A new episodePar Wait Long By The River

James Kenyon hails from the Australia's Other Other Great City, Adelaide. In the intervening years he's done a pretty thorough job of dismantling it through art and story, including an art exhibition at MARS gallery in which he tortured city maps, twisted local sounds, and did his best to pretend that a millennium of erosion had cleaned up the city…

Tom McLean is a jokes guy. And a programmer. And a game designer. And a documentary videographer. It's not an easy life being so many things, but he makes it look easy with a charming smile and jokes about the Pope, among countless other things. He's form Melbourne, and he came in to the comforot of our podcasting library to talk about his many wor…

Hailing from the south of Melbourne, Erik Parker is a genuinely unique performer. You couldn't pin his influences down if you tried. Lucky we had a chance to ask him! He has quite a palette - a variety of ukeleles and related instruments, guitar, versatile vocals, and an assortment of gadgets that would put the European space program to shame. In t…

A new episodePar Wait Long By The River

"I came to the realisation a couple of years ago that everything I do for work is music related, plus everything I do socially is music related, plus I realised I was reading things that were music-related, and reading things that were music-related, and listening to music and watching documentaries... so I've been learning a little French?" Brooke…

Slam poet, artistic genius, Queanbeyanite, author, orator. "It's a short life. I'm always very aware of mortality. That's just the way I'm built - I don't have a minute to waste." Omar Musa is a Queanbeyan native ("2602, adds up to a perfect 10!") and proud of it. His latest book, which reached number 2 in Australia the week before we recorded the …

Strong-willed, big-voiced alt-country singer Ruby Boots "I find it hard to relinquish any control of what I'm doing... I will do anything at all costs to get a job done if it has to do with my music." There's no question that Bex Chilcott - nom de guitare Ruby Boots - is driven. This episode was a fine opportunity to find out that that assertive at…

Al Parkinson - Uke-strumming badass on living your whole life in your passion, and the community at the heart of music "In my life I'm all about relationships and I think that's why I love music so much. It just builds this amazing community of people, and I get to surround myself with lovely and talented people, whether they're musicians or not." …

Darren Hanlon - Urban folk cornerstone, funny and hearfelt, on travelling the world and settling down at the same time Darren Hanlon had toured the world for a decade and he was looking at recording his next album. "I got disheartened with the whole music process where you record an album and you tour it for three years. It felt like the factory li…

Jess Kelly - Sculptor/painter/all-round-maker on finding harmonies in the natural world and bringing them out through painstaking work and red wine "With that work... I basically sat in my room and drank wine and ate chocolate and went through a lot of stanley knives." All unintended, a theme is forming in the show: it can be very hard to pin down …

Tom Davis - Circus genius on relying on others as the foundation of his art, finding inspiration in tragedy, and the history of Australian circus "Circus people will not be famous. People will know the name Leotard, not for the fact that he did the first triple on a trapeze, but because he was principle in inventing the leotard." One sign of a true…

Mandy Connell - on being brought up folk and the trouble it causes in a country town, folk as an ethnic group, and reviving ancient works Mandy Connell is a folk festival favourite. She's quick, bright-hearted and liable to break into song mid-sentence. On stage she conjures up moods with an ease that comes from living her music. "I identify as fol…

Max Barker - Punk theatre facilitator on finding creative work wherever you happen to be, the punk aesthetic as creative bravery, and making dramatic impro "I've travelled around the world making theatre with different groups of people... It's what gives my life direction and meaning so I can find ways to do that, I don't need to have any training,…

Skyscraper Stan - Musical rascal on the realities of the hedonist lifestyl, the United States, finding space for music and friendly family competition Skyscraper Stan is everything you could ever want in a guest. He’s hilarious, he’s got strong opinions, he’s humble, he’s a looker, and his music is the real deal. Even a microphone malfunction that …

Sarah Kaur - Visual/dance/theatre artist on weaving a narrative across media, discovering inspiration on Tinder, and the negotiations behind a successful arts festival Wait Long By The River dreams big. It doesn't want to be 'just' a music podcast. It wants to explore creativity in all the forms that muses can take it. For every live recording of t…

Rich Davies - Devil's Union bandleader talks growing up grunge, misdiagnosis, love, life philosophies, and the redemption of living to record your album Rich Davies. It’s amazing he’s alive, let alone so light-hearted and happy to spin a yarn. As a child, Rich ran around the bars and music halls of Fife, Scotland, taking in the musical lifestyle of…