Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet

Chris Baker AKA Billy Fox is one of Australia's most prolific artists, talented producer and one hell of a top bloke!   Chris & I met in 2010 when I was music supervisor for Ballistyx Snowboard Show on Channel GO! and with a shared internal drive & ambition and love of the cheeky banter, we quickly became firm friends.   Drawing inspiration from the likes of James Blake, Sam Smith and James Vincent McMorrow for his latest single ‘Avalanche’, Billy Fox has been punishing the frequent flyer miles supporting the likes of Glass Animals, Boo Seeka, The Aston Shuffle, Tijuana Cartel and R.W. Grace on tours around Australia and his tunes getting the mad love from triple j, FBi and profile music blogs in the UK and the USA all spinning his tunes.    We catch-up about working with phenomenal producer/musician Nathan Cavaleri, Raging Bull, the joys of watching your career blossom to the next level before your very eyes, his next steps in the USA/UK and so much more.   If you’ve ever wanted to follow your dr

The first time I tried Nomad Brewing Co’s Long Reach Saison, I was on what I thought was a date at the Champagne Room upstairs from one of my favourite bars in Sydney, The Winery in Surry Hills. That minute the magic touched my lips (the beer), my internal monologue was like… “What IS this magnificence?”   Flash forward 4 weeks and I find myself at a craft beer launch in Surry Hills (Sydney) engaged in earnest conversation with co-founder and managing director of Nomad Brewing Co, Kerrie Abba, bonding over time we’ve both spent time living in the northern Italian region of Piemonte at the base of the Alps (where FIAT’s founded, the 2006 Winter Olympics were held and the home of Ferraro chocolate).   The very next Friday afternoon I’m sitting here in the ‘Transit Lounge’, Nomad’s tasting bar at the brewery, sipping on Nomad's Freshie Salt & Pepper Gose and reminiscing with Kerrie about the joy of Italian culture and love of life that we were both fortunate enough to experience by living in Italia and the i

Fascinating podcast with Poppy Renegade co-founder, Hatching Lab CEO & tech entrepreneur, Christie Whitehill.   Christie and I met a few months back through theright.fit tech entrepreneur, Taryn Williams, after Taryn joined us as our guest on the Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! podcast. On today’s show we chat about #StandTall and the creation of Poppy Renegade, a community of women (and men) built to inspire, empower and celebrate each other, Christie’s impending motherhood and shifting the way in which she approaches her career as a highly intelligent, independent & successful businesswoman, Hatching Lab - an App Development & Innovation Lab for Startups and Enterprises, raising capital for start-ups and little pieces of advice she’d give those keen to make a start in the tech world.   Super chats. Let’s get into it!   Connect with Christie Whitehill online: https://twitter.com/MsCWhitehill Poppy Renegade: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1124807270896958/ https://twitter.com/PoppyRenegad

Australian comedian, writer & musician, Andrew Hansen from The Chaser. One of the most hilarious, engaging & insightful podcasts that I’ve ever had the pleasure to be part of.   Set in Sydney’s Giant Dwarf Theatre, Andrew & I enjoy vast ranging chats, bond over our grandfathers who were in World War II, his grandfather actually landing into Hiroshima the day after the bomb dropped to demand the surrender of a local general, The Chaser’s War On Everything’s hilarious APEC stunt with George W Bush and “Osama Bin Laden” (in fact Chas Licciardello dressed up as Osama), Andrew Denton, Giant Dwarf and so much more.   Sitting here in Little Jack Horner cafe in Coogee Beach writing this article and editing the podcast as we speak, wearing a massive smile on my face. Such an amazing chat! 

  In less than 2 weeks time, Aussie pop rock quartet Little Sea will launch the world's first, fully digital concert performed and broadcast live from Twitter Australia HQ in Sydney, which will be watched around the world from Sydney to Paris, from London to New York and created in partnership with Twitter Australia to launch the band’s brand new EP “On Loop”.   In today’s Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! podcast, we chat about Little Sea’s beginnings in the western suburbs of Sydney, where Oliver (guitarist) and Leighton (drummer) grew up and first met, using the Twitter platform to connect with and build a large scale audience of peers, friends and fans across the globe, jetting to California to record their first EP just a few days after signing a new record deal, plans to relocate to Los Angeles and what makes them tick and drives their hunger for success.   Wicked hangs over a few Coopers Pale Ale beers with the Little Sea lads, who have a collective Twitter presence of over 200,000 and hit the #1

  Sounds Australia Export Music Producer, Glenn Dickie AKA Glenny G spent 12 years as a presenter at 3RRR in Melbourne and another 12 at EMI Music Australia in A&R/Promotions/Marketing working with artists such as Lily Allen, Katy Perry, Sigur Ros, You Am I, signing acts such Miami Horror, Ricki-Lee, Oh Mercy and was part of a team that signed The Cat Empire, Airbourne, Alison Wonderland and hip hop acts 360 and PEZ.   He now travels around the world with Sounds Australia exporting the very best of Australia music at all the worlds largest music conferences including SXSW, Canadian Music Week, The Great Escape (UK), Americana, Music Matters (Singapore), Reeperbahn (Germany), CMJ Music Marathon and many more.   Connect with Glenn Dickie online: https://www.instagram.com/glennyg/   Sounds Australia: https://twitter.com/soundsaustralia https://www.instagram.com/soundsaustralia/ https://www.facebook.com/SoundsAustralia http://soundsaustralia.com.au/   Hit Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet up

23 degrees and the blue skies are shining in Sydney as I sit down for a beer & a podcast with Young Henrys Brewery & Distillery, co-founder, Oscar McMahon.    Founded in 2012, it’s clear that Oscar’s values and passion for doing what you love in life are reflected in his business, as what started as a small batch brewery in iconic Sydney suburb, Newtown, has evolved into a myriad of connected, community-focused projects that encompass the Young Henrys Brewery & bar in Newtown, The Unicorn Hotel in Paddington, the launch of a new distillery as part of the brewery and this Sunday, Oscar McMahon & his team, held a launch event at Young Henrys in partnership with Pingala and the people of to become Sydney’s first community solar co-operative, reducing the carbon footprint of his business by committing to install community-funded solar panels on the roof of the brewery.   So apart from making pretty damn tasty beers (I was at Young Henrys Brewery just 2 weeks ago myself), Oscar McMahon is a super i

How do you define success? You yourself reading this right now… What does success look like to you? It’s a question that we so rarely ask ourselves and often I think that we all lose sight of the bigger picture. These days the answer for me is simple, living for the now, driving for the future, constantly reassessing and adjusting my goals, both career & personal.   This is just one of the many topics we touch on in today’s wonderful podcast with Australian dancer, singer & actress, Stefanie Turner, who’s currently appearing in Australian Tour of the musical ‘Singin’ In The Rain’. We chat about being selected as dance fitness and pilates instructor for Nike, life on the road touring Australian with ‘Singin’ In The Rain’, Broadway, New York versus L.A., Go Karting and top tips to drive you forward when you’re struggling for motivation or don’t know where to start when pursuing your dreams.   And then to top it off we finished up with a hike along the Bondi to Bronte coastal walk. What a way to spend a

Founder of WINK Models and Co-founder/CEO THERIGHT.FIT, Taryn Williams, is truly an inspiration!   Have you ever left a conversation with someone you’ve just met and you’re literally buzzing for hours afterwards? Well, this is one of these.   We chat about the excitement of raising $750,000 in seed funding from AirTree Ventures to help further develop TheRight.Fit influencer platform, getting a pilot’s licence & learning to fly at a young age, starting her first company at 21, being an female influencer & inspiration in the tech industry, Taryn’s favourite project management tools to keep both companies humming, the patterns & differences that enable entrepreneurs to thrive and much, much more.   If you’ve ever wanted to start-up your own business, but don’t know where to begin, then this podcast with Taryn Williams is the chat for you.    Energy +++. Let’s get into it!   Connect with Taryn Williams (Founder Wink Models + TheRight.Fit) online:   Wink Models https://twitter.com/winkmodelsaus http

Peow peow peow!   We’ve gone for the music industry and podcast double header this past 2 weeks, rounding out July with producer Matt Nielson of Poncho TV.   Poncho TV is a killer online video & podcast channel that breaks the boredom and lack of general innovation of your standard, generic music industry content, by producing hilarious vids to entertain themselves and Aussie artists/bands who are sick of phoning in the same old bullshit music media interviews.    Pushing the boundaries is pretty much Matt’s job description and as a guy that’s had to toe the line in brand world, it’s a vibe I can relate to well, with Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! not only being my travel, entertainment & lifestyle brand, but a release where I can be me and let my true creativity and personality rise to the top.   This is a SUPER chat as we geek out over the joys of podcasting, with Matt as the co-host of Poncho TV’s Poncho Podcast, the producer of Club Angels podcast if you’re into your dance music, p

87 Ash Hills (Tram Sessions & 123 Agency - Music Industry).   Are you happy in your chosen career? Do you set yourself little checkpoints along the way where you re-assess where you’re at? Do you actually enjoy what you’re doing?   On a cold winter’s morning in Collingwood (Melbourne), I meet Ashleigh Hills, Tram Sessions GM, 123 Agency project manager and Woodlock acoustic/folk trio's band manager for the first time. Originally from Dunedin, New Zealand, Ash arrived in Melbourne 7 years ago with no real concrete career plan and then stumbled across the Tram Sessions, a not-for-profit project that sees some of Australia’s most talented musicians perform live guerrilla concerts on Melbourne’s most popular method of transport, which is filmed and shared out to the masses.   With well over 3m views on YouTube, Tram Sessions boast a wealth of premiere established and emerging talent of the likes of Vance Joy, Gotye & The Basics, Aussie icon Paul Kelly, Alpine, Kingswood, Bonjah & many more. If you’re

I am ambitious, I love the banter and am a big believer in surrounding yourself with passionate, like-minded souls who bring the best out of you in our personal life and professional career and quite often these mix quite well together, as I’ve discovered as a professional in both the music industry and the digital sphere over the past 10 years.   Back in 2010 I met an TV editor, by the name of Alister Robbie, whilst I was working as a music supervisor on Ballistyx Snowboard Show on Channel GO! Over the past 6 years our own parallel paths have driven each other forward as gentleman with a passion for life and shared ambition.   Flash forward 6 years later, Al’s production company The Post Project is thriving, whilst my own career and business grows from strength-to-strength and it’s exciting to think how far we’ve both come in such a short space of time.   One of the wonderful elements of focusing my energies on nurturing positive friendships like these, is that invariably I meet new like-minded people from t

  Hot Dub Time Machine is “The World’s Ever First Time Travelling Dance Party" and the “Best Party Ever”!    Hot Dub creator Tom Lowndes and I became buddies at the wedding of one of our mutual best friends on the grounds of the most amazing estate in the Blue Mountains over Australia Day weekend and from the moment I met him, I knew that I wanted to share his story with my audience.   In today’s podcast we cover a range of topics including Hot Dub Time Machine bringing in the New Year playing to 80 thousand people on the packed & picturesque streets of Edinburgh for world-renown Hogmanay New Year’s Eve Festival, working with his inspiring and talented wife, partner-in-crime and actor, Alexandra Plim, music industry chats about Falcona and the success of Alison Wonderland and DMAs in North America, DJ Shadow and Tom’s professional inspirations, working in TV and creating sound design for literally hundreds of episodes on high profile Australian TV shows such as Underbelly and McLeod's Daughters, his lates

84 Tanya Batt - Part 2 (AKA BATTS Music)   Super continuation of the interview with one of my favourite guests on the Hot & Delicious Rocks The Planet! podcast, Tanya Batt of BATTS Music.   We chat about our favourite TV shows including Peaky Blinders, Suits and Game Of Thrones with English actress, Emilia Clarke, dancing with Ellen DeGeneres and  The Graham Norton Show, constantly evolving as an individual in your career by exploring yourself, doing what you love and constantly reassessing where you’re at, gun reform in the USA, #LoveIsLove and the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting, having a gun pointed at my head by the police while I was in the USA, syncing music, artistic credit & copyright and the beautiful time-lapse video that I shot on the Savannah River in Augusta, Georgia syncing BATT’s beautiful new single ‘Kiki’.   Savannah River links: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t665IMFAHzM Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HotnDelicious/videos/10153697509882066/ Hot & Delicious: Rocks

83 Tanya Batt - Part 1 (AKA BATTS Music)   Now I’m drinking just to feel something, in a twisted way I guess you win...   Blessed to have so many wonderfully, talented friends, I loved having talented Australian/English singer songwriter Tanya Batt AKA BATTS Music back on the Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! podcast.   We had so much to talk about that this episode is a double banger with not one, but two podcasts! One this week, one next!   Over a couple of cheeky Jameson Irish Whiskeys, in Part 1 this week we discuss her beautiful new single, ‘Kiki’, platonic friendships with the opposite sex, falling in love, heart-break, break-ups and wondering if the person you have broken up with is thinking about you, Bon Iver at the Sydney Opera House, recording in New York and Iceland, how BATTS Music and Tanya’s career is starting to take off in both Australia and the UK, nudie runs & living at Meredith Music Festival, Braille Face, meeting Nile Rogers & Chic and Charles Bradley at Golden Plains, our r

Boom!  Sweet catch-ups by me and my dirty pornstar moustache with Tribe App founder, radio personality & TV presenter, Jules Lund about his recent foray into the digital space and the launch of game-changing influencer platform, Tribe app. Reebok, Sony Music, Grill’d, Contiki, Paramount Pictures and American Express are just a few brands who have jumped on board this self-serve platform designed to match Australia's most influential people with brands around the country. And I’m not just talking celebrities, I am talking about everyday Australians who have built their own personal brands through early adoption, well crafted social media content and have built audiences in beauty, fashion, sport, health, travel and entertainment just by staying true to who they are and being themselves. There are over 250,000 people in Australia with more than 5,000 followers on either Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and this is the perfect opportunity for both brands and influencers to not only cash in on a mutually bene

Andrew Bongiorno, star of the sold-out, twice-extended West Coast USA production of award-winning Broadway musical, The Boy From Oz, was born in a small country town like myself, has lived in many different cities/countries around the world and is strivin

If you’re a tech/start-up buff and always wanted to work in San Francisco, then what you may not know about the USA is that while San Francisco is a hive of activity in the tech and start-up world, both Silicon Beach and Pasadena in Los Angeles are also key communities where a lot of the magic happens that comes out of the USA.   Espree Devora is the founder of WeAreLATech, a hub for start-ups/entrepreneurs and regular event series created to connect to resources in the Silicon Beach community, the region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area that is home to over 500 tech startup companies.     I first met Espree at LA Podcast Festival last year where she was hosting a panel on "Podcasting as a Business” panel with Paul R. Gilmartin of the “The Mental Illness Happy Hour” podcast and then bumped into her at the SXSW Official Podcasters Meet-up just a few months back in Austin.   A speaker & panel moderator, Espree has provided seminars in interactive content and social media to many corporations and univers

It’s a cool spring morning in Los Angeles as I head out to catch-up with American stand-up comedian, The Dollop and Point Vs Point podcaster, writer and actor, Gareth Reynolds.   Super hangs and we spend an hour or so kicking back on the couch at his joint riffing on the business & #SeemsLegit bullshit of Tinsel Town, LA’s untapped secrets (hikes, farmers markets and all the best vegetarian/vegan restaurants), a behind-the-scenes look at the highly popular The Dollop and Point Vs Point podcasts (this is definitely a podcast for the podcast fans including how Gareth Vs Gary came about), his favourite podcasts and story-telling in comedy, the inspiration of everyday people and what motivates Gareth Reynolds to keeping pushing forward, the hurdles involved creating a successful TV show or movie in Hollywood and much much more.   Fascinating insights by a super grounded, highly intelligent & hilarious comedian into the reality of making it in Hollywood’s entertainment industry.   Step inside our world...

Shock Records A&R and Label Director and founder of artist management business Be Like Children, Luke Girgis, is a buddy of mine whom I met through the Australian music industry a few years back and he’s one kickass dude, who walks the talk and is getting shit done! Having originally started out as a hip hop artist collaborating with Australian rapper Chance Waters, Luke Girgis fell into Artist Management in 2006 out of his passion for helping his friends and favourite artists establish and build their careers. Flash forward 10 years and Luke and I are podcasting in a Texas hotel room at SXSW chatting about being the head of a record label, partying in Paris and recording Chance Waters’ latest record, the inspiration of British novelist C. S. Lewis, religion, self-motivation, locking in a management deal with pop rockers Little Sea on a Monday then landing a global publishing deal with Universal Music just 2 days later on a Wednesday before flying the band out to LA, trending on social media & travell