Take 5

It’s been a massive year for the Take 5. Since 2006 I’ve been having conversations that go well beyond music, but in the last couple of years I feel as though these co-hosts have gone deeper than ever. In 2019 alone, I had so many pinch myself moments, so I wanted to share them with you here in a frankensteined best of: a Take 10 to cap off a big year.  Over the next little while you’ll hear why t...

Ever since we first met American duo Best Coast, they’ve worn their love of California on their sleeves. Bethany Cosentino & Bobb Bruno have visited our coastal country a few times too and in 2012 they did the Take 5. The theme was “west coast is the best coast” and after listening to this, you’ll be convinced. Get ready for some California love, as the charming Best Coast take you on a holida...

Spiderbait are no strangers to triple j and Double J. They’re part of the fabric of Australian festival culture, they’re Hottest 100 champions, and drummer Kram has recently popped up again on stage in our annual One Night Stand gig in Lucindale. In 2012, when Kram did the Take 5, Spiderbait were gearing up to play a greatest hits set at Splendour in the Grass. He took us on a trip down memory lan...

The story of Refused is an interesting one. The Swedish hardcore punk legends had a strong fanbase and released three albums, the final of which was a modern classic. In 1998, The Shape of Punk to Come was just that: a forecast for how the scene would change, mashing genre and all the while bringing the fire they’d had from the get go. Soon after, they split up. Some members would go on to form Th...

Through the early to mid-noughties, Amanda Palmer’s voice cut through as frontwoman for the Dresden Dolls. Their cabaret pop filled the airwaves, and when she went solo fans were just as curious. Palmer is a woman of great conviction; she speaks often about the communities that form around art, and is unrelenting in her commitment to her own vision. She’s also great company. When she did this Take...

Elbow are one of those bands who hold a place in your heart. Maybe it’s the timbre of Guy Garvey’s voice or the stomping emotion they bring to their music. They’ve long been visitors to Australia and in 2011 made the trek to play Splendour in the Grass. When Guy Garvey and Pete Turner from the band did the Take 5 they’d just been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for the third time and had a s...

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros landed into the scene with their song ‘Home’. It was all over the radio, on soundtracks to films, you still hear it on TV advertisements. It was in 2012 that I asked Jade Castrinos and Alex Ebert from the band in to Take 5. They were wrapping up a huge tour with Mumford & Sons, and made some time to come by and share their songs from the road. Their song li...

There are certain bands that are part of the fabric of Double J and triple j. Powderfinger is one of them. As we trek through the Take 5 archives, I want to take you back to summer 2015, when triple j was celebrating our 40th birthday. It was such an amazing time: we got to connect to dots between the original Double Jay to triple j to our new Double J family. Former presenters jumped on air, we p...

Julia Jacklin now has two brilliant albums behind her, but three years ago she was just starting to get traction as a solo artist with her debut album. We’d known her as a member of the band Phantastic Ferniture, but her solo work stopped us dead in our tracks.  As the Take 5 dips into the archives here’s one from May 2017, when Julia Jacklin was back in Australia for a minute between a US and Eur...

For so many of us, My Chemical Romance soundtracked our angsty youth. Their theatrical music was mirrored by the wild shows, and Gerard Way was at the centre of it all. He wasn’t just a musician - he was an illustrator, a comic book author, and most of all a fan. In 2015 he was in Australia performing at the Soundwave festival off the back of his debut solo album Hesitant Alien and supporting the...

The Finns are a musical bunch. Neil has fronted the legendary Crowded House, sons Liam and Elroy play, and brother Tim led Split Enz and has made a heap of solo records. Back in 2011, Neil’s wife Sharon joined him on a record too. They called themselves The Pajama Club and together with Alana Skyring from The Grates on drums, they made an album. It was around then I asked them to Take 5. I remembe...

Tony Visconti is a living legend. For more than 50 years he’s been behind some of the most iconic albums of our time. His career began with T Rex, and later on he’d record with everyone from The Dandy Warhols, to Iggy Pop, The Damned to Angelique Kidjo. But his most enduring relationship was with David Bowie. They met in the late 60’s, both of them finding their way through music and the sounds, a...

It’s been a big time for Tool fans. They just released their first album in 13 years; it’s fair to say that anticipation was at an all time high when Fear Inoculum dropped. For the faithful, it’s been worth the wait, celebrating the precision and epic sound the American band have be known for. But even though it took a while for them to get around to new recordings, they continued to tour between...

Kasey Chambers is a living legend. Five number one albums, fourteen ARIA Awards, she recently became the youngest woman to be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Kasey grew up with music. As a kid she’d travel across the Nullarbor with her dad, at the end of each day the family would always gather around the campfire to sing songs. She’d end up playing with the family band, but it was her 1999 de...

Have you ever met a professor of punk? I didn’t even know such a thing existed, before I met Vivien Goldman. She lectures at New York University but way before she was an educator, Vivien was in the thick of it. She was writing about the scene back when it began; in fact she was one of the first people to explore the parallels between punk and reggae. And she lived in that realm too; Vivien was Bo...

If I told you to 'put a bird on it', you’d know immediately what I meant. This iconic sketch from Portlandia is the work of Fred Armisen. He’s a comedian who has filled our screens for almost 20 years; as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, alongside his best friend Carrie Brownstein co-creating Portlandia, and more recently on the mockumentary series Documentary Now. Music has been central to F...

Waleed Aly is the smartest guy in the room. Whether hosting The Project, writing editorials for major newspapers, or completing his PhD, it feels there’s nothing he’s not good at, and the Australian public agrees; he won the Gold Logie in 2016. We’re used to seeing Waleed dissect and make sense of the news every day, but sometimes you get a glimpse into his musical heart and you can see that it be...

Back in 2004, Andrew Stafford published a book called Pig City. It captured the Brisbane music scene, the politics that fuelled this artistic reaction and so much more. From the Saints to Savage Garden, it became a bible in music history. Fifteen years passed, and Staffo finally returned with his follow up. This time a personal memoir, taking us through the life of a quiet fan who always felt on t...

Jessica Mauboy is a ray of light. We met her on a singing show more than a decade ago and since then she’s been flat out being a renaissance woman with a helluva big voice. I’ve wanted to do a Take 5 with Jess for years; she’s one of those people you just want to spend time with. Her beautiful energy sucks you in and charms the heck out of you. She’s also always struck me as incredibly grounded; t...

Peter Hook is an architect of modern music. As bass player and founding member of Joy Division and New Order, his melodic high playing style changed the game. Hooky’s bands influenced countless other artists from all across the musical map. From the branches of post punk and electronic music, these two groups changed the game for all of us. Plenty of bands lifted from that blueprint too: Radiohead...

Adrianne Lenker feels things deeply. You hear it in every one of her songs; whether solo, or with her band Big Thief. Lucky for us, she shares it all. Over the past few years she's become one of the most promising and prolific songwriters around. Adrianne got her start early though, and it feels as though music has always helped her better understand the world. When she speaks about music everythi...

In the early 00’s The Streets burst onto the scene. Original Pirate Material was like nothing else around. Combining garage beats with everyday stories from a geezer we could all relate to. Mike Skinner wanted to literally push things forward, taking the garage genre in a new direction and using his lyrics to talk about what was really going on inside the hearts and minds of people in the clubs. I...

Where do you begin with Mark Ronson? 7 Grammys, an Oscar, and so many hit records over 15 years of writing and producing music. He may not sing, but he’s topped the charts in every other way; crafting 'Uptown Funk', co-writing 'Shallow' with Lady Gaga, and collaborating with musicians from right across the genre map. Ever since that debut album back in 2003, I’ve been a fan. The way he scooped up...

Jen Cloher is a beacon in Australian music. She’s one of our best songwriters, and a great champion of her peers. Whether it's running management workshops, or co-founding Milk Records, her sage advice and keen ears propel others. But what about the artists who light a path for her? From Patti Smith to Gareth Liddiard, Camp Cope to PJ Harvey, this is a conversation about so much more than music. A...

Warren Ellis’ music has been the soundtrack to my adult life. I remember when I first heard Dirty Three, they were like nothing else around; an instrumental band with a violinist who played like Hendrix, and epic songs that tore at the very fibre of your being. I listened to their albums and like many others put my own meaning into those wordless songs. In the mid 90’s we started seeing him more i...