Holly Throsby presents See!

The way Holly Throsby describes it, the making of her album of children's songs, See!, sounds like a kids' party for grown-ups. “I recorded it in this beautiful little church down in the Southern Highlands," she tells Time Out. "We started it in the summer at the beginning of 2010. It was really hot, sunny and beautiful at the church and lots of people came down to play and camped over in the yard, and I slept in the kitchen! There was only really one big room and that was where Tony [Dupe, the album's producer] had a loft bed. It had a really fun atmosphere to it.”

Throsby’s goddaughter, Maeve, was her inspiration for the record. “She’s one of the kids on the cover of the album. She’s five now, and her little brother Max is three. Listening to them and spending time with them is so inspirational. The lack of filter in their imagination is really interesting.” See! is an album about the natural world, with songs about fish, mice, rabbit, lions and tigers. “I wanted it to have this real sense of wonder. The world is such an exciting place when you’re a kid so I wanted to focus on the world as well as things that kids actually say.”

Throsby's world isn't lacking in wonderment at the moment. When Time Out spoke to her she was rehearsing for the Finn Brothers tribute concert before joining Sally Seltmann and Sarah Blasko on the national Seeker Lover Keeper tour. Performing See! at the Sydney Festival will tie everything up before a long, well deserved break. “It will be really interesting to play See! live,” she says. “I’m having a lot of fun figuring out how we’re going to do the sound effects on the record without having to rely too much on sampled sounds.”

See! is not solely focused on young listeners. “The record is also aimed at parents. There’s a song at the end of the album called 'Always Be Young' which is the most grown-up song on the album and I play it at my own shows a lot because people really like it. The one thing I didn’t want this record to be was patronising in any way. I don’t like any art made for children that talks down to them, so I tried to think like a kid, rather than talk to a kid. Kids understand a lot of stuff.”