New post fo Your Friends House

One does not simply "grow up". Werd.

"I'm restless.

Things are calling me away. My hair is being pulled by the stars again." - Anais Nin.

It's pretty tumblr to post a quote but this perfectly sums up how I feel at the moment.

It's been a while.....

.....we shouldn't have left you, without a dope beat to step to....AALIYAH REFERENCE ASIDE, (just quietly I don't get why Missy and Timbaland wouldn't be involved with her posthumous album yet Drake and Noah "40" Shebib are, plus did you know Drake has an Aaliyah tatt? Anyway.)

I’m sorry it’s been two months since posts. I’ve had a sort of mental breakdown, I’m probably still in it, I don’t know, I tried to quit my job, my boss didn’t let me (thank fuck) and I’ve started writing for Your Friends House.

I write some personal things on Your Friends House, things I wouldn’t let my friends read yet oddly enough I have no problem with internet strangers peering into my mind.

Here’s a taste:

Bored in Bed with Boys I Dislike

Self-Sabotage: An Anti-Social Sob Story

And a little music piece to lighten the tone hey!

Giselle - Silk (Cosmic Kids remix)

Interview with the Bamboos

Interview with Lance from the Bamboos. It was the cover story that week and a great way to end my internship at the Music Network, with the some of the best and funniest people I've been lucky enough to meet.

A week feels like a lifetime

at the current pace my world is moving. I have something very exciting/terrifying to announce: as of last week, I am the PR bitch/publicist for the Lansdowne!

This has all happened very fast. I applied for a bartender position on Gumtree last Thursday night, got a call on Friday morning to come in for a interview later that day, the boss actually read my resume (people do that these days?..) and offered me the opportunity to do their PR shizz and be part of some big plans, and I’ll do some bartending shifts so I can save up some more $$$ during the mid semester uni break. 

I still can’t fathom that someone would give me a job I didn’t even apply for. That shit CRAY! Usually I have to beg people to give me jobs! I feel privileged to be part of something that has both a student focus and a live music focus so I feel like I can do a good job on that angle; I’m just nervous  I might have overextended myself when I go back to university in July.

On top of uni, I'll still be interning at the Roundhouse, interning one day a week at the Music Network and now publicist-ing at the Lansdowne too. Phew. I need to work out how to manage all of these, I will probably have to do uni part time this semester until I get into the swing of things.

The Lansdowne is a bit of an institution in Sydney for poor students and musos who are just starting out. Two kinds of people I am very familiar with. So I think this is a great fit for all parties involved. Wish me luck!

Long weekend,

schweekend. I couldn't care less. The cold is ridikulus right now. I like listening to the rain, I don't like being in it. It inhibits walking wherever I want to without having to worry about flash flooding on me, I don't like being swathed in clothing and I just want to eat ice cream all year round without freezing my fingers off. Could I complain anymore? Yes, I'm from Sydney. Ah DUH. In honour/hatred for the rain, I've complied a rainy day playlist to make it a bit more tolerable.

LISTEN WITH: hot chocolate, multiple blankets, a window with a view of the miserable outside, someone to cuddle, a heater on full blast, english breakfast tea with milk and two sugars, nutella toast, I like to sit near the speakers so you can feel the bass hum, whatever floats your icy cold winter boat. 

Moan (Trentemoller Remix) by Trentemoller. Equal parts creepy and sexy, the whole seven minutes is hypnotic and those without an attention span need not worry, vocals courtesy of Ane Trolle kick in after 1:10 anyway. Sheesh.

Heading for the Cold by Ernest Ellis. So I may be taking things a bit too literally here but this song makes freezing your butt off sound gloriously warm and lofty. Folk is often too snoozy for my liking but there are some gems (like Ernest Ellis and the Panamas and Steve Smyth) out there.

The Morning by the Weeknd. If the Weeknd is to be believd (what is up with misspelling in music looking at you SBTRKT, MGMT et all), the life of a hedonist sounds delicious. The soundscape-y slow jam and the sort of tender way Abel Tesfaye whispers belies some pretty dark lyrics though, making the Weeknd, whoever/whatever they are, pretty genius in my eyes.

Dreams by Fleetwood Mac. This song is one of my all time favourites, for its' mellow vibe and because I love Stevie Nicks,  but what always sticks to me is the songwriting, especially the line, "Thunder only happens when it's raining, players only love you when they're playing". Were truer words ever spoken? Probably not, at least not in pop music anyway. When you listen to this and "Go Your Own Way" you can only imagine how turbulent the love affair between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham must have been.

Weather With You by Crowded House. Just because it's a perfect song. Plus guitar kinda sounds like a sitar and y'all know how I feel about Bollywood?!!! (Scroll down for that story) And just quietly weather gods please take this weather with you, all the way down to Melbourne preferably.

Well there you go. I kind of skewed towards "golden oldies" towards the end there but hey when in doubt/the car, always listen to WSFM101.7 the great classic hits because sometimes ambient noise/Australian hip hop just don't cut it.

Feeling Bollywood style sounds today

I don't know why. It all started when I heard the new Blood Diamonds song with Grimes, who I have a massive girl crush on. Check her interview with Narduwar she's super adorable. And Blood Diamonds, I actually like that song you did with Das Racist. Seriously! Even though it's not really the Das Racist style, it's the most romantic song a bunch of stoner rappers could ever come up with. I loved it.

Anyway Blood Diamonds + Grimes = "Phone Sex". Extra points for that name! It kinda has that Lykke Li breathy, girly feel vocally, but for some reason the hook simultaneously reminds me of the Vengaboys' "Boom Boom Boom Boom" and BOLLYWOOD. I don't know why. But that Calypso steel drum in the beginning got me so good, the steel drum and cowbell are my favourite percussion gimmicks. The song sounds like something a lovelorn heroine in a Bollywood film would lilting croon, except that Grimes is an indie darling du jour. My sleep deprived brain made that connection, somehow. Grimes does like to wear the #tumblr fashion accessory bindi. Go listen to some "Phone Sex" now.  - - - - - - - - - >

And if this is going to be a Bollywood-inspired sounds post, of course Panjabi MC and Jay Z make a cameo. HOVAAAAA. It's dat R-O-C and we don't stop. 

In other, unrelated Bollywood news today, my friend was mad at me for not going out last night (I was hibernating) so we made plans to have a chill date this arvo. She bailed on me at the time we were supposed to meet and I threw the single, perfect, unblemished flower I bought for her out of apology for last night in the bin as I stomped down King Street.  (Immature? Never....)

Interview with the Last Dinosaurs

Also from a while ago, this is actually the most honest interview I've ever done (err because I'm clearly so "experienced" I'm allowed to throw these titles around now?!!). The Last Dinos were sincerely open and clearly hadn't been media trained yet. We discussed a lot of things, namely love, which didn't make the edit unfortunately but I definitely rate this as a favourite interview.

Read it HERE.

Interview with Example

This was quite a while ago, but hey better late than never, my interview with Example. I feel like this man needs no introduction he's pretty much broken the mainstream. I remember they used to play him on Triple J! How times have changed. Now he's doing stadium/arena tours back in the UK.


Interesting fact: he's practically an Australian. He almost migrated to Australia with his family a couple of years ago, his whole family lives here, parents on the Gold Coast and sister in Sydney. He had his visa ready to go and everything, but just before he was meant to leave he got a record deal. He visits often seeing as how he has the fam and girlfriend here though.


Read more HERE. If only for the quote, "I need to wait for a big, big radio interview to disclose song titles, which you're not".

Interview with Alison Wonderland

My first foray into broadcast journalism to see the light of day. I've tried going beyond words, namely podcasting, but I never found them to my liking. I really liked doing this though it was lots of fun and I'd love to do more. However watching it is pretty painful. So I figure I'll just do them and not watch them!


Alison Wonderland is a babe, sweetheart and can actually DJ. That's the whole package right thurr. She is such a champ, she went straight from the interview, jumped on stage and just mixed no sweat. She's a favourite here at Roundhouse/UNSW uni parties so much so, I'm going to go ahead and name her RH MVP. 


Thank you to vHub, the video production team at UNSW, all students and all talent, you guys actually make this watchable ha!

What have I been up to?....

Not blogging yeah that's what's up! I'm sorry bros and hos, but hey it's not like anyone reads this, probably because I don't update, hence this cyclical process of non-updating and non-readers and just non-life. But I digress. 


I'm on uni break and Roundhouse break for a month, so that leaves me plenty of time to rant at everyone. Plus Game of Thrones Season 2 is over, meaning my life is devoid of meaning. 


I will be updating all my work related things in the days to come. I haven't done as much as I'd like but I'm working on it. It's just so hard when everyone else who writes music is better than you. I feel unworthy to do features and interviews because I've met and know some really stellar music journalists, so while I love doing them, I'm a bit scared to. The standard is high! Or at least higher than most of the music blogs out there. Read the Music Network (shameless plug), the Brag, theMusic.com.au, Drum Media, the comments on Mess + Noise (JKS BABES, their interviews and reviews are legit don't mind the h8rs), inthemix (GOTCHA TWICE!). 


In the meantime, here's an arbitary non-chronological list of things I have done since early February. (Four months between posts?!!! That long?!!!)


- I got to dance on stage during THIS. (Starfuckers at UNSW End of Session June 2012). It was amazing and I can see how this kind of experience can be addictive for artists/musos and their egos. That being said, they were lovely to deal with. SF4LYF. 


- I've gone back to the barre. The ballet barre. It's punishing but rewarding. I think I peaked in my youth with this one though my arabesque is just not what it used to be. 


- I ran a DJ competition that became bigger than what it was (a DJ comp ha! I totally know everyone reading this is laughing at me). A few of them became friends out of the comp, helped each other get gigs at a few venues around Sydney and the winner is flying down to Melbourne for the finals of the National Campus DJ Comp, meaning he has a real chance at the big prize, playing at Stereosonic. Crazy. Not to mention an express ticket through to Your Shot bypassing hundreds of other hopefuls, playing at a Roundhouse uni party and all other prizes, (Pioneer DDJ, Skullcandy headphones, THANK YOU YOUR SHOT AND YO SPONSORS $$$$$$$). It was fulfilling for me to see them all gain something out of it and some of the entrants ended up getting through to Your Shot anyway. So I'm proud of them, plus they jokingly refer to themselves as the "DJ Wolfpack". (I'm chuffed, you're probably disgusted.)


- I got rejected from Channel [V]! I applied to be part of their presenter team, a dream gig for anyone, but was unsuccessful. I still feel like it's a job I could do well and I hold out hope I have maybe two more chances at it during this life time. We'll see. However I don't like the idea of being on TV, I just want to run around interviewing bands I like. 


- I saw a lot of cool gigs, the best that come to mind being Mount Kimbie, Danny Brown and Star Slinger. All very different but in my hazy memory they stand out to me. The others have all kind of melted away, surely the best sign of a good gig? I'm still devastated I was sick and couldn't attend the Chino XL/Ghostface Killah/MF DOOM gig. Illness is the pits. 


- I've been re-reading my diary (Yes I keep a diary). And it's hilarious! There is this one entry which is so clearly very angst-ridden unrequited love (lust); "You don't know me, you don't want me and you don't think about me". This is dated maybe a month or two ago. I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHO THIS IS ABOUT. Seriously. It's no wonder I'm (forever) single/alone.


- I got Spotify. I'm a fan of taste testing music, but you can do that on Soundcloud/Youtube/Hype Machine and their ace-in-the-hole, the ability of music authorities like the Guardian, Pitchfork and Triple J to share playlists, isn't that important to me. 


- I'm hating uni. 


So that concludes a glimpse into the "fascinating" life I lead, if you've even read up to here you deserve some kind of medal. At least a gold star! 

Squabz. Ya heard me, SQUABZ.

I was on my way to work on Monday morning, traffic was making me late to my very first official day of my new job and I was generally feeling a lot of hate towards humanity at this point. But this was all about to change. I've been listening to a lot of electronica/electronic pop lately, which is to come in a later post and when I tuned into FBi that fateful morning I was met with a piece of delicious piano-intro leading into some great electronic beats and vox. I tried to Shazam it, to no avail but luckily the beautiful people of FBi radio answered my plea on the Up For It facebook page and thus I am now enlightenened.

The track is MIKE TYSON by Squabz.



Yes, MIKE TYSON. So off kilter, I had to put it all in caps, twice. But it gets better, what immediately make me go "I MUST KNOW THIS SONG, SHAZAM WHY YOU FAIL ME NOW", is the fact that this song samples the 2003 track "Beautiful" by Snoop Dogg and Pharrell Williams. I am so happy to know that I am not the only one still listening to this track and jaw dropping surprised that it can be turned into some chillwave (I hate this word somebody help me find a better descriptor) goodness.

Furthermore, the band themselves. Named after a certain type of pigeon, the meat pigeon to be exact, Squabz produce some pretty indie music but seem like hilarious dudes. Their Facebook page as of time of publication had only 86 likes, indicating they are pretty much two dudes just starting out and mucking around. There's a lot of photos of pigeons and in the only photo of them they are pulling funny faces. And their first single is dedicated to Mike Tyson. Clearly, they don't take themselves too seriously, which is definitely a plus in this shoe gazer society, especially prevalent in music.

I can't wait to hear more from these guys :)

Seven posts since November

does not a good blogger make. I am going to make amends for this, especially seeing as how this year has been pretty amazing thus far and will hopefully continue to be. I'll be a third year at UNSW, doing a degree in international studies (how this is relevant to my dreams I will never know), I'll be working as the venues and events intern at Roundhouse and interning/sometimes feature article writing at the Music Network.

Life has been good to me and I am so incredibly grateful for everything that has come my way recently. And my 33 Twitter followers, which is so pathetic I consider deleting it everyday believe me.

I'll be posting more regular, promise :)

Interview with Paul Piticco

Paul Piticco is actually an Australian music legend, he's the man behind Dew Process, Secret Sounds, Splendour in the Grass and his new label Create/Control. It's bad ass. Read the interview for the Music Network HERE

Interview with Phil Jamieson of Grinspoon

I interviewed Phil Jamieson of that little known Australian rock band Grinspoon for the amazing peeps at the Music Network. Read it HERE