What are you listening to?
My album of the year has to be Lost Friends by Middle Kids. I can’t stop listening to it. The songwriting is great and I have luckily been able to see a number of their gigs lately and they are such a tight band. I am also totally on the bandwagon of loving the BoyGenius EP. So good.
How do you find new music?
I used to find a lot from blogs but now seems to be more via social media from the likes of Tone Deaf, Consequence of Sound and Pilerats. I still check in on Pitchfork for some good writing. Likewise I also really enjoy Spotify curated playlists. The Discover Weekly playlist tends to through up some real treats and I frequently check in on my new releases playlist that is curated from other bands I listen to.
Away from the digital realms, I find a lot of new music from going to gigs, music showcase (Melbourne Music Week was great for this) and also festivals. I had only causally listened to Big Scary before I went to Laneway Festival in 2016 but since then they are a solid favourite.
What formats do you usually listen to? LP, CD, Cassette, Digital, Streaming Service and why?
I listen to Spotify pretty much every day, mostly due to the nature of my work making me desk bound. I have CDs for my car that are mostly gifted to me by friends who no longer have CD players but think I would like their collections (pretty much all of them are right, though I have some duds) then at home I listen to LPs, since getting my own house it has been fun to go crate digging and find what treats I can get for $5. My collection is slowly growing!
Where do you do most of your music listening?
Mostly during the day at work, where I listen on headphones from my computer. Otherwise, I listen in the car, from CDs, the radio or hooking up my iPhone.
How do find and listen to pre-release music?
Pre-release on blogs or first listens on the radio mainly, Triple J do a lot of first listens, so I will hear a lot of them when I am in the car.
What are your frustrations with listening to music digitally? Any benefits?
I get frustrated with ads which definitely led to me paying for Spotify because I use it so frequently. Similarly, I find it frustrating when I listen to a track forget to bookmark it and then can’t find it again.
How do you keep track of everything you are listening to?
I create a lot of my own playlists on Spotify, favourite things on Soundcloud and try to bookmark articles about new music that I like.
Do you tip other people off to new music? How?
A lot of friends ask me to make them playlists. So I set up public playlists on Spotify a lot for those situations. Otherwise, I send over links to blogs etc. Then more frequently I just drag them along to gigs with me.
Anything you want to “promote”?
I am also super excited for Angie McMahon to release more material. She has a small handful of tracks about now so go have a listen if you can. Likewise, Jack River is amazing and I think she is going to go somewhere. Give her album Sugar Mountain a listen.
