Poetry to handwritten versus; Jack Botts headlines Inverloch Equinox Festival

JACK Botts' songs arrive like weathered postcards – small, earnest dispatches from a life spent on the road, in doorways and on late-night pub stages.

Born in Brisbane and schooled along the coastline of northern New South Wales, Jack converted a private love of poetry into a self-taught guitar practice, busking his way into listeners' hearts and eventually, stages around the world.

On March 21, Jack will immerse himself in the crowd, down south at the Equinox Festival in Inverloch with a merchandise tent - signing vinyls and meeting fans, before bringing an intimate performance, where each lyric feels like a personal conversation you’ve been waiting to have.

In an interview with Jack, he shared that he’s especially fond of community festivals where the kids kick-start the dancing and keep the parents in check, making sure they join in and feel the music.

For an artist who started busking, waiting for a response from the crowd, Jack said these events are a reminder of those days. A reminder that music grows organically from private lines on a page to songs that travel the world, and that’s what Jack will bring to Inverloch – a set of songs shaped by place, travel and observation.

Jack’s route into music wasn’t a straight line. As a kid, he wasn’t too phased about music. “I kind of played for myself, but I was massively into sport,” he said, but once Jack turned 18, he soon realised that he could play in pubs and bars, and his music career took off from there.

Beginning with poetry on private pages, Jack said it was something he did for himself, but then, after one guitar lesson and learning that he’d prefer to be self-taught, Jack quickly adapted from poetry to songwriting. “I needed a little more structure, so I began learning to write verses, choruses and bridges,” he said. “Once I learnt to play my own music, I was pretty excited to share it, and that’s when I started busking.”

With private language of poetry behind Jack's songwriting, that later folded into song form, busking became both rehearsal and litmus test – an intimate gauge of what resonated with people. “The street gives blunt feedback – people either stop and listen or they don’t,” said Jack.

This helped him sharpen his craft and gave him the confidence to take it further. “If people stopped and had a listen, we’ll, that’s the best thing that can happen,” he said. “You knew it was working.”

That raw, diaristic impulse remains central to Jack's music. He described his writing nowadays as more of note-taking on the road – capturing moments and revisiting them later.

“A lot of it these last couple of years is remembering where I was and how I was feeling at a certain time,” he said. These places, faces and fleeting encounters have become a narrative for new material.

Tracks like “Gypsy”, with over 13 million listens, Jack said, still seem to feel fresh to him. “I still love playing this song, and I love how people react to it. Equally, the vulnerability in songs like “Hand Me Down Heart” demonstrates his openness to revisit past feelings with more perspective and resonate with listeners. “When you’re in the throes of love, it’s easy,” said Jack, “but afterwards there’s sweetness and hopefulness in that vulnerability.”

As Jack heads to the south coast for the Equinox Festival in Inverloch, he brings a catalogue of songs, both old and new releases, that invite the crowd to stop, listen, dance and stay a little while, to resonate with his melodies that’ll easily become their favourites.