Take 5

If you’ve ever lost touch with a friend or been heartbroken by a platonic breakup, Stella Donnelly’s new album is for you.  Documenting the end of a friendship, it’s a brutally honest, heartbreaking, and hopeful record so many of us can relate to. And Zan couldn’t wait to talk with her all about it. Stella is one of the best songwriters around today. She has always shot from the hip, told it like...

Justine Clarke is a legend. For most of her life she’s been in ours; as a child actor who graduated to a lifelong career on the big and small screen and into an acclaimed theatre actor.  For the last 20 years she’s probably been entertaining your kids, as a regular on Play School and ARIA winning singer of many children’s albums. But running parallel to all of this, has been music.  Way before she...

Oasis are undoubtedly the biggest band to rise out of Brit Pop. And it’s hard to describe how massive their return is. For years, the public fighting between the Gallagher brothers suggested they’d never come back. And one day, they did. Oasis have been playing all over the world to stadiums of screaming fans, young and old. And as they finally return to Australia, we’re celebrating by sharing a T...

Get ready to laugh, cry, and go head-to-head with two of Australia's most loved comedians.  Denise Scott and Matt Okine are Mother and Son (the remix). And as the second series comes to a close on ABC TV and ABC iview, I roped them in to Take 5. A bit out of the ordinary, but oh boy, they embraced it. This is beautiful and hilarious Take 5, and you’re gonna walk away from it feeling all the richer...

Paul Kelly is a national treasure, who's written the soundtrack to our lives. Road trips, first loves, heartbreak, our very sense of identity; he’s explored it all over more than 40 years and 30 albums.  But who are the songwriters that tickle him? And what place do they take him to? That was the theme I gave PK, when I invited him to Take 5. And you’re about to dig  into an extraordinary conversa...

Jarvis Cocker has had a dream run. As founding member and lead singer of Pulp, he hit the highest of the highs during Brit Pop in the 90s, before embarking on a solo career that was just as celebrated.  A few years ago he published a different kind of memoir called Good Pop, Bad Pop, which visually catalogued his stuff and told his story through its memories. And within that was revealed the Pulp...

At the age of 16, Lorde went #1 across the world. She was catapulted from the suburbs of Auckland to the Grammy's stage, winning Song of the Year.  12 years and four albums later, she's continued to defy expectations as a pop artist and is one of the most gifted songwriters of our time. This is an episode of Take 5 that was filmed for the TV series, but this podcast is an extended edit - capturing...

You’re about to learn a whole lot more about Kevin Bacon. The prolific actor has been on our screens for more than 40 years. It was his breakthrough part as Ren in Footloose that got him attention, but he was just getting started. Acclaimed roles in Apollo 13, A Few Good Men, The River Wild, and Mystic River would follow. In fact his filmography and range is so broad he literally had a game made u...

You’re about to see a side to Aaron Chen you’ve never seen before.  You might know him as George in Fisk, or Guy Montgomery’s sidekick on Spelling Bee.  Maybe you cheered his win on Taskmaster Australia season 3.  He’s also an acclaimed stand-up comic. But when I sat down with Aaron in his new home in New York City, I got a totally different sense of what makes him tick. This podcast is a companio...

As one-fifth of the Spice Girls, she's one of the most famous people on the planet. But you wouldn’t know it. The Liverpudlian's down to earth beginnings define who Mel C is today. Take 5 is back on your screens for a fourth season on ABC iview , and we kicked off the series with Sporty Spice.  In a beautiful HIFI bar in east London, we unpacked her remarkable story… of a kid who daydreamed about...

The transgressive trailblazer celebrates 25 years since The Teaches of Peaches. A boundary-blurring blend of electroclash, sex-positive feminist themes, and fun.  It would become a defining album of the early noughties, and kick off a career that made our heads spin time and time again. Peaches has been pushing the boundaries and conversations around gender and sexuality since the beginning, and s...

Take 5 with Zan Rowe is back on your screens from Tuesday 9 September, and Season 4 is our biggest yet. Kevin Bacon Melanie C from the Spice Girls Lorde Paul Kelly Comedian Aaron Chen (Fisk, Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee) Pulp's Jarvis Cocker Across this new season, you’ll hear revealing, funny, and deeply personal conversations with some of the most fascinating artists around. Each guest...

Mac DeMarco has long been loved for his laid-back guitar noodlings and so called “slacker” rock. He sometimes calls it "jizz jazz", but whatever it is, it’s gained him a loving fanbase across the world. For the past few years, Mac has moved away from traditional albums in favour of brain dumping huge swaths of music – a lot of it without lyrics. But now he’s returned with an old school album, and...

Bert McCracken from The Used shares 5 songs that 'got him through'. The frontman and founding member of The Used found his tribe through music, and he’s gathered a huge community of fans over the last 25 years. It's the occasion of that quarter century that’s taking them around the world, to play out their first three albums in full night after night. It’s why I invited Bert to Take 5. His music h...

It’s been five years since Meg Washington released an album of original songs, but that time hasn’t been wasted.  Starring in Bluey as Calypso, and co-writing the Paul Kelly inspired film How To Make Gravy have dominated her last little while.  But now she’s back with GEM, and it’s a welcome return. When talking about the album, Meg said she conjured a treasure island while writing these songs, fi...

Sophie Payten has had a wild five years. Better known as Gordi, she’s been living all over, put music on hold to work her day job as a doctor during the pandemic, and has been reassessing her place and space in the world through it all. It’s been that long too, since her last album, and she’s captured the intensity, beauty, and whirlwind of her experiences on Like Plasticine. Ahead of her third al...

Patience Hodgson is no stranger to the Hottest 100.  As lead singer of The Grates, she is certified alumni – with 8 entries and plenty of memories with her beloved band. And as we celebrate a special Hottest 100 of Australian songs , who better to wear their love of local on their sleeve.  I roped Pae in for a pre-party and she delivered; not just with incredible songs but a peek behind the curtai...

Howlin’ Pelle is a joy to be around. As the longtime lead singer for Swedish garage rock legends The Hives, he brings big energy on stage and off. The band are known for their live shows, and their forthcoming new album is one they wrote with a stadium sensibility in mind. So when The Hives returned to Australia for the first time in 10 years, I asked him to choose his blockbuster songs. From AC/D...

Yorta Yorta man Tom Forrest knows how to spin a yarn. Better known as Outback Tom, he’s amassed hundreds of thousands of fans on social media with his bush recipes and know how. Often joined by his Grandad, he shows his beautiful backyard of the Kimberley, while entertaining us with his charm and smarts. Tom’s a real renaissance man, he’s one of those people who tries his hand at everything… curio...

This week, I’ve pulled out a special Take 5 from the archives, when Ngaiire joined me to explore songs without boundaries. Ngaiire has long been one of Australian music's most treasured voices. Having lived and travelled across many places, she draws on these experiences to shape her distinctive sound. Music has always been a big part of Ngaiire’s life. As a child of the 90’s, she grew up listenin...

Eddie Perfect has been entertaining us for years.  A star of stage and screen, he’s a writer of Broadway musicals, played Mick Holland on Offspring, and once composed a musical about Shane Warne.  Eddie’s currently starring in the titular role for another musical he wrote – Beetlejuice - and he nails it.  But for someone with such a varied life in song, I was curious about the inspirations he drew...

If you’re an avid podcast listener, you’ve likely heard one of Richard Fidler’s Conversations .  For 20 years he’s been chatting with people from all walks of life, making the Conversations podcast one of the most popular in Australia.  So as they mark this big 20th birthday, I thought it’d be fun to flip the mic on Richard. Because his story begins long ago, as a founding member of the Doug Antho...

Katy Steele has always been surrounded by music.  Her brothers came up with the Sleepy Jackson and Empire of the Sun, and her dad Rick Steele was a legendary blues guitarist around Perth.  But Katy made her own mark more than 20 years ago, when she burst out as the songwriter and frontwoman of Little Birdy. With her soaring voice and knack for writing catchy pop songs, their debut album BigBigLove...

It's been a big year for Sam Cromack and his band Ball Park Music. A sold out tour, a #1 album, and a step away from their jaunty indie tunes into a more heartfelt, reflective moment. Like Love has solidified their place and one of Australia’s most loved bands. It got me thinking about other artist's departures; when they shifted the needle on their sound and surprised us all (for the better). Div...

Isabella 'Izzi' Manfredi was born to be a frontwoman. As lead singer for The Preatures, she brought rock n roll swagger and brilliant pop songwriting to the scene, when they arrived in the 2010’s.  They called it a day in 2020, but recently decided to reform and celebrate that brilliant debut album Blue Planet Eyes. It was the catalyst to invite Izzi in to Take 5, and hear about the music that had...