by very talented people.
Angeline Armstrong: I was at a bit of a loose end with music actually. I had been in a duo with a friend from LA that was breaking up - a really difficult time for us both but also I think we learnt and grew a lot from the project, but it left me feeling quite disillusioned about pursuing music ‘professionally’. I just saw the SongHubs opportunity, and that Chris Walla from Death Cab For Cutie was curating it, and applied because the idea of getting to meet some different and new musicians sounded like a nice experience - I really didn’t know what else was going to come out of it or even if music was still something that was going to be such a big part of my life…
Sounds funny to say now, but even after meeting Ed and Josh at SongHubs and just falling in love with the creative spark we all shared as a trio, I still thought, ‘wow maybe I’ll get to play the odd pub show with these guys and occasionally write some songs and that’ll scratch the music itch’. Had no idea we’d end up touring as consistently as we have, or touring overseas and releasing the amount of music we have! It’s been a wild ride!
It must be daunting at the best of times to turn up at a studio and be expected to write a song, but at SongHubs I imagine the pressure must be greater as you could be writing with people who are complete strangers, and have to produce something in a very short period of time. While it is ultimately an extremely rewarding experience, did it come with any intimidation or nerves for you?
Alice Ivy: Of course, it always does, even though I've been doing this for a fair while now. It's a similar feeling to when you're having a meeting with someone you've never met before at a café to talk business or something. First you try and recognise what they look like when you walk in, then you hope you get along and everything runs smoothly, haha! It's normal to feel like that, and it's always good to remember that everyone else in the room is probably feeling the same way.
Angeline Armstrong: I actually thrive off working with other people far more than on my own, so mostly I was just energised by the opportunity and so grateful that I’d been selected to be a part of it! Being alone in a room with my thoughts and insecurities with the pressure to create (and like what I create) is terrifying and often unproductive for me! I love a collaborative spirit and seeing multiple people bring the best of themselves and their unique strengths and then watching that all play out to make something they would’ve never made on their own. I find other people infinitely interesting - everyone brings such a different process and sensibility and wealth of ideas and experiences. It’s fun to mix it up like that.
A number of writers in the SongHubs documentary speak of the joy they get from writing in collaboration with other artists, and in particular you Angeline speak about how Telenova now write nearly all of your songs together. After SongHubs, do you feel you now work more effectively as a writer in collaboration with others as opposed to doing it on your own?
Angeline Armstrong: I would say the creative output speaks for itself in our case! For me the self-doubt and insecurity about my own work has been pretty debilitating in the past - but now, when you’ve got three people in the room, not everyone has to be having a good day, you know? Someone might be feeling really stuck and uncreative, but then you’ve got two other people in the room to start building something and eventually you can’t help but get dragged into that and be inspired by your bandmates. There are still moments in the songwriting process where I feel I need to be alone to nut things out, like with the song ‘January’ off our debut album Time Is A Flower, the lyrics are intensely personal and there’s no way I could’ve written them in the studio with the boys that day - instead they kind of tumbled out of me on the car ride home, scrawled onto an old receipt, after I’d pulled over on the curb and started balling my eyes out. There’s still sacred spaces where it needs to be just you. I think there’s a certain vulnerability that needs the space to just be alone. But collaboration is definitely my preference - especially when it’s more of the ‘just show up and try and create’ kind of mentality needed to sustain a career.
Alice Ivy: Collaboration has always been at the core to my artist project. It’s such an amazing feeling when you get to share the songwriting process with other people, and you’re all working together on something super exciting.
What was your greatest takeaway from your time at SongHubs?
Alice Ivy: How many exceptionally talented artists we have in Australia that are potentially being slept on.
Angeline Armstrong: There’s a special kind of magic in the creative chemistry that comes from having the right people in a room together!
SongHubs has had such an incredible impact on the Australian and New Zealand music scene, why do you think is important for our industry?
Alice Ivy: My first ever SongHubs was back in 2017. I was super fresh to the industry at the time, and it was truly a life changing experience being in the room with much more experienced artists and writers. It gave me a massive wakeup call and made me realise that I needed to level up my skills as a producer and songwriter. It can be a huge stepping-stone for developing artists, songwriters and producers and it also allows the more established ones to tap back into the local scene, which is just so dope!
Angeline Armstrong: I spent some time living and working in LA and what struck me about the creative culture there - especially songwriting - was the free flowing nature of collaboration, sharing of ideas, doing ‘sessions’ together. I feel we’re clinging to this ‘solo singer songwriter solo producer self-managed solo everything’ mentality a bit too tightly, and for what reason? Because we think that makes you a better artist or something? Or maybe we’ve been disappointed because we’ve worked with the wrong people who have stepped on our ideas or turned it into something so far from the vision we initially had. I think the quality of art and music coming out of Australia and New Zealand rises when we open ourselves up to collaborating with people we gel with and allowing them to play to their strengths, so that we’re freed up to play to ours. SongHubs is an amazing opportunity to give musicians a little ‘taste’ of what breaking out of our ‘solo I-need-to-do-this-all-on-my-own’ mentality can be. Most people come out of collaborative songwriting experiences with a new drive to seek out people they get along with creatively and whose ideas they resonate with. Because once you’ve had a taste of it - you realise how powerful that community approach can be to combatting self-doubt, insecurity, writers block. You get to see the talent and gifts in other people and encourage that in them, and they get to do the same for you, and I just think that’s a beautiful way to create and work together, and well, just a beautiful way to live, you know?
What advice do you have for any aspiring songwriters, and for the next round of SongHubs participants?
Angeline Armstrong: Be open minded! Value other peoples’ creativity and ideas. Be free to create and play and try different ways of doing things. Not every song you write has to represent you as an individual completely or feel like the perfect execution of an idea. SongHubs - or even any time you sit down to write a song - can be a chance to just enjoy the process and let whatever comes out, come out. It’s not a big deal if you don’t like the song when you listen back the next day. You can just write another one and your songwriting skills and confidence will be one day stronger than they were before. The more you write, the better your songs will be. So you’ll be a lot happier if you take the pressure off and just enjoy the process.
Alice Ivy: Enjoy the process, be kind and leave your ego at the door, because nobody really likes an ego in the studio!
*To watch the documentary, learn more and register for future SongHubs, visit apraamcos.com.au/songhubs or follow @SongHubs on Instagram.
*Follow Angeline Armstrong and Telenova on on Instagram and Facebook. Read our six page interview with Angeline in issue 16 of Women In Pop magazine, out now.
