Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week Their Life.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to TV Reload.
Speaker 1: My name's Benjamin Norris and on this podcast I go
Speaker 1: behind the scenes with the biggest players in television. Each
Speaker 1: episode you will get a front row seat with content
Speaker 1: makers like executive producers, writers, editors and casting agents, plus
Speaker 1: the talent we see on our screens. TV Reload reloads
Speaker 1: the shows that you're currently watching and gives you a
Speaker 1: better insight into our television industry and our streaming services.
Speaker 1: Today on the podcast to have the first one out
Speaker 1: of the mass singer Australia on Channel ten, it is
Speaker 1: Ryan Maloney, Australia's most love soap star, fresh from Neighbors.
Speaker 1: Sad conclusion, we've been absolutely treated to this fantastic performance
Speaker 1: by the celebrated actor, well known for his role as
Speaker 1: Tody in the long running soap Neighbors. He was dressed
Speaker 1: as an it and slayed an ed sherance song, but
Speaker 1: sadly was sent home first in the competition. The show
Speaker 1: is a lot of fun and we have certainly had
Speaker 1: some really impressive voices in the first episode and while
Speaker 1: it was sad to see Ryan go. The first reveal
Speaker 1: was a truly big shock for audiences and emotional to watch.
Speaker 1: We will talk about keeping secrets, how the songs get picked,
Speaker 1: what was planned next for his second performance, and what
Speaker 1: exactly is next for one of Australia's most recognizable soap stars.
Speaker 2: However, let's get started with today's guest. I'd like to
Speaker 2: welcome Ryan Maloney to TV Reload.
Speaker 3: Apparently I've been on the radar for a while for
Speaker 3: a number of different shows.
Speaker 4: The massive back, bigger, better, muskier than ever. It's a
Speaker 4: lot higher than what I can normally sing.
Speaker 2: Will they be able to.
Speaker 3: Work out which celebrities behind each mask? One of the
Speaker 3: nicest comments was like I thought it was James Blunt. Yeah,
Speaker 3: essentially kind of learning how to sing the whole way.
Speaker 1: Obviously, you are so recognizable to everyone as Toadfish Rebeccy.
Speaker 4: And when I watched it last night, it was like, oh,
Speaker 4: well that's not in it. It's a bit of a
Speaker 4: deleted scene for you.
Speaker 2: Hi mate, how are you?
Speaker 4: I'm doing all right?
Speaker 2: How are you doing very well?
Speaker 1: I just want to know how quickly did you get
Speaker 1: approached for the mass singer after you heard Neighbors was
Speaker 1: coming to an end.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was their first call after our neighbors got
Speaker 3: asked was quick, let's get Ryan.
Speaker 4: Let's see what he wants to do. Come on, I just.
Speaker 1: I'm going somewhere with this. I mean, it's a little
Speaker 1: bit quick to be getting into it. But you know,
Speaker 1: i'd wondered, had you been asked to do the show before,
Speaker 1: or did they go, god, let's get the best of
Speaker 1: the best from Neighbors.
Speaker 4: Oh, the best of the best?
Speaker 3: Oh well, Alan Fletcher does like to have a sing,
Speaker 3: so you know, I'm not sure if they got the
Speaker 3: best of the best. But you know, they just had
Speaker 3: to put up with me, so that's good.
Speaker 2: Had they asked you to do the show before?
Speaker 4: Not necessarily, No, not that one.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: They say that we've been wanting to ask you to
Speaker 3: do this for ages, but obviously with your.
Speaker 4: Film and commitments, it makes it too hard.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: Apparently I've been on the radar for a while for
Speaker 4: a number of different shows, so I don't know. We'll
Speaker 4: just see kind of what happens.
Speaker 1: Well, I interviewed you on the red carpet at the
Speaker 1: Logis and I asked you if you had been approached
Speaker 1: for a celebrity reality show, and I just was wondering,
Speaker 1: had you already been asked to do the Mar Singer
Speaker 1: at that point?
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I went and shot it that following week. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I was already locked in. Mate.
Speaker 1: There was this look on your face as I was
Speaker 1: asking it, and you kind of look towards whoever the
Speaker 1: publicist that was near you, and I was wondering that
Speaker 1: was It stayed in my mind. It stayed in my mind,
Speaker 1: and I have the audio of you and I talking
Speaker 1: at the logis, which I'm going to put into the interview,
Speaker 1: which is me asking you would you do the Mas
Speaker 1: Singer or I'm a Celebrity. There's probably about like ten
Speaker 1: celebrity reality shows that are happening in the country.
Speaker 2: Will you get tempted to doing one?
Speaker 4: What was my answer?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: No. You were like, no, I'm not going to ever
Speaker 1: do one of those shows. But then you oddly looked
Speaker 1: around for your like whoever the publicists that had been
Speaker 1: set up with you, and I just from that was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: he's definitely on I'm a Celebrity or Mars Singer, and
Speaker 1: then I just well that publicists didn't even know either
Speaker 1: that's amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeah, I think you might might have been
Speaker 3: reading too read into the look, but you were correct
Speaker 3: at the same time.
Speaker 1: Look, it looks like I'm really good at this when
Speaker 1: I'm absolutely terrible.
Speaker 4: Now it was a good guess, well done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, have you heard from some of the celebrities that
Speaker 1: the panel thought you were, like maybe Fev.
Speaker 4: No, I haven't heard, no, not yet.
Speaker 3: I was meant to do an interview with Fev this morning,
Speaker 3: but maybe he just got a bit shy about that
Speaker 3: and didn't want to be compared to, you know, to
Speaker 3: my singing voice.
Speaker 4: So unfortunately, Yeah, no, I didn't get to do that interview.
Speaker 4: And no, the hoff hasn't called me either, you know,
Speaker 4: bit disappointed.
Speaker 2: So disappointed.
Speaker 1: I thought you were Tristan McManus from Studio ten when
Speaker 1: you started singing, and I was saying to the person
Speaker 1: sitting next around, like, I think Tristan used to be
Speaker 1: in a boy band, because this person can genuinely sing.
Speaker 4: Oh that's nice. It's true.
Speaker 1: You have a very good voice. You know, what was
Speaker 1: the craziest guess that you saw from people online or
Speaker 1: even on the panel, Like, what do you think the
Speaker 1: craziest guess was for your voice.
Speaker 3: I think probably either to be honest, the half or
Speaker 3: FEV because I don't know that either of them, either
Speaker 3: of them can really sing, so I think that's definitely
Speaker 3: up there.
Speaker 4: I think the Honey Badger that was a pretty good one.
Speaker 4: To be honest.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean I didn't put two and two together.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's a first episode, so I guess
Speaker 1: people are fairly fresh with their guesses so to speak.
Speaker 3: It's warming up there, are there, They're getting muscles.
Speaker 2: Do you get to pick the song? Like?
Speaker 1: How is that process? I feel like for me, I
Speaker 1: would just go straight to karaoke. You know, you go
Speaker 1: to karaoke song. But were they very specific with the
Speaker 1: songs that they wanted the celebrities to sing?
Speaker 4: Yeah, pretty much to a certain point.
Speaker 3: I mean with our first one, they I didn't know
Speaker 3: that you could kind of have a choice, and from
Speaker 3: with the following ones that were put to you, it
Speaker 3: was kind of like oh yeah, and they kind of
Speaker 3: gave you two choices, so I was like, okay, cool, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 4: Other one, so we'll go with that one.
Speaker 3: And I kind of jazz, but oh man, that song
Speaker 3: is a really high song that ed sheeran song Bad Habits.
Speaker 3: It's really high. It's a lot higher than what I
Speaker 3: can normally sing. So I've basically spent you know, the
Speaker 3: three or four weeks, you know, locked in a cupboard.
Speaker 4: Trying to trying to learn how to sing that high?
Speaker 2: What were the next song? What was the next song
Speaker 2: you were going to sing?
Speaker 3: The next song was meant to be super Free, which
Speaker 3: I was really looking forward to doing.
Speaker 1: You know, well, it is funny that even you guys
Speaker 1: don't know who else is underneath these masks, because I'm
Speaker 1: guessing you watched the show on television last night. Do
Speaker 1: you have a guess for any of the other masks,
Speaker 1: seeing as you've now heard their songs?
Speaker 4: No, I've got no idea.
Speaker 3: I'm actually really bad with actually knowing famous people, so
Speaker 3: I'm the worst of that.
Speaker 4: I'd be useless on that guessing panel, absolutely useless.
Speaker 3: And last night I watched it with I want to
Speaker 3: have some of my brother's house and they've got little kids,
Speaker 3: so it was quite noisy in that house and they
Speaker 3: were all very excited, so there was Yeah, I couldn't
Speaker 3: quite judge who was actually singing.
Speaker 1: I guess you know, your friends and family have probably
Speaker 1: asked you a lot of questions about being on the show.
Speaker 1: I mean, what's the most common question people have been
Speaker 1: asking you about being on the series. I feel like
Speaker 1: it's always did you sing live? But what's the question
Speaker 1: you've been getting?
Speaker 3: I think probably the most asked question is can you
Speaker 3: see much out of that costume? Or what's the weirdest
Speaker 3: part about it all? Because it is a very strange experience. Obviously,
Speaker 3: everything's top secret, so you can't you can't tell anyone,
Speaker 3: so you've got to try to, you know, sing in private.
Speaker 4: So I don't know how.
Speaker 3: It's really tough to actually get some you know, to
Speaker 3: get some rehearsal space to actually do that, and even
Speaker 3: like to the point where like at work, I was
Speaker 3: wandering around and then there's some audio recording boots that
Speaker 3: I thought, oh, yeah, okay, I was just sticking to
Speaker 3: those and do some rehearsing, And then when I walked
Speaker 3: in there.
Speaker 4: I was like, I can still hear people outside. No, man,
Speaker 4: come on, how hard is this? So yeah, it was
Speaker 4: actually that that part was pretty tough.
Speaker 3: But you know, like when you're there, you're not allowed
Speaker 3: to obviously speak to anybody because then you're not letting.
Speaker 4: People aren't allowed to hear your voice.
Speaker 3: And so you get you get a handler who, you know,
Speaker 3: it's like this ex sas dude, you know, who comes
Speaker 3: and picks you up and it's all top secret, and
Speaker 3: you get kind of put into the back of a
Speaker 3: car and you get like this kind of big kind
Speaker 3: of hood thing put over the top of you so
Speaker 3: that if there's any paparazzi around, no one can see.
Speaker 3: And then when you go in, you kind of put
Speaker 3: into your own little kind of green room where nobody
Speaker 3: apart from like say, the wardrobe person comes in, so
Speaker 3: like it's very very limited to the people who you
Speaker 3: actually can speak to or who are allowed to even
Speaker 3: see you. So it's a very very funny, weird experience.
Speaker 3: But it was so cool. I'm pretty bummed actually that
Speaker 3: I got out so early, because I was really I
Speaker 3: was starting to really really get into the mojo of it,
Speaker 3: really enjoy it.
Speaker 2: People loved it.
Speaker 1: Like I've been online reading, you know, preparing for this
Speaker 1: interview of course, you know, reading the tweets, reading what
Speaker 1: people were saying online.
Speaker 2: People were loving you on the show.
Speaker 1: They loved the sound of your voice, and I'm I
Speaker 1: must admit, I don't know what let you down to
Speaker 1: be the first person eliminated. Maybe it was the night costume,
Speaker 1: but certainly it wasn't the voice.
Speaker 3: One of the nicest comments was like I thought it
Speaker 3: was James Blunt. Like, boy, happy with that.
Speaker 2: Now we know what you're doing.
Speaker 1: After Neighbors. You're a full time singer and you're taking
Speaker 1: it on to her.
Speaker 4: I'm going to go and do a do an album
Speaker 4: with James Blunt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you'll have you, If you'll have you.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: He might say no, we sound too similar, we can't
Speaker 3: do it, and that I'd understand. And sorry, James, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna have I'm gonna have to take this over from you.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, mate.
Speaker 1: Do they have anything in the contract to say how
Speaker 1: many people you're allowed to tell? Because I'm obviously going
Speaker 1: to tell people, going to tell their partners or the
Speaker 1: kids or you know whatever. If you do tell people,
Speaker 1: do you have to ring say Channel ten and say,
Speaker 1: by the way, add this name on the list I've
Speaker 1: accidentally told my uncle or anything? Like how do they
Speaker 1: how do they keep the amount of people you've told
Speaker 1: a secret?
Speaker 3: Well, you're not allowed to tell anyone, not even your partner,
Speaker 3: no one, not even your You're not meant yeah, you're
Speaker 3: not meant to be able to tell anyone. So but
Speaker 3: you know, obviously there's logistics to that, and you know
Speaker 3: you're just going to have to say, well, you know,
Speaker 3: you can't keep it from your wife all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: I'm just going to disappear, Like how do you do that?
Speaker 4: They'll think you're having an affair.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's why Fev hasn't been on the show, because
Speaker 1: he's worried his wife's going to think he's having an affair.
Speaker 1: So he's like, oh, look, that show's that's problematic for me.
Speaker 1: I'm going to have to side step it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've been down this path before and doesn't eny Well.
Speaker 1: What was interesting was when you took your head off,
Speaker 1: I feel like I felt personally I fell in love
Speaker 1: with your version of that song a little bit more,
Speaker 1: and reading online I think people did as well. Do
Speaker 1: you think that's because of our long time affection for
Speaker 1: you being on neighbors, you know, say as Tody that
Speaker 1: you know, it was just nice to see your face
Speaker 1: singing it.
Speaker 3: Look, I really don't know. Look, in all honesty, I
Speaker 3: was just really trying not to suck. So that was
Speaker 3: that was just my main goal was just don't suck.
Speaker 3: And because it's a very like, I'm not a singer,
Speaker 3: so obviously, you know, locking yourself away in a cupboard,
Speaker 3: you know, like singing against the walls so you can
Speaker 3: try to hear your voice back, because obviously singing is.
Speaker 4: A very audible experience.
Speaker 3: You've got to be able to hear yourself and seek
Speaker 3: a pitch and all that kind of jazz. And not
Speaker 3: having had any kind of microphone experience with that, and
Speaker 3: then when you get up to you know, when you
Speaker 3: get up to Sydney and you do a recording of it,
Speaker 3: and that's the first time you've actually heard yourself through
Speaker 3: a microphone and through a head you know, through through headphones,
Speaker 3: and you're like, oh, right, so that's what I sound like.
Speaker 4: Oh okay, well I don't need to sing like that.
Speaker 3: And you can change your voice and you can change
Speaker 3: how much pressure you put on your voice and how
Speaker 3: you're sing and so I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: oh wow. And so that's that was a pretty cool experience.
Speaker 3: And then so you kind of only kind of really
Speaker 3: get that experience once because then the next time you've
Speaker 3: got a mic on, and then you've got in ears,
Speaker 3: so the little earbuds, and with that you've got your
Speaker 3: backing tracks and your click tracks, and you're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 3: I've never sung with any of this before, and this
Speaker 3: all sounds completely weird. And then you're like trying to
Speaker 3: get the levels right of like how much can you
Speaker 3: hear of yourself back in your own ears, which is
Speaker 3: you know, that's a different thing as well, so you're
Speaker 3: essentially kind of learning how to sing the whole way.
Speaker 3: And then so then you go out in the audience,
Speaker 3: you know when you're doing and you're singing it live,
Speaker 3: but then you've got you audience sound, and then you've
Speaker 3: got the fold back and so once again when you
Speaker 3: go and do it, do it live, that's that's something
Speaker 3: completely different again, and you're like.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, man, this is this is a crazy experience.
Speaker 3: And then when you take your head off, then your
Speaker 3: microphone is a different one, you get a handheld and
Speaker 3: your earbuds are gone, and so now it all sounds
Speaker 3: completely different again. So it's like, oh wow, every step
Speaker 3: along the way is just something that you've never done
Speaker 3: before unless you're a singer. That is so hats off
Speaker 3: to it to anybody who actually really kind of takes
Speaker 3: it on and gives it a crack.
Speaker 2: I reckon, I land up.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm surprised that you weren't on the UK version,
Speaker 1: if I'm honest. So maybe we haven't really put the
Speaker 1: mask singer to bed for you just yet. I think
Speaker 1: that there's another audience that would love to be seing
Speaker 1: you on that show.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I think, yeah, you know, maybe i'd
Speaker 3: have to change my voice so I didn't sound like
Speaker 3: James Blunt.
Speaker 1: Anyone ever guesses James Blunt in the future, They're like, no, wait, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's right, no, right, Well, this has been a project
Speaker 1: you've had to keep secret, which would be very hard.
Speaker 2: But can we ask, you know, what are you thinking
Speaker 2: of doing next?
Speaker 1: Because there's just been so many people talking about what's
Speaker 1: going to happen with our favorite actors on Neighbors.
Speaker 3: I'm just actually really going to enjoy auditioning because just
Speaker 3: to get kind of different scripts and different writers through
Speaker 3: your hands, and you know, different styles again. So I'm
Speaker 3: really looking forward to auditioning and just seeing it kind
Speaker 3: of what pops up, you know, where the adventure takes me.
Speaker 3: So there's that, and I'm not kind of even attached
Speaker 3: to whether or not is.
Speaker 4: Even here or in the UK or wherever. Who knows.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, just you know, pop over and do
Speaker 3: a project, you know, pop back whatever. And then also
Speaker 3: at the same time, we're building a new house and
Speaker 3: a new farm, and we're going to be knocking everything
Speaker 3: down and rebuilding. So I'm going off to do a
Speaker 3: civil construction course where you know, I get to play
Speaker 3: with excavators and rollers.
Speaker 4: And diggers of all sorts.
Speaker 3: And yeah, then I can kind of use those skills
Speaker 3: while while I'm building the house and kind of doing
Speaker 3: all that. And then you know, have a bit of
Speaker 3: a part time job, you know, driving an excavator. I
Speaker 3: think I think that's going to be a bit of.
Speaker 2: Fun, something a little bit different.
Speaker 1: Well, when we think of Bussie soap star's sort of
Speaker 1: careers taking off, people like the Hemsworths and that kind
Speaker 1: of level of success for shits and giggles, who would
Speaker 1: be your Marvel character of choice? Is there any chance
Speaker 1: that we could see a trajectory of Toty to iron
Speaker 1: Man all time?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, he's got lots of cool toys and you
Speaker 3: know that's kind of what I'm doing, So yeah, we'll
Speaker 3: go with iron Man.
Speaker 1: Why not what Everyone who joins the podcast gets this
Speaker 1: last question, what's something from behind the scenes, something that
Speaker 1: we didn't see that we won't see from behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: kind of like a deleted scenes from your experience of
Speaker 1: being on the Marst Singer.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, there was this one, like we had to
Speaker 3: when we're doing stuff for the audience, like when the
Speaker 3: audience was kind of choosing and they kind of did
Speaker 3: the whip around to all the characters for the audience.
Speaker 3: They I don't know, they had actually made me climb
Speaker 3: up this flight of stairs at the back of the
Speaker 3: auditorium which was incredibly hot, and then and then basically
Speaker 3: they set my head on fire. There was, you know,
Speaker 3: a heap of smoke pouring out of my head and
Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4: And when I watched it last night, it.
Speaker 3: Was like, oh, well that's not in it, so yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know, that's that's a bit of a deleted
Speaker 3: scene for you where the night is on fire.
Speaker 1: Australia would never forgive the producers of The Mark Singer
Speaker 1: for setting you on fire. Let me tell you, you know,
Speaker 1: you're a darling of Australians, you know, entertainment world, so
Speaker 1: maybe not seeing your head being set on fire, can
Speaker 1: I just say you were fantastic.
Speaker 2: It was a really good first reveal.
Speaker 1: I think you did a fantastic job and even though
Speaker 1: it has come to an end, I think you should
Speaker 1: be really proud of yourself because it was a fantastic
Speaker 1: first episode, mainly because we got like a big name
Speaker 1: being revealed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it worked well for the show, so
Speaker 3: you know, they all seem happy and I'm too. I
Speaker 3: had a great time and you know I didn't suck,
Speaker 3: so that's, you know, a tick in the box.
Speaker 2: So lovely to chat with you, mate, so lovely.
Speaker 1: Good luck with everything, and hopefully I'll get a chance
Speaker 1: to have you on the podcast again sometime soon.
Speaker 4: All right, good on you, Thank you,