Spotlight falls on Kylie songwriter Lindsay Rimes

Songwriter Lindsay Rimes has received the overseas achievement award at the APRAs.

Australian songwriter Lindsay Rimes at Melbourne Town Hall. Picture: David Geraghty

Soon after he met Kylie Minogue for the first time, Sydney-born songwriter Lindsay Rimes was co-writing and producing a song named Golden, which would become the title track of the Australian pop singer’s 14th studio album and the name of her world tour.

“Kylie had a very clear vision for that title,” says Rimes. “She was turning 50, she hadn’t made a record for a long time, and she wanted it to be a very uplifting song that people in her demographic — who had grown with her — could relate to: ‘We’re not old, we’re golden’.”

For Rimes, who has spent the past four years based in Nashville, Tennessee, that chart-topping collaboration with Minogue is among several reasons he received the overseas achievement prize yesterday at the annual APRA Music Awards, which celebrate excellence in Australian songwriting.

In the US, he has worked with country music stars such as Kane Brown and Tyler Rich. But if Rimes’s name is unfamiliar, that’s simply the nature of his chosen career: where singers and musicians are the ones parading before crowds and cameras, his role demands the precise opposite.

“I don’t crave the spotlight — I’m really more of a behind-the-scenes guy, and I like it that way,” he says.

Last night at Melbourne Town Hall was a chance for those backroom operators to soak up the adulation usually reserved for the Minogues of this world. At the 37th APRA Music Awards, song of the year went to Gold Coast singer-songwriter Amy Shark for I Said Hi, while Grammy-nominated artist Sarah Aarons was named songwriter of the year.

After working with the likes of Tina Arena and The McClymonts in Australia, Rimes took a risk by relocating overseas with his wife, Danielle Blakey, who also works as a songwriter and producer.

“Nashville’s the most competitive music town in the world,” he says. “If you’re not trying to be great, or are great, at what you do, I don’t think you’re going to pro­gress because you’re in a big pond.”

His musical success came at the expense of a promising career as a rugby union fullback, cut short 20 years ago after suffering a knee injury playing for NSW Waratahs under-21s against Japan.

“That was a blessing in disguise because it forced me to make a decision about what I wanted to do,” Rimes says.