Five places that made me: Emily Lubitz, singer-songwriter

ZIMBABWE

My Dad grew up in Zimbabwe. I remember, as a child, camping by the Zambezi river on safari, buying baskets and soap stone sculptures by the side of road and making friends with the kids of the hired help who lived at the bottom of the garden of my cousin's house. When I finished high school I returned and spent a year exploring the continent. The majesty of Africa was under my skin from the beginning.

JERUSALEM

I spent seven weeks in Jerusalem when I was 23, studying at a biblical seminary. Leonard Cohen often referenced Jewish liturgy so I thought I'd see if I could find anything song-worthy. I would walk five kilometres to class every morning listening to Rufus Wainwright. I ate buckets of fresh figs from the shook (market) and unbeatable falafel. Israel was at war with Lebanon and people were streaming into Jerusalem to take shelter from the rockets in the north. There was a strange energy in the city. I witnessed a country that is strangely and sadly accustomed to being in a state of war. Everyone was getting on with their lives, with one eye glued to the news.

DARWIN

Darwin was the genesis of Tinpan Orange. We would travel up from Melbourne in the dry season to busk at the markets and play in bars. We would play seven gigs a week and, unlike in the big cities, we got paid. We made friends with the locals, swam in the waterholes, ate $5 laksas and mango smoothies and we hardly wore shoes.

NEW YORK

The guy that I had just started dating met me in New York for 10 days. NYC was all it promised to be: cabs and pastrami sandwiches, the best buskers and the tallest buildings, taking a subway one stop too far and ending up in amazing Harlem, bars that used to be speakeasys and summer in Central Park. I felt like I was in a Seinfeld episode or a Woody Allen film. I did a couple of gigs with the guy that I was dating at a little venue called The Living Room in the East Village, a place where Norah Jones used to play. I ended up marrying the guy.

CANADA

My first overseas tour after having a baby was supporting The Cat Empire through Canada. Our son was eight months old. We started in Montreal and ended in Vancouver, stopping in 15 cities along the way. We travelled and slept in a Winnebago. We'd leave town after the show and drive into the night, pulling over to sleep wherever we could. I would get up with the baby in the morning, stuff him in my jacket and leave the rest of the band to sleep in the truck while I walked along the highway to find a coffee shop. I loved those mornings. Sometimes it would snow. Then we'd keep driving to the next show.

Tinpan Orange, the Australian folk band Emily Lubitz shares with her brother, tours the country in March. See tinpanorange.com