Cereal Music Talks x ŽIVA

Mladen Milinkovic is a Serbian-born, Melbourne based artist behind underground pop act Lalic, a Melbourne-based band that began as Milinkovic's adolecent bedroom project. https://lalic.bandcamp.com/music Find Cereal Music Talks wherever you listen to your podcast. New episode drops every last Tuesday of the month, accompanied with an artist newsletter.  https://linktr.ee/cerealmusictalks http...

Tongue Dissolver are a punk/tech trio from Naarm - a project of collaboration, improvisation and momentum, which layers rants of resistance atop piles and piles of drums. I sat down with Andy and Al from the band to discuss their latest album and the process behind it: from what it means to them to make music, build community, and resist the imposed strategies on how artists should promote their w...

Nū is an Ethiopian-Australian sound artist, vocalist and live coder* whose work blends non-Western musical traditions, improvisation and Afrofuturism. Using the live coding program Sonic Pi and her vocals, she creates immersive sonic worlds, weaving elements from ambient, jazz, R&B and electronic music.  On an overcast Tuesday morning in Collingwood, Nū and I met at Trainscendence - a venue tu...

In this very first episode of 2026, I sit with producer and DJ Rita Bass at Russian House venue in Fitzroy to hear more about what stand behind her drive (and burnout), and the search for home, being raised in Melbourne by Russian-Armenian parents. Our conversations moves from to-do lists and routines to the deeper pull of identity, language, and authenticity in sound. From EP milestones to stagin...

In this episode, I sit down with Zoltan Fecso , a Hungarian, Melbourne-based composer and artist whose work explores the many perceptual possibilities of listening through prepared instruments, field recordings, and electronics. We talk about the challenge of balancing an active creative life; touring, rehearsing, and new projects, while maintaining grounding routines like meditation and journalin...

Ivan Masic is a Melbourne-based artist working at the intersection of sound design, projection, and the moving image under the alias Ex Ponto . His practice explores the insoluble intimacy between music, light, and place through immersive, site-responsive works. I visited Ivan in his studio  Twomb , to talk about capturing stories through sound, the freedom of instinctive music-making, and how his...

KAI CULT is the cutting edge Techno Punk project of Louis Fuji, combining diverse influences from Asia with the trendy underground sounds of Punk Rock, Post- Punk, Hardcore, Hyperpop and Techno. Inspired by his roots in Punk and Metal, KAI CULT delivers an explosive and energetic live show. He's built a social media system that works for him so I sat down to find out more about his approaches...

In this episode, I chat with Chiara Costanza aka Chiara Kickdrum, Italian-Australian film composer and electronic music producer. Her recent screen credits include the global Netflix hit Heartbreak High, the feature film Panopticon (KVIFF) and Inside, starring Guy Pearce and Cosmo Jarvis, which screened at Tribeca in 2025. She also composed the score for Mixtape (BBC/Foxtel), which premiered at SX...

Today on Cereal Music Talks , I’m joined by Gregor - a Bosnian-Australian multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who’s been writing and producing music since 2010. His work spans a wide range of achievements: from Cillian Murphy playing his track on BBC radio, to sold-out shows across Melbourne, and nominations for Best Album and Best Solo Artist at the Music Victoria Awards. Despite arriving at his...

In this episode, I chat with Vijay Thillaimuthu also known as Xenosine, a Tamil-Australian audio-visual and laser artist whose work is rooted in curiosity, feedback systems, and exploration of electromagnetic phenomena. We dig into the process behind his latest and most ambitious work, Oblation, a massive audio-visual piece that took five years to realise. Vijay shares how his creative practice is...

In this episode, I chat with Liv Jansz, the creative mind behind Punko, an electronic solo project from Melbourne that blends pop, ambient, and post-punk influences to create dreamy soundscapes. We discuss the transition from being in a band to going solo and how to find clarity in the process. A big part of that is managing decision fatigue - the challenge of handling every aspect of a project on...

In this episode, I sit with Mia Salsjö, a Melbourne-based interdisciplinary artist whose work exists at the intersection of drawing, music composition, text, and performance. The conversation immediately hits off with a discussion of organised chaos and the role discipline plays in her life and work. With degrees in music improvisation, visual art, and one from the Kundalini Research Institute, Mi...

The double life is a familiar concept for many musicians and interdisciplinary artists. By day, one thing; by night, another. But what does it take to turn that passion into a full-time career? Monica Lim, a Malaysian-Australian sound artist and composer, traded a conventional path of a tax accountant for the creative highs of fashion design, and ultimately, sound art. Her work now spans installat...

For this very first episode of 2025, I sat down with evolsleep , a Russian-born, Melbourne-based sound designer and music producer, to discuss his journey of moving to Melbourne and building a successful music business, evolsound . With clients like Adidas, Champion, Sennheiser and Volvo, you've probably heard his work already. Shortly after his latest release 'Kinda regards' , over...