Take 5

Take 5 is celebrating 20 years, and we're marking the milestone with something special. Zan Rowe is bringing the show to record stores around the country for four intimate, live conversations with some of Australia's most loved artists: The Presets Kate Miller-Heidke Dan Sultan John Butler Each guest takes on a theme and chooses five songs that speak to it, and what unfolds is always unexpected. A...

Vika and Linda Bull are national treasures. From their early days singing backing vocals with Joe Camilleri and The Black Sorrows to breaking out on their own with acclaimed records, they're part of the very fabric of Australian music, and they do it all in harmony. Their voices have soundtracked decades of Australian life, but it's the story behind those voices that makes them extraordinary. Grow...

Genesis Owusu is one of Australia's most thrilling new artists. Born Kofi Owusu-Ansah, he immigrated to Canberra with his family when he was just two years old. Almost immediately he felt like an odd one out. And he used that feeling to get weird. 20 odd years later, his music, visuals, and storytelling has resonated with millions. He's won the ARIA for Album of the Year twice (first for Smiling w...

Lainey Wilson is a force of nature. Raised in the tiny farming town of Baskin, Louisiana (population 170) she grew up between corn fields and country radio, where music wasn't a genre but a way of life. From writing her first song at nine years old to hauling a camper trailer to Nashville at 19, her path to becoming one of country music's biggest stars was anything but overnight. It took a decade...

Jacinda Ardern is a history-maker. As Prime Minister of New Zealand at 37, she became only the second woman in the world to give birth while in office. But it was her leadership style that defined her time at the top, leading with empathy and kindness in the face of back-to-back tragedies, and showing the strength of coming together. From growing up in small-town New Zealand singing country and we...

David Byrne is a music icon. With Talking Heads, or his many wild collaborations, and as an acclaimed solo artist, he's continually pushed the boundaries of sound, crafting some of the most iconic live performances of our time. Over five decades, he's never stopped asking why. His curiosity has driven an extraordinary creative life that stretches way beyond music: on canvas, in writing, filmmaking...

When you look back at the Australian artists who've made their mark internationally, Savage Garden are right up there.  Two guys from Brisbane who went Number 1 around the world, cracked the notoriously tough U.S. market and sold nearly 30 million albums with hits like 'I Want You', 'To The Moon And Back', and 'Truly Madly Deeply'.  They may have only been together for two albums, but the legacy o...

Shania Twain holds the record for the biggest selling country album of all time: Come On Over.  Growing up poor in a Canadian mining town, who could have foreseen that the woman born Eileen Regina Twain would go on to sell over 100 million records, cross country music into pop, and become one of the most recognisable voices on the planet? Her life has been extraordinary, dotted with hit albums and...

Peter Garrett has been an unstoppable force of Australian music for decades. As the iconic frontman of Midnight Oil, a grassroots activist, and a former Federal Parliamentarian, he's spent a lifetime driving change: from the pubs of Sydney to the remote outback communities that reshaped the band's sound, from the floor of Parliament to the world's biggest stages. He's never stopped pushing. But be...

Take 5 with Zan Rowe is back on your screens from Thursday August 20, and Season 5 is the biggest yet! What song makes Peter Garrett cry?  What was the tune that woke David Byrne up to the full body physicality of music, at Studio 54?  And who do you think a teenage Jacinda Ardern was blasting, as she hooned around her hometown in New Zealand?  You’re about to find out, as Take 5 returns for a 5th...

This is one of the best bits from Take 5. One of the greatest songwriters of all time sat down with Zan Rowe to open his songbook and dive deep into the making of five of his greatest.  Paul McCartney has provided the soundtrack to billions of lives. His legacy in song is unparalleled; starting with The Beatles, who changed the game forever, he rolled on with his own solo career while building a n...

This is one of the best bits from Take 5. Kacey Musgraves is a straight shooter, a woman of conviction. In person and in song, the bridge she creates with her fans is something else, and it’s made her one of the most loved artists around. For Kacey’s Take 5, Zan wanted to find out about the music that brought her to today, and to borrow a title from her own debut album, helped Kacey “follow her ar...

This is one of the best bits from Take 5. Founding member of Blink-182, Angels and Airwaves, and UFO enthusiast, Tom DeLonge hung out with Zan Rowe back in 2012, while in the country to play Soundwave Festival. You don't create a career like that without loving music, so Zan dived into the music that changed his life. Listen to the full episode here : https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/take-5/...

This is one of the best bits from Take 5. In 2024 Emily Wurramara released her second album NARA and cemented herself as a powerful indigenous storyteller.  The Warnindhilyagwa woman joined Zan Rowe to Take 5 on the same day her second album was released and the energy in the studio was pumping. It’s very much a record of renewal, and one of Double J's 50 Best Albums of that year. Listen back to E...

Poh Ling Yeow has been part of our lives for two decades. As a TV chef, a gourmet stall owner, a celebrity in the jungle, and a cookbook author. Poh is a painter and has even popped up an actor, describing herself as having a greed for life experience. Poh is currently hosting and judging on the latest series of Masterchef, and this week she's Taking 5.  Fall into the stories and songs that have s...

2026 marks 20 years since Hot Chip released The Warning. Their second album leapt from the quiet, reflective electro of their debut and catapulted us all onto the dancefloor. To mark the occasion, we share an episode from 2020 when Joe Goddard and Al Doyle dropped in to Take 5. Their theme? Jubilant songs. Their vibes? Pure joy.  From classic to modern gold to deep cuts, settle in with some "heate...

This month, Gotye's breakthrough album Like Drawing Blood, turns 20. It was the record that took him from bedroom producer to Hottest 100 favourite, showcasing his incredible talent at sewing sounds. The man behind Gotye, Wally De Backer, has been keeping a low profile for a while. But back in 2007, after a huge year following this album's release, he joined Zan Rowe to Take 5.  This is one of the...

This week marks the 20th anniversary of Tool's huge album 10,000 Days. Back in 2013, Tool were in the country playing massive shows when drummer Danny Carey and bass player Justin Chancellor came into the triple j studios to Take 5 with Zan Rowe. As we mark the anniversary of Tool's chart topping album, let's time travel back to a Take 5 classic. The theme? Unexpected finds in their music library....

In the fifteen years since Emma Louise wowed us with her debut single 'Jungle', she’s shown all sides of herself, singing her story with vulnerability and reflection. Last year, Emma released the collaborative album Dumb with producer Flume. But it’s been 8 years since her last solo album, the daring and romantic Lilac Everything.  This week, she returns with Sunshine for Happiness, an album that...

35 years ago, we met a band called Smashing Pumpkins. Rising in the wave of American grunge, the Chicago band were led by the iconic voice of Billy Corgan and would rise and rise like all their contemporaries, over the coming years.  If you know anything about music history, you know the story of the Pumpkins is a tumultuous one. But Billy has continued through it all.  Back in 2012, Billy was in...

Alexei Toliopoulos is a lifelong cinephile. Known for his excellent podcasts including The Last Video Store, he’s a writer, comedian, filmmaker and loves talking about the movies that made us who we are today. The way he speaks about cinema invites everyone into the conversation. But what are the songs that soundtrack his life? And why? Dig into a joyful convo that will have you curating a playlis...

Thirty years ago the world met Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Their debut album Revival introduced us to two incredible storytellers, singers and guitarists, and in the three decades since they’ve swept us away in song. It's long been on my bucket list to have them Take 5, and finally here it is. When thinking on a theme, I landed on time. Time, and their ruminations on time, have always swirle...

Are you ready for some incredible stories? Take 5 always gifts us with some cracking yarns, but this week’s episode takes the cake. In fact, I’ve had more responses to Ed Le Brocq’s Take 5 than any other, in ages. Ed used to be Eddie Ayers, a legendary ABC Classic FM broadcaster who has shared his life of adventure with us over the past two decades. Ed is a cellist, viola, and violin player, and h...

Where do you begin with Tim Rogers? For more than 30 years he has been the soundtrack to our lives. As frontman for You Am I, an acclaimed solo artist and keen collaborator, an actor, author and once even a Double J broadcaster. He's made a living in more ways than one, and his approach to living has shifted over the years. A long time coming, I invited Tim to Take 5 and explore this idea of a liv...

Comedian Lizzy Hoo has been everywhere the past few years. When she’s not doing stand up, she’s popping up on Have You Been Paying Attention?, and hosting her own podcast The Lizzy Hoo Show. Lizzy has made travel shows, and is even the voice of an airline. She's one of those people who says YES to life.  She also has also got a razor sharp wit, and more than a few adventurous tales which is why I...