Aussie Euro Vision and Musical Evolution with Georgia Harrison (AU-NZ Music Podcast)

Welcome to the AU-NZ Music Podcast, where Reuben (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GYMjot⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) dives into the Australian and New Zealand music scene with industry guests, sharing insights on music news, standout tracks, and artist development.

Episode 5 features Georgia, who works as a therapist but has a deep-seated passion and skillset as a dancer and musician.

• ​📰 News Fix: ⁠Viral Sydney Pop King Go-Jo To Represent Australia At Eurovision 2025. ⁠
• ​🎶 Song Spotlight: ⁠Remus⁠⁠⁠⁠- ASH SALES
• ​🦾 Artist Development: Music as Healing and Evolution

Hit subscribe for a monthly digest of the AU/NZ music industry!

This podcast is presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GYMjot: Get Your Musical Journey On Track⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, an artist development service based in Melbourne. If you are ready to unlock your inner artist, then get in touch today to get a

FREE 30-minute consultation!

Below is an auto-generated transcript, which you can stream on YouTube or your podcast streaming platform.

All righty team, here we are. Episode five. Or should I say syno? [Music] because today my guest is Georgia Harrison who is currently based in Mexico City but a Kiwi born and bred. How are you doing today, Georgia? Yeah, I'm doing so good. Like I said, but all in all, feeling so excited. Cool. Awesome. I'll just give you a little bit of background details as to who Georgia is. Georgia is a diverse creative. She is a fellow member of the born and bred class from Baluther, New Zealand. Represent

with a background in occupational therapy. She is a beacon of wellness in her community. Her work and presence demonstrates her belief in the power of artistic expression, an essential component to our holistic health. She now lives in Mexico City, as I said, where she offers online therapy, practices in an array of dance forms, with twerk being her favorite, and dabbles in vocal and composition with producers and instrumentalists. Perhaps most important, her dance group, Floor Play, specializes in flash mobs

and creates a space for girls and gays to feel confident in their sensuality. Girls and gays and crazy. Yeah. You know what? Actually, we it was always a debate of whether we could allow guys into the group and the consensus was no. So, cool. I wasn't sure if I had just done a typo or not. No. Yeah. All right. You got it. That was awesome. Thank you. Oh, wow. It's awesome to have you here. Thanks for coming, Georgia. Especially given the time zone differences and whatnot. Uh, now Georgia, we like to ask

our guests for a special fun fact about themselves, just to clear the air and break the ice and all that jazz. So, uh, yeah, give me some dirt. I think you've got something juicy. Okay. Okay. Hopefully, you can get the sound of this because I'm wearing the headphones. Yeah. All right. Here we go. Get it to me. you just that's going to be a big fail if if you don't hear it. But basically, my fun fact is that I am well people tending to tell me that I'm very good with um but farting.

Actually, it's come into my musical career when with our rendition of Silent But Violent Night. But today, I won't be going into I won't be performing that for you. But I'll just give you a little taste of the juiciness. Ready? Yeah. Go. [Music] Yeah, that's clean. That's a steady streamed fart. I'm going to give that to Yeah, I'm going to work on it and then I'm going to go for the world record of the longest armpit fart one day. Yeah, that feels like there's a Guinness

record of that somewhere. All right. So, you're in practice with your armpit farting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Always in training. Always room for improvement. Great. I mean, that's probably the funnest fact we've had so far. Congratulations. Um, thanks. Moving on. Uh, we've got a bit of a news digest for you. This is from Laura Macia at Pedestrian TV, published on February 26, 2025. The piece is entitled Viral Sydney Pop King Gojo to represent Australia at Eurovision 2025.

That's right folks, we are talking Euro Vision. What make which makes me think of Wilferal and if you know, you know. Aussie has now taken part of the world's biggest annual music competition for 10 years. Gojo, the 29year-old Sydneybased Muso, is waving the Australian flag this year, bringing his signature glossy pop style to the 69th L Euro Vision Song Contest in Basil, Switzerland. This May, that is. And this episode might even be airing around about the time of Euro Vision. Anyway, the

Eurovvision stage is known for allowing performances to be extraordinary with no boundaries on expression. Gojo went mindbogglingly viral overnight after he posted a video of his track Mrs. Hollywood, currently sitting at millions and millions of views. His entry track for Eurovision was Milkshake Man about embodying confidence wholeheartedly. He explains, "I'm basically the mascot of free expression, being an individual and feeling like your most colorful self. I want people to be walking down the

street feeling like the loudest, proudest version of themselves. And it's something that I've always wanted to write a song about." Now, I picked this article because I felt it would call to a part of your soul, Georgia. Tell me, had you heard of Gojo before this? No, I hadn't. Me neither. Me neither. How did Well, how did you come across it? Uh I was just scrolling the news as I do and I thought this is this is a little bit fun. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it definitely speaks to me. Yeah. The mascot of free expression.

It's a big title. My thoughts exactly when I heard it and then I thought that's so iconic and that is And that is if that is kind of how I would want to be thought of too. If I could think of my ideal way to be thought of, it would be that. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I think you radiate that vibe. Um, what are your thoughts about a grand scale event such as Eurovision uh where performance is center stage and it's sort of uh wrapped in music. It's not so much about that the musical performance as it is about

the the whole presentation of self dance uh interaction with the audience uh props and all this jazz costume I mean you're better versed in this area than me so please well it's all part of it and there there are um there uh places for the music musical talent itself to be highlighted like the opera for example or something like that. And so there it makes sense to me that there would be something like Euro Vision where the the focus is on the full package because as a as an artist it's I guess the at the crux of it what

drives you is your self expression and you can't box that into your singing talent or your produ producing talent like I think you're that all if you can express it in in performing in your clothing. I think everybody does that. So to be able to have a stage where they can um really lean in to the full package where that is themselves and show the breadth and depth of it all is of course there needs to be something like that. Yeah. Yeah. It feels like the uh sort of top range pop star equivalent of

Eurovvision because of course Eurovvision is a contest that has a different element. You have like the talent shows America's Got Talent that seems pretty per performance-based not strictly but performance-based. And then you've got like your grandscale Beyonce's Prince and whatnot. Michael Jackson who used the Super Bowl as a stage to do their full performance. And perhaps even like Doichi who did her phenomenal performance at Doi at um what was it at the Grammys? Yes. Which was do

phenomenal performances. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We just went we just covered so many things like if even you brought up the Super Bowl like are we going to go there because yeah there's there's it's mindblowing what people can put into a performance the intention and the depth and the layers that can go into one 10-minute long performance. Yeah, I know, right? Like how long would it take to prepare something like that? And how much moola? Yeah. Now we're talking real. [Music] Damn.

Well, return on investment is probably pretty good, too, I imagine. What's your what's your experiences performing on a stage where that the performance is the center as opposed to the music? Um I don't I guess I was like we did a performance my group floor play did a performance at the festival last year but it was equally it was equal parts the music as it was the um the dance performance and the look that we had and stuff like that. But probably if it's more about the performance, it would be like um the

events that I would put on for around my the time of my birthday which were a for a platform for whatever performance you wanted to do. And my experience is that is I take that platform that I created myself and I [ __ ] run with it and I do and I just do so many different performances and sometimes yeah that would be like for example I performed um Roxy from the Chicago musical and I had like I I said to myself because I don't usually sing a ballad like I've never sung a ballad in front of apart from

because you had a bad day when I was um like 11 at the camping ground show. Um yeah, but um I performed this ballad and I said to myself, push yourself in terms of your singing and then I was like no no no no. And then I made this random rule up in my head like if you can get the perfect outfit and a chase lounge to perform on, then you have to do it. And then we went to this chick's house to look at dressups. And what does she have laying around in her garage? A freaking chase lounge and a little Roxy

blond curly wig. And I was like, now I've got to do it. And that was that for me that for me was the full shebang. Like I I couldn't have just sung that song as myself. It wouldn't have had the same impact. But with the Chase Lounge and the heels and the outfit, I had this beautiful, gorgeous outfit and the wig and everything and the lighting, it that's it all came together. Yeah. It's like it channeled your expression more. It refined it. Yeah. It just was all necessary for it

to have an impact. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Because as as you said at the start of there, I don't think there is separating the music from these performances. It's just that the the package is bigger, I guess. Um whereas there's no there's no removing performance from music either for that matter. Um, it's just the the degree of effort, preparation, thought, and that you that you put into the performance. I guess you only have so much resources that you can put into things, right?

Like, am I concentrating on the best musical expression of myself or the best performance expression of myself? Even though they you can't separate them. I kind of think of it more like an onion. Like it's got layers. You know, there's for example Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl. There's like the core core would probably be the um the song itself or the songs themselves. And then the next layer would be the outfits that they chose that were highly intentional in that piece. And then um the the the

choreography, some of the moves like the [ __ ] book for example, that could be another layer that was again intentional and it brought Yeah. It just the performance element just was able to bring more layers to the what was already in the music, but just bring it out in a different way. Like for example, dancing or with colors or shapes or the use of the TV or the use of the um the what do you call it narrator or Yeah. Right. Yeah. Whatever that they had in that performance. The different elements just

add different layers to what was already at the core. Yeah. I feel you. I I think turning the angle a bit on this article as well. I think it highlights the power of this overnight virality thing like this gojo Oh yes performer has created an audience through an overnight video Mrs. Hollywood. Um, and both you and I hadn't heard of him before yet. Millions and millions of views, you know, like how how many of these viral artists are cracking through and being presented with opportunities like this

now? What a what an incredible incredibly powerful channel social media is. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't want to take away from the um effort or the the role of the artist that's created these opportunities for themsel by setting up that video, going out there putting themselves what what he did was going out onto the street and put a sign up saying best guitar solo wins 50 bucks. And that that creative concept allowed the the platform for him to make a viral video because he had these two incredible guitar soloists on there and

that that creates good content. like he they created that opportunity for themselves and it's just cool that um the people witnessed that and it's almost like a people's choice award social media like what gets what gets up in the algorithm is what people engage with. So the we're all choosing collectively and individ and individually what we choose what we want to lift up which is taking the reigns away from like I guess record companies as much girls spreading out the um the power to the people which is quite cool.

It is. It's beautiful when you put it like that because I think it often has a bad taste in people's mouth, right? I think people see viral sensations and they're like, "Oh, I've been doing this for so long." It comes from a point of comparison. Like, they're not seeing all the work that that artist has engaged in beforehand. They see the viral moment and they're like, "Oh, they just did that one thing and now now they're big. I've been slaving away here forever."

Yeah. But so is he. So so is this Gojo. They've been they've been writing this song from who knows how long and before that and working on their voice and working on their courage and confidence to even get out onto the street. Like yeah, you could look at it at that reductionist lens or people could but that's just [ __ ] stupid. Am I allowed to swim? Yeah. Free rain. I mean Yeah. point of emphasis, right? Strong word, free expression, gojo. Yeah. And I watched the I I wasn't I

wouldn't probably be so called to the song Miss Hollywood, but I did watch the music video for Milkshake Man, and I did really like that song. I did watch it, too, and I thought it was very interesting. I actually even I haven't watched much Eurovision. Look at that. Huh? What do you mean by that very interesting? I just I I found it of interest. I enjoyed it. I just find interesting such a It's a neutral word. Yeah. Neutral. Yeah. Neutral. Like what are you talking about? Isn't that from a movie? Isn't that from

a movie? Doesn't someone use that? One of the greatest movies of all time. Captain Fantastic. Ah, yes it is. They say you're saying you're not allowed to use that word. It's a non word. Yeah, it's a non word. That's right. Fair enough. Called me out. Yeah. Um Yeah. Yeah. I was just reflecting like I haven't even watched any Eurovvision performances before. I don't even know what it was. I'd never even heard of it. Hey, see look the reason why I said if it makes me think

of Will Furl is because he did a m movie where he plays a will a Euro Vision performer and um that's like my one frame of reference to Eurovision. Yeah, I've never heard of it, but it sounds sick. Um so I did go back and watch the winner from last year. can't remember the name, but yep, it's it's a uh it was a flood of expression, I'll tell you that much. I'm gonna watch it, too. Yeah, I would recommend it. It's it's intense. It's a lot. There's so much

thought that's went into that performance. Cool. Yeah. As there usually is. Yep. No doubt. No doubt. Cool. Well, that brings us to the end of part one. Now, we're moving into our Yeah, we're moving into our song listening session here. This week, we have a track from um Kiwi artist Ash Sales. His track is called Remis. We'll be back shortly after we have a listen to that, folks. Cha cha. I thought it was like Remus. Could be. Could be. [Music] Ash Sales. Thank you, sir. Beautiful track. Very eithal and then

build and the dynamics of that whole experience was Yeah. A journey. A journey. What grabbed you, Georgia? Anything? anything stand out? You're right. It felt like a journey and particularly it felt like I was thinking of my um life as a movie and that song would be playing that song would be the part of the soundtrack where I've hit rock bottom something bad's happened and it's pushed me to like really try to work on something, work on a skill and there's a montage of me working on that skill.

like maybe it's running and I'm like so the the shots would be of me running and getting better at running and that song would be playing in the background to me that was giving um determination and um perseverance to try it was it was making me feel like you need to try try and I don't know so for me yeah it was a real feeling Yeah, I love perseverance randomly. Yeah, I I feel that. I I love the visualization analysis when you hear a song. I I would lean more as opposed to running. I was

leaning more into like a boxing scenario, you know? I was feeling like I'm fine. Boxing is way better. Boxing is way better. I don't know why I chose running. I take that back here. Yeah. Yeah. No, it definitely it start. like a very stereos sonic image as well in that we're getting like sounds coming from our right side and left side being utilized and sort of bouncing back and forth especially at the end there and that that that that screaming guitar. It's there's so much emotional tension

in that note. Yeah. It's like a whale. It for me that was like a release like you're getting there and then it's just like that reminds me a lot of the feelings that I would feel when listening to Touch Sultana actually. Good call. Good call. Cuz there's definitely like So Ash is the looper. So this had like a looper image. I'm not sure if he looped this and recorded it live or if he layered it separate. It It sounds pretty raw to me. It sounds like a performance has been captured at least

in some parts and maybe he's added some layers on top. But you you get that's that's what a looper does, right? Like because you're building building on top these layers on top of each other and it just gets bigger and bigger and then you strip it back and then it comes back up and then Yeah. back to start. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. I love that kind of music and I love especially when you get familiar with a song like that on Spotify and then you go to see them live and it's usually different from

you can you can pick the differences from the live version versus Spotify version because I guess they're playing around with the song so much it seems to me a little bit more malleable when totally is doing the whole song themselves looping it. I I don't think I don't think you can go into a live performance as a looper and not be ready for a mistake. There's going to be some sort of little mistake, which is malleability, right? Cuz that's, oh, this is what I've got now. This is what

I'm building from. This is where I am. Yeah, that's beautiful. Perseverance. That was the word. That was the word. Um, cool. So, uh, song feedback is something that we offer at Jim Jot. We being me. Jimjot.com.auu. We have this free service where you can send in a song and I'll give you a page worth of notes to give you a bit of background on what that song is. Or you can upgrade the service. Yeah. Or you could upgrade the service and get an in-depth full analysis of that song. That's a 12 listen analysis where I

break the song down into all different components as a trained musician. And who knows, your submission might end up here featuring on the Oz New Zealand podcast. Now, feedback is one of the most important artist development tools you have. In fact, artist development is where Jim Jop thrives with our tried and tested development course. You can unlock your inner artist and find your musical direction, all within the context of your situation. Starting at just $30, you can empower your creative

being today. So, zoom over to jimjot.com.au to see those deals in more details. Just my little ad spin there. Just do it. Getting it in there, you know, right? Jim Jos. Yeah. No, it's brilliant. It's brilliant because there's so many people who are like me who have songs, but what stops them from moving to the next level with that song is the I guess the cost barrier or the access to um support because you you perceive it to be this like big thing that you could never possibly do because you're not a real

artist or a real musician or something like that. So to have something like that service that is accessible is really cool. Exactly. We try and bridge that DIY musician into the industry and make them see it's something that is navigable cuz it's just such a big monster before you can even start walking that path. So yeah, hit us up. More than happy to chat, help out. And um you know artist development is is something all musicians experience in one way or another. Now Georgia, taking your musical lens, your musical

story, because I know you've got a lot of different artistic endeavors up your sleeve. Let's just turn our attention to your musical endeavors. a point of empowerment, an artist development moment that jumps to mind. What do you got? Whoa. That actually elicited a feeling of sickness in my stomach because the evolution of being an artist or a musician is so scary to me. Um, it's not something that I grew up with doing and I don't even think it would I would go as far to say isn't it something I'm

comfortable or confident with? Well, um, what was the question? What's a what can I pinpoint a time where Yeah. Yeah. sort of moment of development, maybe a breakthrough moment, an aha moment when it came to musical expression, performance, recording, whatever it is. Um, that's that's a tough question cuz I could go so many ways with it. Was it an aha moment? Like when I decided to [ __ ] my social conditioning and just instead of being afraid of being a tall poppy or perceived, just being perceived

in general by um the people in my life and who were around me and just decided to go, nah, [ __ ] it. Creating is a healer. Making music is healing. And um honestly I used to before I really brought it into my consciousness and actually started to develop as an artist and a musician I I used to think that people who made music were selfish and making music was a waste of time which is hectic. Um but that was my default kind of way of thinking. I was like, there's more important things to do than spending

days in a in a recording studio. Honestly, that's what I thought. And then I yeah I decided um I guess being a therapist was what motivated me was seeing I like at this point of worked with thousands of people and for a long time probably for the last four years one of the big questions that I asked in the first session is what what lights up your heart what do you do for fun and I was shock I got so shocked at how many people have nothing and then how that correlates to bad mental health and stuff like that. So

now I see the through my experience of life I see the importance of having these things like music creation and so yeah started for me just I had I'm lucky to have had the fertile ground to start working or start nourishing those skills within myself when I lived in Thailand at the um at the at the rehab there. We had creative group and everybody would bring songs, bring their artistic gifts to the table and share them with other people. And so that while I was living there that that sort of nourished that

little songwriting bone in me or muscle in me. And then but the probably the one I would highlight the most was when I started recording the EP last year in Mexico. That was really a level a huge level up for me. Um it's not the first time I've recorded with a producer. Um but every time is a huge learning experience because um I the first time especially I recorded with a producer I was so lacking confidence that I was very mal malleable to their um to their input and I was kind of just like oh yeah whatever you

say. Yep. Yeah. And I have the mindset of it's a privilege to for me to be here. Um, not it's a privilege for them to be working with me, right? And so I think that allows me to get kind of washed away in someone else's vision when I go to working with a producer. Um, but I was very lucky last year. I um yeah met a producer and that their skills are amazing and they liked my songs and then we spent a lot of time in the recording studio and I learned a lot from that experience. Like one of the

things I've talked to you about already is that I was singing in an American accent. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. As we all do. What the [ __ ] Yeah. What the [ __ ] So many so much time and money in the studio to come out and listen to it and go, "Who is that speaking in an American accent?" Yeah. Well, talk about an evolution though, right? Like it takes these these big grandiose gestures such as going into a studio to learn big things about yourself. Like I had to do a bachelor of music majoring in contemporary guitar to

realize I didn't want to be a performer. Oh, four years later. You hear these stories across disciplines. You know, often time and effort given to to one practice will at the very least tell you that that's not an avenue to go down. That's not the avenue that your heart's pulling you towards. And that's valuable information. Yeah, there's a saying that I actually use a lot in my work as as a therapist and it's sometimes you've got to um live through what you're not to realize what

you are or who you are. Beautiful. Beautiful. At least at least that way you're not stuck with like a plethora of options, right? It's like the Netflix of life paths. We just need to start cutting down some of those. But that happens from from trying those paths. You can't just sit there paralyzed, not wanting to go down any of them. You have to just start one and be like, "Oh [ __ ] this is one." But you learn so much along that path anyway. It's not like you walk down a path and then you

go backwards. It's like, "No, I walk down a path and then I might go sideways and then I keep going." Yeah. Yeah. And I get and yes, people might listen to this and think, "Oh, she's spent time in multiple producers or in the in the recording studio." But yeah, I've spent years um also stuck at that um crossroads of being like, "Oh, I don't think I could ever show anybody this work or um I'm not going to take this any further." Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of courage in

any form of expression, you know, it's just yeah, taking that step. Do you have any advice that that if there was an artist, a musician in that position where they just are struggling to to take that courageous first step down the road? What what would you say to that person? I would say imagine that nobody else exists in the world for a moment. Just for a minute, imagine that nobody else exists. What would you do? That's that's a wild idea to explore. Yeah, because like I don't I think you

have well for me in my experience with make writing songs making music is it comes from the way or the intuition or the heart or that little voice in your head that has got your best interest at heart comes from there. It comes from love essentially and then and then the fear jumps in afterwards and goes no no but what if this person hates it? Oh, but it's a waste of time. Oh, but actually it's [ __ ] lyrics. Oh, but um the world has enough music and it's better than yours, so why don't you

shut up? Like that will come. It comes in after you have those creative moments of flow. And in life in general, I'm always thinking like, what voice do I want to listen to? And it's never that [ __ ] whorehigh's annoying voice that's trying to pull me down. That's never the one that I'm choosing. Yeah. So, yeah, that's well said. That that makes me think about uh the cartoon Big Mouth. Have you ever watched Big Mouth? I think I've watched it once. I I don't remember.

They characterize these voices so well. Like they have the hormone monster. They have this big purple depression cat that just wants to snuggle in bed all day with you. And they have like this sort of old uh old vampire dude. I can't remember what he does, but he's like that. He's got some of that fear-mongering vibe. And then they have like this anxiety bee that's always like skitsing out. And like these are all these all live within us, you know? Like the these Yeah. Not not to neglect those parts of

the being like they need to be acknowledged. You can't just suppress those like they they're still part of the conversation, but I don't think that they're they shouldn't be your your guiding compass at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the the idea is to be the observer of it all. I guess if looking at it from a Buddhist lens, but also just in my general mind, that's what I'm doing is there's there's totally so much room and space in in my foot for the anxiety, for the grief, for

the um for the despair, for the um disillusionment, for for it all. They're all totally like beautiful parts of the experience, but at the end of the day, I'm observing it all go down. And then from there, I'm making a informed decision about what I'm going to do next. And like I said before, for me, it's I'm not going to Yeah. that anxiety be or whatever. Like I'm not usually choosing what they say because what they say is usually based on a hypothetical that is probably not going to happen

realistically. Totally. In spite of what they say, you persevere. Circle. I put that song on and I persevere. Yeah. Well, on that note, thanks so much for coming on, Georgia. It's been a blast. I'm sure we've got a lot of uh value our listeners can get from this. Do you have anywhere you want to direct people, socials, etc.? Oh, I don't know if you I guess if you're interested in what I do, probably the best place is my Instagram because that is more and that is me. That's like my

virtual journal. That's where I put my dancing. That's where I put my thoughts. That's where I put my um music if I release a music video or something like that. So, probably my Instagram, which is geo_2.0 Zero Gio 2.0. And if you want to if you want a therapist, then go to my website, which you can find in my Instagram as well. So, yeah. Great. Do you have a URL for that website? Uh, it's just george.net, I think. Nice. Cool. Thanks so much for coming on, Georgia. It's been a pleasure. I

hope you enjoy Thank you. enjoy that Mexico City. Hey, and we will see you in the near future. I hope. Okay, team. You'll Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's nice to have a a conversation about us recorded. We have so many. But yes, to have one recorded is quite cool. That's a special thing for sure. All righty team. That's us signing out. chiao chiao. Peace out.