Category: interview

An Interview with Singer Karise Eden

693387-22ac9e54-5d82-11e4-919b-767a5a42ab7cKarise Eden first entered the music scene when she won The Voice back in 2012. After a break from the industry, Karise is back with her album Things I’ve Done, and is on the road again bringing her music and new baby with her.

So let’s talk about the album, Things I’ve Done – Why did you choose that as the title and how did you go about making the new album?

The album is full of songs talking about my life, what I’ve done or experienced. At the same time it’s songs I’ve been working on since my first album (and beforehand)… so it’s me literally saying, ‘here you go, here’s what I’ve been doing since my last album!’ [laughs]. I wrote the album all over the place – London, LA, Melbourne, Sydney and on my farm in Queensland. We recorded most of the album in Sydney and Melbourne with a few really killer producers.

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An Interview with Normie Rowe

normierowe1To celebrate fifty years since the release of It Ain’t Necessarily So, Normie Rowe brings FRENZY! – The 50th Anniversary Collection. The new album features 30 of his hits from 1965-1968 remastered for 2015. I attended his album launch yesterday – but before I get to that – here’s the interview I did with him last week.

Let’s start with the new album FRENZY! – The 50th Anniversary Collection …

We decided to go back and revisit songs we recorded in the 60s as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of my first record It Ain’t Necessarily So. To point out the fact that in those times the pop music world was incredibly frenetic. The kids were more enthusiastic about the music than hither to been seen. Much more enthusiastic than I guess the Rock ‘n’ Roll period or the Bobby Socks’ period of the early Frank Sinatra times. The kids were just like maniacs! To get out of a venue with some article of clothing in tact or some part of your hair still on your head was quite a miracle. So we chose the songs that were pretty reminiscent of the sort of things we were singing and playing in those days.

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An Interview With CHESS director Ryan Fogwell and lead Tavis Cunningham

Tavis+Steph Chess hero mediumIt’s hard to describe Chess, the musical composed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus from ABBA with lyrics by Tim Rice, with its intricate plot, complex characters and multitudinous themes of love, politics and war – one really has to see it to appreciate it. With such well known songs as Anthem and One Night in Bangkok, this production has won countless fans all over the world and its original London production, starring Elaine Page and Murray Head, ran for three years on the West End. I spoke with Director Ryan Fogwell and lead Tavis Cunningham, who plays Anatoly Sergievsky, about the new production coming to Manly, NSW for a limited run this May.

Let’s talk about Chess. For people who haven’t heard of nor seen the musical before – what is Chess about?

Tavis: It’s set in the middle of the Cold War in 1979-1980 – a bit more into the later of the Cold War I guess, – and it’s really about how people are controlled by their countries and the political machinations that are going on between members of the US and the Soviet Union. It’s all taking place during two chess tournaments – one in Italy and one in Thailand. It follows the Russian chess player [Anatoly] and one of the members of the American team [Florence] who they get together during the first chess match and then various complications happen.

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Interview: Actor Emmett Skilton

MV5BMTY4MzM3NDE2Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNDU2OTkxMDE@._V1_SX640_SY720_If you haven’t heard of New Zealand actor Emmett Skilton then you probably have yet to discover the brilliance of the kiwi comedy-drama series The Almighty Johnsons. If this is the case, find it on Netflix, buy the DVDs, hell – illegally download it if you must!, however you can get your hands on it – it’ll be well worth your while! Emmett, who plays youngest brother Axl Johnson in the series, speaks all things TAJ and more below.

Please note: There are some slight spoilers from the series in this interview!

Firstly, you’ve been in Los Angeles for quite a while now. What have you been up to?

Sure have. I originally came here for The Almighty Johnsons’s SYFY promotion last year and since then I have worked on various projects, a favourite being a feature film called Bella, being released later this year/early next year. And I have, of course, been exploring this giant country as best I can – Central Park in New York in the snow is a definite favourite so far!

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Interview With Singer Mark Vincent

2263229Back in March, I had the pleasure of attending the Dirty Dancing Media Call which included a Q&A with the cast. I lost all my audio, so thank you to Allison from Theatre People who was kind enough to transcribe my question and Mark Vincent’s answer for me.

Mark, you’re known for your classical voice; did you have to adapt your voice for the role of Billy in Dirty Dancing?

Oh God, yeah. I’m glad you asked. I remember in the auditioning process, I had to study this role for 6 months, learn obviously dancing, acting and … really about Billy. Because, it’s funny, Billy is 19 and at 19 I started with my career – well, continued on with my career. When I auditioned for the role, it’s funny cause they said, “Mark, don’t be 45” and I didn’t know what they meant by that.

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Interview: Singer Patrizio Buanne

913429_thumbnail_280_Patrizio_Buanne.v1Italian singer Patrizio Buanne is currently in Australia promoting his new album Viva La Dolce Vita featuring songs in his native-Italian, Spanish and English including the Tom Jones classic Help Yourself. I spoke to Patrizio about languages, Australia, fans and what is next for 2015…

I imagine song choice takes quite a lot of time to perfect because not only are you choosing songs in many different languages, you’re also taking songs sung in a particular language and changing it. Does that make song choice quite hard when you’re going into making a new album?

The one thing that I’m very very happy about is that I’m allowed to be myself which means that people really buy the music of Patrizio. When I started, I had to introduce myself somehow so my debut album was called The Italian and it basically presented myself as the guy who sings the beautiful Italian songs. With the years, I became known as the ambassador of the Italian songbook explaining that Italian music is not just opera. It’s not just the music that we know from Andrea Bocelli or the classical Tenors but there is a romantic side and a pop-y side of the music.

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Interview with Singer Jasmine Rae

JasmineThree time ARIA nominated, CMA International Award winner and two time CMC Music Award winner Jasmine Rae is set to release her 4th album titled Heartbeat on May 15th. The single, of the same name, has already reached number #1 on the Australian country music charts. I sat down with Jasmine to chat about zombies, cake, duets and the lead up to the new album.

Firstly, congratulations on the new album Heartbeat. How are the nerves leading up to the release?

Really good. The feeling is really good. People have been super supportive with the single and I can’t wait for them to hear the rest of the album. I’m in Crows Nest at the moment, just hanging around Sydney. We’ve been doing some things like presentations for Universal for the album and all the things that go on behind the scenes before it comes out.

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