WEBVTT - Kate Ceberano Has Spent 40 Years Trying To Figure Herself Out 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.600 So you sit down. I had the ugly conversation with 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:05.560 my husband. I'm like, this has been great. We've really 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:08.280 enjoyed each other. We've really had the very best life 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:12.240 you could possibly wish for. I dearly want to get 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:14.880 pregnant and I really don't give a shit what you 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:15.480 think about that. 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:17.920 Ah. 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.040 Hi, I'm Kate lane Brook. There are some guests where 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:25.239 the conversation begins before the microphones are even turned on, 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:30.280 and Kate Sobrano is absolutely one of them. This is 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:34.640 a slightly unusual episode of No Filter, a very personal 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.320 one because Kate Sobrano and I already know each other, 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:41.400 and I think you can feel that intimacy almost immediately 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:45.800 in this chat. What unfolds is less a formal interview 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.680 and more two women sitting down together to talk honestly 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:56.840 about creativity, ambition, aging, marriage, motherhood, music, and what it 0:00:56.960 --> 0:00:59.000 actually costs to build. 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:00.240 A life as an artist. 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:04.679 We talk about the opportunities Kate turned down, the Korea 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:09.920 highs and heartbreaks, the pressure of constantly reinventing yourself, and why, 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.679 at nearly sixty, she feels more certain of who she 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.280 is than ever before. There are stories about Melbourne in 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:24.559 the eighties punk music, motherhood, Karl Minogue, Tom Cruise, Coconut Cake, 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.960 and the strange intensity of surviving four decades in the 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:35.680 spotlight while still remaining entirely yourself. It's also funny, theatrical, emotional, 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:42.920 and completely unpredictable because this is Kate Sobrano. I am 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:48.200 looking forward to this so enormously, not just because I 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:55.240 think you're a true ornament to this country, but also 0:01:55.480 --> 0:02:00.600 I have a lot of love for you that comes 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:03.200 through a personal relationship that will touch on later. Some 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:13.200 of the listeners will already know, and some maybe, oh. 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:14.480 What could it be, Kate Sebrano, Leave them hanging on 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.640 a thread, darling, and leave them hanging Welcome to No Filter. 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:20.480 Oh I'm very, very happy to be here. This kind 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.919 of feels grown up and beautiful to be sitting actually 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.000 talking to someone who I know and love, as opposed 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:31.560 to someone who is interrogating me. Right, Okay, you know, yes, 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.960 I've been for forty years at the other end of 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:39.200 misfired questions. And I say misfired because they're like they 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:42.480 usually do them around me to get one single answer, right. 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.799 It's like a right, a volley of what are they 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:46.840 looking for? An answer. 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.359 I think what people are trying to discover usually when 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:56.840 they ask an artist any questions is why why are 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.520 they the way they are? Yes, I don't reckon that's 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:02.640 a It's almost like it's kryptonite to the artist, because 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.040 I think if you try to too carefully unpack that, 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:11.639 you leave your flanks a bit open, and a part 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:13.720 of you feels well. I do anyway, a part of 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:18.239 me feels undressed and right, sort of a strange freak 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:21.240 because I can't really explain what happened or when it 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:23.680 happened exactly. They always want a very specific time in 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:24.120 a place. 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:25.440 I heard Ricky Lee. 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:28.200 Say to you, you don't want to show how the 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:29.200 sausage is made? 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:31.760 Clever? Yes, isn't she yes? 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:38.280 Funk like seriously, she's a very wise and a natural artist. Yes, 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.360 And on stage she has a lot of what you 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:48.520 have on stage, which is this incredible giving of herself. 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:55.040 You have this the first time I saw you on stage, which, 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.000 strangely though I've seen a lot of gigs and I've 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.280 said this to you before, I hadn't seen I think 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:02.320 i'd seen you as part of line ups or whatever, 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:07.280 but I've never seen you as a solo artist. And 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.840 when I saw you, it was with your tour that 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:16.800 you did with the symphony with the orchestra, and I 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:22.960 was so astounded at my own cultural ignorance at not 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.120 having seen you earlier, but that stuff just happens, but 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:32.599 also at the power and range and freedom on stage 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:37.559 of you that I remember sitting there thinking she could 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:41.040 perform at the Milan Opera House. I remember thinking that 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:43.360 you weren't singing opera, but you could. 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.040 Yeah, well, opera is a state of mind, isn't it 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:50.120 after all? Well I don't think so you don't think 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:53.960 can we explain myself? Because I love it. 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:57.320 I love it when when you offer me that, And 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.440 I'll tell you why I said exactly. That is because 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.479 Rosalia is an artist who's pop act. She's just like 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.920 Taken over the Road. Yes, she's an opera singer, she's 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:12.800 like a she's like the reincarnation of Maria Carlis, but 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:17.279 she's in a contemporary skin. Yes, And so the kind 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:19.400 of like if you put that into that sausage machine, 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:21.680 as we're just talking about and getting back to Ricky 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.520 Lee in a minute, but what you end up getting 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.400 is this hybrid version of modern opera, Right, That's what 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.600 I mean. Like sometimes when I get up there, I 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:35.240 feel a little bit like, you know, especially when I'm 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:40.000 like letting it rip, like I've got the blonde, the blonde. 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:40.800 Braids and the right. 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:42.920 Valk. 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:46.599 That's what I mean. Opera's a state of mind. 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.960 I don't really know opera very well, so I can't 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.800 claim to know anything about it. But when I hear 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:54.960 opera singers and when I feel I feel like they're 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:58.359 kind of an engine that has more fuel than most 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:02.840 average normal people. Yes, Rosali has more fuel. Yes, I 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:07.400 have seen an inexhaustible supply of fuel. When I'm on stage, 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:13.600 like the stage itself, the power creates extraordinary it. Sometimes 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:17.000 it's like sometimes I've got to borrow from the future 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:20.760 to just keep it together and not just like blow 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:21.600 up like Shrek. 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:25.320 You know the bird that just goes yes, yeah, yeah, 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:27.719 feathers everywhere. You know. 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.000 Your mum said an interesting thing. It was also the 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:32.920 first time that I meet her. I was after that gig, 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.560 and she said to me, and I was just we 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:41.640 were just really wowed by you. And your mother said, 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.440 and you know, she's got that that very brusque way 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:45.000 of speaking. 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:45.600 She goes. 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.720 It's the only time she's happy is on stage. 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.159 But that is also the artist, isn't it. 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:59.680 Yeah, I think I'm dissatisfied or I have Yeah, I'm 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.839 concert itchy, scratchy in the days in between stage. 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:05.159 Yes, and it's getting worse. 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:10.240 Wow, really so much so that I've had to calm 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:15.720 my nervous system and stop myself from picking at these creative. 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.080 Scames, if you will. It's a really disgusting way to describe. 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:20.200 But you know, like this sort of thing, you know, 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:21.640 I've got an idea, I've got a thought, I've got 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:23.000 to I've been. 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.440 Doing things with my hands, as you know, and I 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:26.440 really craft. 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:30.000 I get right into it as a meditation of sorts, 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:35.720 because so you're embroidering, painting guitars and build things. I 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:41.120 get to the piano. I do scales and pilates and 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:44.080 all sorts of stuff. But it's mostly in an effort 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:50.640 to stop stop scratching it, you know. And why do 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.360 you want to stop scratching it? Is it because it's unbearable. 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.640 I think it creates a lot of trauma. Not trauma, 0:07:57.680 --> 0:07:59.640 that's a really that's an overused word. 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:01.800 It is an overused word. 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.520 It is an overused especially when I'm about to see 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.080 what it's like. 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:08.640 You'll be like. 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:14.240 Good thing you change that. I think it's it's intolerable 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:19.240 for people to live around ah, yes, because like you're 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:25.000 constantly generating activity and other people around you sometimes need 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.520 rest from you. Yes, And if you're not aware of it, 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:32.200 then you lose touch with kind of what's important, Like 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:34.520 I know, well, giving it back to you as a 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.200 mother to mother and will reveal the way we know 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:41.600 one another so well as mothers later. But there's a 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:47.600 dedication you have and to keeping the tribe together. Now, 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:51.640 this is interesting about you because we are all familiar 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:56.160 with the template of the artist, who by dint of 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:00.000 the definition of what an artist is, it requires a huge, 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:02.920 huge degree of selfishness, which is to focus on the 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.360 self and the calling of the self. But you also 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:11.040 straddle a more prosaic world, which is as a wife, 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.200 a more like earthy world as a wife and a 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.079 mother and a daughter and a sister and an aunt 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:24.040 and blah blah blah. How is that tension served by 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:28.400 an artist? And what are the sacrifices that you have made? 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:29.640 Because it comes at a cost. 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:34.480 Absolutely, I think you have to. 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:41.280 Own up to the bipolarity of trying to do all 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:46.360 of those things knowing that it's going to take extra 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:49.240 work for you to come back from an all time 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:52.160 high fifty thousand plus fo one hundred thousand people on 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:54.840 an afternoon. The adrenals have turned on in a way 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:59.200 that you could walk into a fire and be un scared. 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:01.280 That's the sort of like, yeah, that's the. 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:05.040 Feeling, the way your senses have been heightened, so to 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:10.000 come back into a family environment and dominate the space 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:16.000 when you're in that elevated I recognized early on in 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:17.720 the piece that it was, as I said, it was 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:22.120 causing some impact on people in and around. I don't 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:24.080 love to watch it. I don't like to see the 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.520 fallout of that. Like you're too much lily or too loud, 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:32.040 you just just bring it down. So but I think, sorry, 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:35.720 the quick answer to your question is this, just accept 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.600 that you are going to always be strange and strange 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.040 to the most because you've had a glimpse of something 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:44.760 which most common people and I'm not saying using that 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.240 word like common in terms of. 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:48.600 The lesser people. 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:53.880 It is the people who don't get into they don't 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:55.600 get themselves into that kind of mischief. 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:59.040 Every day. You're calling for mischief every day, but sometimes 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:00.800 it's hard for people to come back from that. 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.160 And you know, if I look at your career, which 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:08.520 you are now being honored by the ARIA Hall of Fame, 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.600 which is an extraordinary it's. 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.160 A massive it's a massive honor, well. 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.319 Earned and a long time coming, given that I believe 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:20.480 you've never actually they never gave you an Aria. 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:24.800 They never gave you an We're good. 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:27.679 Yeah, but you know what though, you actually what you're 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.520 saying is one can say it's quick. There are a 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.360 lot of eligible artists who look, yeah, everyone's eligible. And 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:36.679 in my lifetime, if they were going to be handing 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.000 them out one a year, there's absolutely no way I 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.040 would have had it in my lifetime. It would have 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:47.840 definitely a posthumous award. And I think I've kept my 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:52.679 life fairly. I think I've prioritized the right things when 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:53.280 I've needed to. 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.240 Yes, yes, but you don't always know. 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.000 You don't do that, No, you don't. So I only 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:03.400 know when you put the baby on the nipple, there's 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:07.280 something that transforms you. Right, Not every woman will have 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:10.160 that opportunity to feel it, but when it does it 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.160 tends to pull in all the parts of you that 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:17.080 have been extending well beyond your natural self, right, and 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.280 you actually have to say, okay, no, that one, that 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.679 extension over there is wow, it's amazing. But we're going 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:26.960 to rope her in a little bit because that's definitely 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:30.880 going to go into crazy town. What I'm saying is like, 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:34.240 I don't know necessary. I can't say whether my husband 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.000 and I at thirty six would have remained together at 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:41.680 sixty had we not had that crossroads. Yes, right, So 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.640 there were things that compelled us to change our habits 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:48.160 and our expectations of ourselves and life and in our 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:52.040 careers respectively. We had to actually really put them on 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:53.800 the table and go, so what are you prepared to 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.440 give upright? And then he said, well, what are you 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:58.960 prepared to give up? And it was like game one, 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.760 a real conversation. Oh shit, chah, because because I was 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.760 wanting to see if we could have children at thirty six, 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.480 which they called me, you know, a geriatric. 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:15.160 Yes, I had all my children as a geriatric. When 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:16.040 she said it was. 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.120 I know, it's like when you go range that that 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.040 and being told you you're. 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:31.600 Obese, like normally I'm also normally I love it. 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:38.320 So when you've been given these these treasures of platforms 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.960 to walk into and represent, like those two things which 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.440 really suck, so you sit down. I had the ugly 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.760 conversation with my husband. I'm like, this has been great. 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:50.520 We've really enjoyed each other. We've really had the very 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:54.720 best life you could possibly wish for. I dearly want 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.400 to get pregnant and I really don't give a ship. 0:13:57.440 --> 0:13:58.079 What do you think about that? 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.680 It's like, yeah, I just love our life. 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.000 I'm not sure how we'd change it and make it better. Well, 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:06.640 you never are. 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.880 No, No, he was right. He was being very very honest. 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:14.000 I always on his honesty. And then Paul Bastard, I 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.240 said to him, like, you know, you don't always get pregnant. 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:21.360 The first time it was boom, and that was that 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:23.680 was maybe. Yeah. 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:25.680 I would like to say it was propelled first by 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:29.800 my wish, but then afterwards, and I have this engraved 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.000 in our wedding ring. He then said, oh my god, 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.000 and he meant it to think we nearly didn't do this, Yes, 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:37.120 to think we nearly. 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:38.080 Didn't do this. 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.280 It was a profound moment for him and I and 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.320 I had to grant him that and say, well, maybe 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:49.000 that was my job was to make us do this. 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:50.240 Okay. 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:54.960 So I'm curious about this because I think if you, 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.880 you know, as everyone does this by the way, everyone 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:02.760 compares their career to people who are in their orbit. 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:05.000 Yeah, it doesn't matter what feel they're indred percent. 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.600 But in the arts it's a particular sort of thing 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.720 because you can really see who the spotlight is falling 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.520 on and who it's not falling on. And the spotlight 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:18.960 has fallen on you a lot. You came bouncing out 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:24.400 of the barriers at fourteen, a wilding, A wilding, Yes, 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:29.520 absolutely proper, solute, proper, like a banhiem. Yes, I know, 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:35.640 war cry, singing everywhere anywhere on stage in all the 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:41.320 Haunts of Melbourne. You went overseas solo at what age 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:46.920 soloman in a way I'm talking about. Yeah, in my 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.720 twenty just before I turned twenty, we went in and 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:53.800 over there. But I'd already had several bands before I 0:15:53.800 --> 0:16:00.840 I was relentlessly kind of pursuing a life because I look, 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:03.840 it all comes back, it doesn't it to an education. 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.080 I just knew that the education I was being delivered 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:09.880 at growth on high much as I loved them all madly, 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:12.880 I just was just a freak. 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:15.400 I was just like a fart in a bottle. I 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:21.360 just were you speaking? What does that mean? I was 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:22.440 like I'd sit in. 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.200 I just I was like in and out of the 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:28.360 interest of the school culture. 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.480 What did you like at school? Anything? Was there any 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:33.480 of the learning that resonated. 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:41.720 It's that classic I'm that classic artist type music English, yeah, 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:45.640 and art okay, and the rest was like, you know, 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.200 trying to get in there to absorb water. 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:51.560 It was like I can't get in. I can't get in, 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:54.040 and they go, well, just work harder, and I'm like, 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:55.560 I don't want to. 0:16:56.320 --> 0:17:00.480 I was completely resistant to just I was like, give 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:03.720 me a reason, give me some template where I'd use 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:06.600 any of it, and they were it's not for us 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:08.880 to give you the template. 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:14.239 So different. I was different. I was the youngest, I 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:14.840 was wild. 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:17.520 I was And you didn't look like other people at 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:18.680 that time either. 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:19.840 I mean you still don't. 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:23.800 No, no, you look like yourself, but you were Hawaiian Filipino. 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:24.119 Oh. 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:26.800 And we were called every name under the sun, moon 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:30.120 and stars, and you know, my brothers had to bear 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:31.960 a lot of those arrows and they sort of would 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.520 deflect it so that I could just walk through. 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:38.400 The garden bath with the sunshaping on my face. She's exotic. 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:40.080 By the time it got to me, it was exotic. 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:42.480 But before then it was a wog, it was a chink. 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:45.160 It was you know, like it was everything under the sun, 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:49.160 moon and stars, and they would just be like kitching, kitching, 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.480 my elder brothers, you know, you know, protect the child, 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:54.360 protect the kid, as I said. 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:55.960 By the time I got there, I was like, I 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:56.800 don't give a shit. 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:00.280 I think I'm gorgeous and I just want to play 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.520 and the stage isn't anyway. So once I actually got 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:08.400 to the stage, it was your I realized that education. 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:10.920 I was going to take that opportunity which they used 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.280 to call it. Do you want to be eligible for 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:14.959 work or you want to continue in education? 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:16.439 You have a right, which you. 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:18.960 Don't these days. But that was the kind of like 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.600 the coal miners theory. You want to pay paying rent. 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:26.160 Which I did. Have you got a job? Are you eligible? 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.840 I had four gigs that in a week every week 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:34.080 at fourteen. At fourteen a license venues. My brother's used 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.879 to chaperone. They drove me. I'd catch a tram. 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:39.520 I'd go to work, they'd pick me up, they'd take 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:41.639 me to the gig. They'd enjoy the gig, and then 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:42.400 we'd drive home. 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:45.439 And how are your mom and dad about this? 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:50.040 Oh? We were seventies parents where both parents It was 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:51.679 the first time both parents had been. 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:53.240 To Were your mom and dad still together? 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:53.440 Then? 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:54.680 Oh? Sure, okay. 0:18:55.440 --> 0:19:00.439 Dad had a very successful martial arts community all across country. 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.760 He's quite a superstar. Actually, yeah, yeah, he's the Bruce 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:04.640 Lee Australia. 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:08.280 Right, And we had often like entered the dragon, a 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.200 hundred black belts in the backyard every we. 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:15.119 Literally, so I was very safe, right And did you 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:17.199 do that? No? You never did it. 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:20.000 No. I thought it was unfeminine. I didn't like the 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:21.200 sound of a woman kiying. 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:27.320 Didn't dig it. 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:31.520 But but no, we're back to the just like that, 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:34.679 that fact of being free. I was completely left alone 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:37.000 at the at the end of three boys, you know, 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.840 I was. I was literally left to my own device, 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:41.680 and my grandparents were in the house, so they were 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:43.560 always there should I want to come in at any 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:47.040 time at the night or morning. And there was safe 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:50.480 dear numbers there, and the world was a different place Kate, 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:54.320 like I would spend I'd catch a tram down Cothain 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:56.320 Road all the way into town, catch down some and 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.280 killed the road, stay in sharehouses after a gig at 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:03.159 the ballroom, all through the area that we live and 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:05.920 work around now, And I just there isn't a place 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:11.160 I haven't played or slept in. And there were very 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:16.840 like and younger people were old. Yes, right, I think 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:21.439 young people today are young. Yes, I'll be back with 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:26.560 Kate Sobrano after this short break. Like, I think you 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:31.720 and I are fundamentally similar because of the era we 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.760 were designed in, like without a phone and there were 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:36.680 analog phones, yes. 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:36.840 And. 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:40.480 Quite often neglected in a good way by parents in 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.320 that they were busy doing other stuff important to them, 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:47.320 watching my brother in my case, which was good right, yeah, 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.399 there you are so and you were in put yourself 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:53.119 in a position where they really couldn't keep eyes on you. 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:53.880 Well yeah. 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:57.760 And also my brother and I Phil, Yes, he was 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:02.359 like my he was the naughty half of my so 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:06.000 called good half. Like he'd just delighted me endlessly on 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:09.600 what mischief he would get up to because he became 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:12.040 the first to drive. So we would go to each 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:16.040 other's parties and he would be the designated driver. He 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:21.880 and Gumpy Phillips, a very extreme and crazy kid, and 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:26.360 we would listen to David Bowie on repeat and we 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:29.240 were living. We were pretending we were in the streets 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:34.320 of London, running, running from things, running towards things, running 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.840 away from things, making mischief. And my brother was a 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:40.719 mod so I followed him into that trend. And then 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:43.240 then he got into like a rhythm of blues and 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:47.160 started playing guitar rock guitar like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Hendrix. 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:51.320 And then I invited him in my band and then 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:56.520 he started to just was like funk and so Steve 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:01.760 Kearney on the drums, right, So Steve laste string and 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:06.320 you're comedy. Well, the Last Laugh was the home of Gena, 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:12.600 Riley and Ricky. That was the That was the seed 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:17.159 for all of what I considered Melbourne comedy actually, and 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:21.000 I was sort of half raised with wild punk comic, 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:26.560 you know, crazy crazy people, and then on the other 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:32.920 half raised by Henry Mars, the Nightcat, Brunswick Street, the Marios, right, 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:36.920 and I have this polarity all the while, you know, 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:39.640 hitching rides back to Baurn each night at four am 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:42.639 in the mon Okay, because you were so young, I 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:44.760 wonder if mum and mere people can actually handle this 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:45.280 kind of. 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:48.480 Like, well, I don't know, but this is cake people 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:50.159 don't know. I think I'm one out of. 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:55.440 But because it was a world and the music world 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:59.240 has always been like this, and it's sex and drugs 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:05.640