We recently connected with Michael Saleta and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

This is the story behind the song “Stronger Now”

Back in late 2003, living in Melbourne Australia, my friend Linley Huguenin who was a survivor of the Bali bombings in 2002, asked if I could write a song for one of the other survivors, Nicole McLean. Nicole was asked to sing a song as a part of a 60 minutes special for the 1 year anniversary and wanted her own song over a cover.
I wasn’t sure how writing a song for Nicole was going to turn out, but thought, yeah, I can do that. I love writing songs and maybe I can write something that can connect with her and help her share her story.
I knew what it was like to go through pain and loss from my mum passing so I took those emotions and wrote a song called “Stronger Now”. I showed it to my friend Lynley, who liked it and she was excited to show Nicole.
As soon as Nicole heard it she was moved by the music and lyrics. Nicole commented that the song really spoke to her and she felt it was a song for all the people who had lost somebody in Bali. It was a song about mourning and Nicole’s experience from the bombing.

Nicole sent my worktape version of the song to Katherine Bonella who was a producer at 60 minutes, she loved it and thought it was perfect. 60 minutes needed a better recording of the song and needed Nicole singing, so I asked my friend Dean Thomas, who was a producer at a major Melbourne radio station Fox FM to help us. Dean got the recording done with Nicole’s vocals ready for 60 minutes. We also decided to get some CDs of the song pressed for family and friends so they could have copies.

Nicole did a film clip for the song with 60 minutes for the special which aired in October of 2003. After the show went to air there were lots of enquiries about how to get a copy of the song. As It was only available on cd, we had a lot of mail outs.

On the day of the anniversary Nicole and I were asked to perform “Stronger Now” at a memorial at the Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne. People were moved by Nicole’s courage and her performing the song touched people deeply.

The 60 minutes special went to air that night and the next day Nicole got a call from the people who were organizing the following week’s ceremony at Parliament House, Canberra. (That’s the equivalent to performing at The Whitehouse in Washington). They asked her to perform the song at the event and Nicole asked me to accompany her. The next week we travelled to Canberra to perform.

It was heartbreaking but somehow the song I wrote in my bedroom has touched so many lives and in some way I know it has helped them on the road to recovering from such a hard time.

In 2012 Nicole released a book, also titled “Stronger Now” about her extraordinary journey from that fateful night. One of the chapters feature the story of the song I wrote “Stronger Now”.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Growing up in my small country town Longford, Victoria Australia, Country and Rock n Roll music was a staple in our house, spinning on the old record player, because my mom was a rock n roll dancer and a few of her brothers were musicians. I picked up my first guitar at age 12 and haven’t put it down since. At 16, I started my first band, Phoenix Rose.

Pheonix Rose (It was spelt incorrectly to make it work on our banner) led to my next band, Innocent. Innocent’s biggest success was being the support act for The Screaming Jets, as well as releasing a recorded album which was released on cassette. After succeeding in our hometown, Innocent moved to the big smoke of Melbourne, Australia, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Longford. Unfortunately, that adventure was short-lived as Innocent broke up within six months of the big move. Next, Christian Klaus(lead guitarist from Innocent) and I formed Tribal Scream. As Tribal Scream, we recorded a single at studio 52, which was featured on rural radio and TV. Tribal Scream later went on to be known as Cheyenne performing at many of Melbourne’s top live venues. In January 1995, Cheyenne became a contestant on a popular Australian TV show, Channel 9’s Pot of Gold. Over the next few years I was in and out of a couple of different bands with Christian mostly writing songs that never really saw the light of day outside of the living room or rehearsal studio.

In 2001, I joined Melbourne band Square One, who in 2004/2005 signed a recording contract in U.K & Japan for their debut album Supersonic. The lead song from that album was featured on FOX FM, a prominent commercial radio station. Square One played at the last ever FOX FM beach concert in front of 10,000 people. Following this success, we supported artists such as Toto, Taxiride, Killing Heidi, Jimmy Barnes, Hanson, Eric Martin (Mr Big). Post this success due to differences in management opinions, I left to form Someone Else’s Life. My songwriting skills came into play with our original song “How Does it Feel”, featured through major Australian radio stations. Following this, we were chosen to be the act for Thirsty Merc’s Australian tour.

In 2003, I wrote and recorded the song “Stronger Now” for Bali Bombing survivor Nicole McLean.
Fast forward to 2017, after being a club DJ, a Children’s Entertainer, a Music Teacher/Mentor and in the cover duo’s with Christian Klaus in Mid-Life Crisis and Sandee Facy for Detroit.5, I reconnected with a mate, Steve Gordjin, who I was in the band “Innocent” with back in the 90’s. Steve had decided to move to Nashville to open a cafe and try his hand in music management, which piqued my interest and research into what Nashville had to offer for a musician/songwriter. This, in turn, helped reignite my passion for songwriting and in 2018 I became a member of Nashville Songwriters Association (NSAI) .
This was the beginning of my songwriter journey.
2019 brought on two trips to Nashville to see if Nashville was really the next step in my life and to pursue professional songwriting. After those successful trips, I began co-writing with people from Canada to New York, Nashville and Australia through Skype. All before Zoom became the norm throughout the pandemic.
2020 to 2022 has given me the chance to focus on my songwriting as well as working on my ability to track and produce songs. I have had several international cuts as a songwriter, with some key highlights for me having been awarded the Nashville Songwriters Association International’s New Member of the Year 2020. 2021 kicked off with having two songs in the Top 10 for the 2021 CMT 21st Annual NSAI song contest, and both those songs making the NSAI Top 40 presented by The Bob Kingsley Estate.

Since then, I have been nominated several times as a “one to watch” writer on the rise by NSAI and many co-written songs recommended for consideration for NSAI’s Publisher Luncheon and taken for consideration at Pitch to Publisher events in Nashville with such publishing companies as Curb Word Music, Sony Music, Cornman Music. Creative Nation, Warner Chappell, Peer Music and MV2 Entertainment to name a few.
I believe my songwriting is influenced by lots of different styles of music. My vibe in the writers room comes from a mix of Country, Rock and Americana. I bring to the room song ideas/titles, music and melody hooks. I love to have a good vibe in the room so try to keep it fun and upbeat.

My long-term goal is to be a published songwriter and moving to Nashville made sense for this to happen. It hasn’t been easy, but damn it’s worth it.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Finishing a song is rewarding in itself but it’s only one part of it. A song that comes from nothing when you first start and ends up being something special still blows my mind. The next part of that reward is myself or my co writers performing those songs at a writers round. Hearing the song outside of the writers room is cool. Lastly, an artist cutting the song and releasing it to the world is the last reward of writing a song. It’s a great feeling hearing what was once just a guitar and a vocal become fully produced and sent out into the world being listened to by people from all parts of the globe. It really is a good feeling writing a song.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Hearing so many no’s can get you down that’s for sure. When you pitch a lot of the songs you have written and you are buzzed about that song and excited to pitch it and a publisher doesn’t get it or maybe thinks the song isn’t what they are looking for, it can get discouraging. But keeping the faith on a song you believe in is important even if that song has a bad day… I just get back up and keep going because I love it so much. Working so hard with so much unknown in the future is something to look forward to but it also scares me since my wife and I have uprooted our lives from Australia so I can write songs in Nashville.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelsaletamusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaelsaletamusic
• Other: https://linktr.ee/michaelsaletamusic

Image Credits
Main Photo by Chowie (https://www.chowie.com.au/) Photograph at Commodore Grille by Barbara Potter (https://www.barbarapotterphotography.com