Speaker 1: Apote production.
Speaker 2: What's your first gig? I'll never forget it. It was
Speaker 2: my first interstate gig, was in Perth. I was nervous
Speaker 2: and it's it's a cracker and so first gig in
Speaker 2: the state. It's at the Metro. It's full houses, a
Speaker 2: few thousand people. I get there, I'm nervous as hell,
Speaker 2: and I get on stage. I play my first song.
Speaker 2: These pyrotechnics go off. The CD plays stop from the vibration,
Speaker 2: so I get the old way anyway. My sphinx's pulsating
Speaker 2: like this anyway, So I start the song again, sweating.
Speaker 2: He lets off more bombs. The song stops again. So
Speaker 2: the song stopped twice, you know. In the beginning, I'm going, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: someone bring me a razor and a needle.
Speaker 3: It's all over, you know.
Speaker 2: So and I looked at the guy, I go, no
Speaker 2: more bombs. Yeah, I'll never forget. There's just people, you know,
Speaker 2: just so nervous, so nervous. I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1: Have you ever got that any mistakes while you've been playing?
Speaker 2: More so now, like from the beginning to the last
Speaker 2: couple of years, never made a mistake. Now I'm just
Speaker 2: having such a good time and having fun, too much fun.
Speaker 2: And I always have this reoccurring dream where I'll played
Speaker 2: the same song and I'm doing it now and it's
Speaker 2: the same song. It's nine pm till I come. I'll
Speaker 2: play the song, I'll play something else. Someone will say
Speaker 2: something to me, I've forgotten that I've still got that
Speaker 2: song in there. I'll press it and I'll play it again,
Speaker 2: and I'll look at the crowd and they're oblivious. I go, wow, OK,
Speaker 2: I'll get away with this for about thirty seconds and yeah, oh,
Speaker 2: it's happened a few times now, I must laugh it off.
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty five, you start to just gets mixed.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 1: How did that feel when it became so popular? You
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Did you think it was going
Speaker 1: to be that popular?
Speaker 3: No, not at all.
Speaker 4: I just because to me, it's like, you know, Wild FM,
Speaker 4: That's how I.
Speaker 3: Look at it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well we used to when we had a meeting
Speaker 2: about Wild effam, you know, and that station was huge
Speaker 2: and they so we're going to release these Wild and MCDs.
Speaker 2: And I thought that was a great idea because back
Speaker 2: then we used to have meetings. Not anymore. But yeah,
Speaker 2: and we released that compilation and obviously I had an
Speaker 2: involvement with that and they were huge.
Speaker 3: But with Skitz mixed.
Speaker 2: You know, I did one, two, three, I thought, you know,
Speaker 2: what if I get to ten, what's it up to? Now?
Speaker 3: I think I'm working on sixty.
Speaker 1: I thought it was like sixty five.
Speaker 3: So I'm working on sixty.
Speaker 1: It's taken.
Speaker 2: It's taken a while. I used to do three a year,
Speaker 2: but Covid really knocked me job.
Speaker 1: You said three year because I was actually thinking you
Speaker 1: were sixty five. Because I was you're working out a year?
Speaker 2: You would have been right, but I actually took a
Speaker 2: year or two off. I've kind of lost that momentum.
Speaker 2: But I've almost finished the new CD. You know, I
Speaker 2: really want to get back into it, like I had to,
Speaker 2: had a few changes in my life that I had
Speaker 2: to kind of sort it out. Yeah, but I'm back
Speaker 2: on track now and I'm really keen to.
Speaker 4: Because it's massive. That skits like it's unbelievable. As I
Speaker 4: said to you, I got almost did I think it counts?
Speaker 4: BAK thirteen I found downstairs and in my box.
Speaker 2: Really, yeah, I used to always keep them because they're
Speaker 2: worth money. You've got to wait till I die first obviously,
Speaker 2: but yeah, there's there's a lot of people selling those
Speaker 2: CDs quite a bit of money because you just can't
Speaker 2: get them anymore. And it's almost like a collection. You've
Speaker 2: got to have those CDs, you know. It's like when
Speaker 2: you're a kid used to collect footy cards. Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: you know, you had to have a whole lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It's the same thing with the skits mix thing.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: So what's the best venue you've ever played a look
Speaker 2: as a club, it would be probably Family Nightclub in
Speaker 2: Brisbane that used to be Cracker. I used to like
Speaker 2: finish my set, you know, the crowd would want more,
Speaker 2: you do an encore. You do an encore, you know,
Speaker 2: and the owners of the club will come out I
Speaker 2: no more. You know.
Speaker 3: It was almost like a riot. You know.
Speaker 2: I appreciated a lot more now than I did back
Speaker 2: then because back then it was just gig after gig,
Speaker 2: upter gig.
Speaker 1: You're not thinking about what You're just in the motion
Speaker 1: and that that's right.
Speaker 2: But then you reflect and go, wow, that was good. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then you do the big gigs. Like the biggest
Speaker 2: gig I think I did was about two or three
Speaker 2: years ago. It was called soapop, and it was with Aqua.
Speaker 2: I'm always I for sixty five. Well there's big and
Speaker 2: it was that Kudos arena. So here I am on stage,
Speaker 2: this massive stage and meat, you know, and I'm playing
Speaker 2: in between the artists and for the artists as well,
Speaker 2: and that's quite daunting.
Speaker 1: Still got the goosebumps when you do live shows all
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't matter how big or how small. I
Speaker 2: still get those butterflies, and I still get excited.
Speaker 3: I still I love.
Speaker 1: It more now because you appreciate it more now.
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 2: And I think I appreciate it more because of the
Speaker 2: whole COVID thing, because we had two years off, like
Speaker 2: music completely stopped for us, you know, and you know,
Speaker 2: especially at my age, you know, two years is a lot.
Speaker 2: So right now I'm like, you know what, treat every
Speaker 2: gig like it's your last, like, so enjoy.
Speaker 1: Did you make a lot of music in the COVID?
Speaker 1: What was COVID? Did you like mix?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I did, like it was.
Speaker 2: It was a bit tough, like I said, a lot
Speaker 2: of personal changes and I had to relocate my studio
Speaker 2: so I couldn't get to do too much. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I had a pub as well, which I lost in COVID.
Speaker 2: You know, so, like it was a really tough time
Speaker 2: for me to try and because you just can't go
Speaker 2: into a studio and just go like that.
Speaker 3: You've got to be you feeling. You've got to be happy,
Speaker 3: and I was.
Speaker 2: I was going through a lot at that time, and
Speaker 2: I just couldn't write music, you know, so and I
Speaker 2: had health issues as well, and it was really tough
Speaker 2: and I'm still trying to get through that. At the moment,
Speaker 2: you know, so you're flying, you know, like your storybook is.
Speaker 2: You know, you for your school, you get to die,
Speaker 2: you get a house, and you know, and you know
Speaker 2: you're up here, and then all of a sudden everything crashes,
Speaker 2: you know, after so many years and you just have
Speaker 2: to Readjust I thought it never happened, but it happens
Speaker 2: to the best of us. But yeah, I just I
Speaker 2: didn't get to write too much. But like I said,
Speaker 2: I'm back. I've got a new studio. Now I'm back
Speaker 2: into it and I'm really keen.
Speaker 4: You know when you mix music, yeah like it and
Speaker 4: you're doing like a stay say, for instance, skits mixed, right,
Speaker 4: how did you come up with what you're going to mix.
Speaker 4: How did you do it? Is it just something that
Speaker 4: you've always wanted to This song is hit me. I
Speaker 4: always want to mix this with something else or is
Speaker 4: it just playing around with whatever on the day now
Speaker 4: to get that vibe to do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just basically songs that I like.
Speaker 2: So half the CD is pretty much like my own
Speaker 2: music and half like from other record labels, you know.
Speaker 2: And honestly, even back then, if I wanted a song
Speaker 2: in two seconds, I had it because the CD was
Speaker 2: so big and it used to sell a lot, so
Speaker 2: they'd like to make money from it, so I had
Speaker 2: a choice of any song I wanted, you know. But
Speaker 2: now it's it's a whole different ball game. Nobody's giving
Speaker 2: songs anymore. Nobody's doing compilations. No one's doing compilations, so
Speaker 2: when I asked for songs, it's a lot harder. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the landscapes changed completely. Like if he used to go
Speaker 2: to the major record labels, hundreds of people working there,
Speaker 2: there's no one there anymore. It's a ghost town, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, Because back then you had A
Speaker 2: and R departments, you had people, you know, like nurturing
Speaker 2: new artists.
Speaker 3: Now it's just songs from anywhere, get him in, sell them, get.
Speaker 2: Them out, you know. So there's none of that anymore.
Speaker 2: You look at the Australia, the Australian band scene, you know,
Speaker 2: in the seventies, eighties and nineties we had the biggest
Speaker 2: bands in the world. If you wanted to go out,
Speaker 2: you can go anywhere to see anyone. Now maybe five
Speaker 2: big Australian bands that are current. Everyone's still kind of
Speaker 2: going back to the old old Ossie Roth stuff, you know,
Speaker 2: which which I love.
Speaker 4: There is one remix that you did that I must
Speaker 4: here we go, and I don't know if you're going
Speaker 4: to know that's the X Files. Wow, okay, I remember
Speaker 4: that one, and that's the one I used to play
Speaker 4: all the time in my fucking car.
Speaker 2: It's funny that it's funny that you mentioned I haven't
Speaker 2: seen that CD in decades.
Speaker 3: Someone pulled it out last week and I've got it.
Speaker 3: You got it and I listened to it. I went,
Speaker 3: did I do that? You know?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So that was that was Actually that was very popular.
Speaker 3: You know. It's funny.
Speaker 2: I think that went number two or something in the
Speaker 2: Australian charts like back then.
Speaker 4: Because one well X Files was massive back and it
Speaker 4: was massive, and that it was a kind of catchy tune.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, everyone kind of knows that that theme,
Speaker 2: that TV theme, and it just yeah, it was I thought,
Speaker 2: you know, jump on the gravy train and go for it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, just like I said, I listened to it
Speaker 2: for the first time last week and I went, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I could.
Speaker 1: Have you enjoyed doing kind of stuff like that.
Speaker 2: You know, I loved it because honestly, back then, I'll
Speaker 2: tell you now, the charts back then were eclectic. You
Speaker 2: had all different styles of music. Go look at the
Speaker 2: charts now, it's half Taylor Swift. You know, everyone's singing
Speaker 2: about how bad their lives are. Really, everyone's singing how
Speaker 2: about the what of the Venger Boys? You know, just
Speaker 2: get on the Vinger bus and that's fun. No one's
Speaker 2: having fun with music anymore, you can't. No one's playing
Speaker 2: fun music.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It's just it used to be happy, And that's why
Speaker 2: I used to go out to be happy.
Speaker 3: I think we're on those artists are doing it.
Speaker 1: I think it's because the scenes changed now at the
Speaker 1: club and scenes.
Speaker 2: Before it was a bit more for these it was
Speaker 2: a bit more purist you know what I mean. Clubs
Speaker 2: were for people who really wanted to hear that kind
Speaker 2: of music. Now, if you don't play a certain style,
Speaker 2: you know, people will just walk off. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: although they'll expect you to be a jukebox. They go,
Speaker 2: can you play this?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, no, it's give me a hundred bucks, you know.
Speaker 2: Just yeah, it's different because back then, I can play
Speaker 2: whatever I want. Now I've got to you know, I've
Speaker 2: got to see the crowd, see the crowd, make sure
Speaker 2: make them happy, actually told by the venue what they should.
Speaker 3: I've heard that a few times.
Speaker 2: They never do it to me, but yeah, I hear
Speaker 2: a lot of promoters saying people own and saying you've
Speaker 2: got to play this style of music and then change
Speaker 2: it to this, you know. But I also was a
Speaker 2: little bit smarter too, I you know, if I had
Speaker 2: him really going, I play a couple of songs that
Speaker 2: weren't so popular so they can go have a drink
Speaker 2: at the dark because I've got to be you know,
Speaker 2: conscious of the you know, the turnover at the club
Speaker 2: as well, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So you've got to do a little bit of that,
Speaker 3: you know as well.
Speaker 4: Like I know, you said that you're not. You don't
Speaker 4: you've never adalyzed the DJ, right, Yes, surely there's someone
Speaker 4: that you must want to work with or you'd like
Speaker 4: to work with alongside.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, sure, all of them, all of them? Yeah, sure,
Speaker 3: why not?
Speaker 1: There's not one that sticks out there? You go, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Like, no, no, no, I'm not I'm not. No, none, none.
Speaker 2: They can work with me if that's how I should be.
Speaker 2: I'm older, but not really. I mean, look, you know,
Speaker 2: don't get me wrong. If if David Guetta or Test said,
Speaker 2: you know, let's do a sorry, my ankles will be
Speaker 2: hitting my ass, I'd be running, you know, like yeah, sure,
Speaker 2: you know. But there's not one that I really want
Speaker 2: to reach out to. Look, there's been a couple that
Speaker 2: i've you know, you know a couple of mates, like
Speaker 2: like Timmy Trump and all those guys.
Speaker 4: You know, to me, I'm trying to get on there,
Speaker 4: you trying to get on always said blood.
Speaker 2: Timmy, Timmy, get your ass here is at the comery there,
Speaker 2: get your ass here and talk to you. Look, you know,
Speaker 2: Timmy is a good friend. You know, we talk quite
Speaker 2: a bit. But now he's.
Speaker 1: Remember when he started coming to the clubs. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean.
Speaker 3: Well, I kid you not. We I never forget this one.
Speaker 2: We just we did a gig, like a little local
Speaker 2: gig in Victoria. It was like Geelong or something like that.
Speaker 2: And he sat next to me on the aeroplane. I've
Speaker 2: just met him. Nice kid, you know, and he's played
Speaker 2: before me and I watched him. I went, wow, this
Speaker 2: this kid's got something. And on the way back on
Speaker 2: their pane, I go and I said to him, I
Speaker 2: hope you remembers. I said, you're going to be a superstar.
Speaker 2: He's like, oh really, Nick stars in his eyes. I go, yeah,
Speaker 2: you've got an X factor. And these days you've got
Speaker 2: to have an X factor, you know. You just can't
Speaker 2: just be an average DJ.
Speaker 3: You've got it.
Speaker 2: It's a lot more visual now, you know. Back in
Speaker 2: my day, you just put your head down, you concentrate,
Speaker 2: and you play.
Speaker 1: Now they play for the crowd.
Speaker 3: Now they got the monkeys the box, you know, and
Speaker 3: they're all jumping around and acting.
Speaker 1: Like spitting, they're doing all that.
Speaker 3: It's all they're jumping up on I can't even get up.
Speaker 3: I'll break the hip, you know, I can't even do that.
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's good. It's a lot of energy.
Speaker 2: But I think they concentrate more on the appearance than
Speaker 2: what they're doing. And you'll find a lot of these
Speaker 2: bigger events and festivals, you know, it's all pre mixed,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: The laptops there.
Speaker 2: I just don't sound bitter or anything, but I just like,
Speaker 2: you know, so I'll go to a gig, I'll look
Speaker 2: at the crowd, I'll go through my music and go,
Speaker 2: this is what I'm going to play tonight. One of
Speaker 2: those bigger events, you know, because they've got to sink
Speaker 2: the lighting with the music and it's a whole show.
Speaker 2: So therefore it's kind of all kind of premix. But
Speaker 2: I think it defeats the purpose of the challenge of
Speaker 2: maybe making a mistake or playing something different, you know,
Speaker 2: because you're just you're feeling it. That's what I do,
Speaker 2: and that's how it should be. You know, it shouldn't
Speaker 2: be all I'm going to play this tonight. Just get
Speaker 2: up there, look at the crowd, have some fun. I
Speaker 2: have a couple of Vodkas, and make a couple of
Speaker 2: mistakes and go for it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Like it doesn't have to be perfect and polished, and
Speaker 2: that's what they're trying to do, you know. So yeah,
Speaker 2: like I said, I'm old school and I'm going to
Speaker 2: stick to that.
Speaker 4: What's the best remix you've ever done? Why would you
Speaker 4: ask me that question? You know what that's like.
Speaker 3: It's like asking who's your favorite child.
Speaker 2: You're not going to tell that kid no. But yeah,
Speaker 2: there's always a ship one