From Canberra to the World: Australian Singer-Songwriter Jack Biilmann Finds Strength in the Stories Behind His Sixth Album
By Stevie Connor | The Sound Cafe Journal
From Australia to the wider world, Jack Biilmann turns a difficult chapter into something lasting
There is a point in every songwriter’s life when the music begins to tell more of the truth than the person writing it perhaps intended. For Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist Jack Biilmann, that moment arrives with Move The Mountains, his sixth studio album and, by his own description, the most important collection of music he has written to date.
Released worldwide on September 25, 2026, the album brings together the blues, rock, country and Americana influences that have shaped Biilmann’s career, but there is something more personal at work here. Move The Mountains reflects a period of change, uncertainty, loss, love and, ultimately, finding firmer ground again.
“I’ll be forever proud of the songs on this record and the journey,” Biilmann says. “I feel like this is the best music I’ve ever written.”
That statement carries some weight when it comes from an artist who has already released five albums, spent years touring and built a career around continually developing as both a musician and songwriter.
At the heart of Move The Mountains is life in Biilmann’s thirties, the triumphs and disappointments that arrive with getting older, the changing nature of relationships, heartbreak, betrayal, appreciation and the independent spirit that has long been part of his musical identity.
There is plenty of musical ground covered across the album, but it is the honesty behind the songs that gives the record its character. Perhaps nowhere is that more evident than on “Dark Days.”
Biilmann wrote the song during an extraordinarily difficult twelve-month period in which life seemed to keep adding another weight to an already heavy load. He and his wife experienced two miscarriages. His wife underwent a cancer procedure while pregnant. His father was diagnosed with motor neuron disease. A close friend was diagnosed with cancer, while the painful end of a friendship brought its own sense of betrayal and disappointment.
Those experiences could easily have produced a song concerned only with darkness. Instead, “Dark Days” comes from the other side of that experience.
Today, Biilmann is the father of a baby boy, his wife is healthy, his father’s condition is stable, and the circumstances around him have changed. The song therefore becomes more than a record of suffering. It becomes a reflection on what happens when you eventually find your way through a period that once seemed impossible to navigate.
Musically, that journey is reflected in the arrangement. Sparse and vulnerable passages give way to moments of greater intensity, with layered instrumentation, raw vocals and guitar helping to carry the emotional weight of the story. It is songwriting that asks the listener to pay attention, not because it demands sympathy, but because it comes from a place of genuine experience.
Biilmann has always viewed songwriting as a way of sharing the stories that have made him feel something, rather than simply constructing songs for the sake of having songs.
“I always write with the intention to share stories that have made me feel something,” he explains. “The goal was to tell these stories, write the most appropriate and thoughtful lyrics I could, use my voice and guitar to expose the emotions behind each song, and lean on my band to get the most out of each track.”
That approach is evident across the album.
From the opening “Outlaw” through “Forbidden Fruit,” “Never Have It All,” “(Not) Easy To Love,” “Feelin’ The Burn,” “Dark Days” and “Slithered,” Move The Mountains moves through relationships, independence, uncertainty and the experiences that shape us along the way. The title track adds another dimension to the record, while “Haze On The Highway” and “These Are The Days” bring the album towards its conclusion.
There is a sense throughout the record that Biilmann is not trying to tidy everything up. Life rarely offers that luxury. Instead, the songs seem to acknowledge that happiness and disappointment can exist alongside one another, sometimes within the same chapter and occasionally within the same song.
That honesty has been part of a career built the old-fashioned way, through hard work, touring, writing, performing and continuing to develop his craft. Millions of streams, national chart success, major festival appearances and relationships with guitar brands including Fender and Maton have helped establish his reputation both in Australia and beyond. Praise from blues icon Joe Bonamassa has added another significant voice to the growing recognition of his work.
But numbers, endorsements and accolades can only tell part of a musician’s story. The songs tell the rest.
With Move The Mountains, Biilmann appears particularly interested in telling that story as honestly as he can. The album does not attempt to hide the difficult chapters behind the successes. Instead, those experiences have become part of the music, giving the songs a sense of perspective that can only come from having lived through them.
The album’s title takes on another meaning in that context. Moving mountains is not necessarily about one dramatic moment when everything changes. Sometimes it is simply about continuing forward when circumstances are difficult, and recognising only later how much has changed.
For Biilmann, the circumstances are now considerably different from the ones that informed some of these songs. A difficult chapter has become a source of songwriting. Pain has become perspective. And experiences that once seemed impossible to carry have found a place within ten songs.
The difficult moments have not disappeared, but they have been given a voice.
Currently touring Australia, Biilmann is taking Move The Mountains to audiences across his home country, with plans for a United States tour in 2027.
From Canberra, via Nashville and now towards a wider international audience, Jack Biilmann’s latest chapter is being shared through the songs he has written, the musicians who helped bring them to life, and the experiences that gave them their meaning.
The most meaningful records are often the ones that acknowledge what was difficult, recognise what has changed, and keep moving forward.
Move The Mountains is one of those records.
The Sound Cafe Journal
Where the story behind the music matters.
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