Five places that made me: The Go-Betweens' Robert Forster

Brisbane was my birth place, and I didn't leave town until I was 22. Brisbane is all to do with the suburbs, as the centre of town is rather drab and not much goes on there. So I was in the suburbs - green and open-spaced, finding out what I wanted to do with my life and slowly putting the blocks in place to get me out of the city. That came through forming a band – The Go-Betweens – with friend Grant McLennan and both of us wanting to travel.

GLASGOW

We landed there in April 1980 and met a group of people involved with music who were far more motivated than those we'd known in Brisbane. The city was beautiful and quaint in an antique store kind of way, particularly in comparison to the broad roads and modernism of our home town. Glasgow was where I learnt about ambition, and encountered people who were so funny in manner and deeds that I thought my stomach would rupture. I laughed and learnt.

MELBOURNE

The band visited the city over a few years in the early 80s and lived there for a six-month stretch. Melbourne was a night time town – everyone was waiting for the sun to go down. To dress up and find what was to be found out there in the shadows and bright lights. I was startled by its sophistication, and immediately knew I had to become more confident and outgoing if I was to survive. I also had to write better songs than I'd been writing and Melbourne gave me that – the strength to push on with my work, in an atmosphere that was dangerous and inspiring.

LONDON

A tough town if you don't have money, and for the five years I lived there with The Go-Betweens through the 80s, my pockets were empty. I liked the city though. It's a town with many newspapers, the constant chatter of ideas and theories on the radio, and a history of books and writers that goes back centuries that you can still sniff or envisage in the rainy streets. You eat kebabs, drink bad beer, but there's a crackle in the air – it's ideas, arguments, and great songs and prose that the world gets to hear. You might not like living there, but for a time you have to.

REGENSBURG

The Go-Betweens are over and I'm in Germany in a medieval town - the largest German city not bombed in the war. To walk down an empty cobblestone street was to know the 18th century. The Danube at a pace flowed through the centre of town. You could relax here and take stock. A good place to hit in your early 30s.

Robert Forster's new book, Grant & I: Inside and outside The Go Betweens (Hamish Hamilton, $35), is out now. See penguinrandomhouse.com.au