Radio and A&R with Lachlan Powell (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 2 features Lachie, who works in promotions for radio and plays with ⁠⁠The Dead Amigos⁠, who you can follow ⁠here⁠.

• 📰 News Fix:⁠ ⁠What Aussies think of Radio⁠
• 🎶 Song Spotlight:⁠ ⁠Voice & Fire⁠- PAEON
• 🦾 Artist Development: Perspectives on A&R and Collaboration

Please excuse some technical difficulties with the Mic!

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 for a

FREE 30-minute Consultation.

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

hello team here we are episode two of the Australia New Zealand music [Music] podcast I am here today with a friend of mine Loy how we doing brother Ruben I'm good uh long time fan of the show first time caller thanks for having me on well you're beating everyone to ears on this is uh we're recording this in November 2024 it probably won't be live until early 2025 but uh nonetheless here you are yeah I got a good feeling great uh let me just give the the listeners a bit of a background about your my friend

so Loy is a guitarist songwriter living in Melbourne uh he's been in and out of bands performing throughout Melbourne since 2012 most notably he's the guitarist for alt rock outfit the calaban am I saying that right the calab yeah the calab yeah and he also plays base for the blues hard rock group uh the dead Amigos which I have a lovely vinyl sitting in my kitchen it uh it's the backdrop for my fruit bowl excellent It's a prime position there yeah exactly that's where they want to be they also were recently

off a UK tour in 2023 that was coming after that album release that vinyl release I'm guessing yeah yeah that's uh last year and then off the back of that yeah headed over to the UK for about a month of touring yeah that's beautiful and in terms of music business Affairs Loy uh worked for Sony Music in anr and promot from 2020 until early 2022 right in the thick of it with Co delicious uh and then he made a move to promotions at Melbourne radio station gold 104.3 in 2012 uh 20122 and he's still there today so here

he is in the radio game and uh what I like to ask my guests Loy is just one personal silly fun fact just to get us going silly fun fact uh I mean not so silly but you know obviously no more guitar bass work but like the first instrument I started on was the elto saxophone so I was playing the wacky sax back in the day the wacky sex how old were you oh when I start that was I was 11 years old when I started that damn that was your first instrument you picked up yeah it's a bit of an unorthodox one I think at the time

I remember everyone was picking up the guitar and you know I just decided I had to do something different but then years later here I am doing guitar so it's a full that yeah I'm a different Chaser too my friend yeah nice yeah you came full circle then yeah you know it was um I think definitely when you get into high school and then uh music becomes such you know a bigger part of your life and Friends sharing different bands and different artists and then you're like ah this this is what I want to do now so

the guitar just seem to be the logical next choice I think nice cool good work uh so what we sort of look into first is a piece of news to digest together um I'm just going to recount an article that I've recently read and then we'll talk some more about the finer details absolutely how does that sound sounds good to me so this one's from yugov and it's entitled surfing the ear waves what do Australians think about radio it's from shinman B sorry if I said that wrong uh and it was released in March

2024 so it's a little bit little bit old but the stats should still resonate to a degree so there's a dude called Ford ennels he's the CEO of the Australian industry body commercial radio and audio the C you probably know all about this my friend friend Ford commented that radio's vibrant future will be driven by Innovation and stimulated by Australia's passion for podcasts and people streaming their favorite radio show the CIA says commercial audio and radio contribute 1 billion to the national GDP

which sounds significant but when I compared it to the total GDP of 2.58 trillion in 2023 it felt less significant nonetheless radio is still a player in our industry and has been going through a great many life cycles over the past however many years it's been I it's coming up to 100 Years of radio I guess um diving into the data from this article anyhow um the data is derived from yugar profiles which continuously collect data from their uh the people that are registered on the platform I guess so

let me list a few stats we have six out of 10 profiles say they always listen to the same radio station five of 10 prefer listening to local radio and three of 10 notice ads on radio more than anywhere else um here was a good question which of the following radio stations Have you listened to live in the past 30 days for at least five minutes and this question was used to rank the top radios in Australia um in terms of national representation and the top five were ABC News Radio and then they clumped local

commercial radios as a hole in second place then it was Triple M then Triple J and then Nova and uh that's some of the key facts that I got for you to chew there but um let's zoom out a little bit and project into the future as an inside man where do you see radio going and it's next life cycle I think yeah radio I guess it's still got that very unique touch point that um you know it's the it's the morning commute and the drive home I think when people are really tuning in I

mean that's where you got your Flagship shows uh for breakfast and all that so it's I think it's always going to have its place like I mean you're comparing it to TV now I guess um well free to Air TV anyway I think that's that seems to be a real dying medium I always thought it would be the other way around but it's I guess people have the streaming services now more people are into you know Netflix stand and all these different kind of services where they can just pick the shows they want and

even some of those stations I guess have like the same thing like nine now they've all got you can just pick the show when you want it but I guess with our radio there's still just yeah in the mornings it's uh listening to the the morning breakfast host getting new news from there and that's like you know in a live setting I think it's always it's going to have that sort of touch point I guess for um people in the morning I guess it's like everyone on the morning commun tuning into to radio and there

was one of the points there it's like you got people who are complete loyalist to shows like I know on the Christian oconnell show where I work it's uh God the fans like every day like very loyless fans they'll be messaging texting into the show calling into the show like it's just hard to see them uh you know changing the dial almost they've just sort of picked their uh picked their market and they're playing with it I guess yeah so there's a personable touch that's sustaining radio

at the moment you think absolutely I think um and definitely yeah with uh using the Krish show again as a you know example it's um they sort of build that show around Their audience I guess it's like a lot of the segments are built on people calling in and telling them their stories and it'll be whatever you know wild story they're coming up with the time that's sort of what the segment will play around they're like oh is anyone else you know forgotten their Nan or something or left her in the car and

then they start getting people to call in about their own stories and that sort of builds the show around it I guess so it's built by the people in many ways I guess through that sort of um medium yeah so how much is the music a draw card I mean I think it's a starting point like um I guess with the music on gold it's all you know uh it started off as the oldies golden oldies and it was a bit more you know sort of around the 80s sort of segment I guess but I guess over time like you know their sort of segment

would be what the uh you know sort of a 30 to 50 kind of bracket but then as you can imagine like you have aging demographics um so you know every five years someone who was 25 is now getting 30 and I guess those songs that were within that bracket have to adapt so I'm finding like yeah stuff is slowly uh well when I say more modern stuff you know say early 2000s Stu I hear all of a sudden like something like The Killers or something starts getting played on gold it's because they're starting to

expand what Their audience is I guess because they're bringing more people into that demographic so yeah yeah it's a d Dynamic demographic hey interesting so how vital do you think radio is for for exposure in the musicians tool kit these days and if so if you think it's vital like how how vital I think it's as I said yeah still an important uh touch point I think you know streaming that's where everyone thinks they want to get their St out on and it's a great start it's you know

like the place where you point people you know when you're meeting people playing gigs check out our stuff here but I think radio is just you know giving you a bigger reach or putting into in contact with people you may you know ever had the contact with before right so if there's like a very loyalist uh listening group to a particular show or station if you can get on that that's exposing your music to all those people that you know tune into every day so I think it's just it's just another tool I

guess to help you get your music out there yeah yeah it's it's hard to know what tools to use because there's there's too many tools to just uh disperse your energy across all all the options right so as a as a DIY musician at least you kind of got to focus your attention in certain channels if you have a bigger team you have a broader set of tools you can tap into um what do you think in terms of ranking radio in that toolkit list if you had to choose where to focus your attention

like if we were just talking about exposure you know we're not talking about the cre the recording process or anything just exposure techniques it's once again I guess going to come down to who your target audience is really um of course I think if you know it's a real younger demographic you know Millennials and all that like or I should say what gen Z all these kind of types you should this is going to be what more your um so digital spaces in Tik Tok and I think that's where a lot of them get their

music but influences influences yeah exactly but I think yeah if you're looking at a bit of an older demographic I mean certainly 30 plus I think I mean maybe Radio starts ranking a bit higher I mean especially I think comparing it to Tik Tok and influencers if you're thinking you're the 30 to 50 bracket then radio is probably going to be way more important than you know getting an influencer to do a dance to your song for example yeah yeah I think you're right I think radio probably increases

in in importance as your target audience demographic increases in age absolutely yeah could be equal correlation yeah you probably see like a graph where it starts you know building up or building off yeah like yeah we love graphs oh of course we ever nice um cool and what what has been your experience working in radio at large have you enjoyed it what what's some what's an inside knowledge some little fun facts that people wouldn't know about working on the other side of a radio network yeah it's um so what am I about

3 years into it now and honestly it's a it's a great working environment it's like a very good culture there especially at arm which is both kiss and gold and ihart as well so it's all the you know digital stations podcasts as well um I feel like yeah just at that office uh you know it's just a good energy it's good work crew but it gets you in touch with like a lot of different um uh different suppliers different contacts so I mean a big part of my job is we pull all the events

together that happen on air and so they'll be working with a c you know the primary client who wants to put on an event with the show but then you're relaying with different suppliers who can you know bring in uh entertainment catering even you know musicians as well so it's always sort of expanding and building your contacts which is cool like you just meet a lot of people through it and it's just a great just great place to be they've always um putting on good incentives there always

like leftover tickets to things a lot of shows concerts so that's that's definitely the good part of it I reckon that uh a lot of there a lot of Partnerships going on right a lot of partnership behind the scenes so we'll um do a lot of uh campaigns giveaways with you know uh companies like Frontier TCH danty all these different uh yeah touring groups and concerts so it's good it's always is just building contacts uh getting new opportunities through it really I think yeah great

place to be does it feel like you're working in the music industry or does it feel like you're working um in in a in that more personable industry that we're sort of detailing at the start I think yeah there's a small part of it that it's still Within the Music Industry in a sense I guess radio but I think my part yeah 75% more you know it's the it's the event and experience side of things on radio um we have you know of course music directors who you know curate what the music is

going to be from a day-to-day basis and I mean I guess if you were in that role absolutely it's almost 100% being in the music industry working in that field uh yeah there's a little bit that plays it in to my role but I think yeah i' be bit more the uh sort of cating or you know building what the events and giveaway side of things looks like yeah mhm yeah yeah cool thanks for sharing that because it is these industry pockets are kind of mythical to The Outsider um we don't get to see behind those walls um

and radio is something that I've been watching with one eye for the past maybe five to seven years and I've kind of been waiting for it to die if I'm being honest like I've just been sort of but it keeps it keeps holding on it stays relevant it seems I think yeah it's the same with me um coming into it I sort of thought it is a bit of a Dying medium given uh you know current we were talking about you know Millennials gen Z all that going to more like digital spaces uh social media Tik Tok all this

kind of stuff and I was just thinking that you know radio what is its relevance to but I guess working into IND industry itself we can see like it still has its place it's still got that unique touch point it's still got a loyalist fan base I guess so it's it's still going strong still going strong from what I can see yeah cool well we'll pull a close there on our first section we're going to head into um the song of the week which is from a band called payon The song is

called voice and Fire you can stream it on your local Spotify or maybe it get some radio here time at some point I don't know let's fire it up let let's go have a listen and then we'll check back in with some notes and thoughts and feelings on that song I'm TI ofing [Music] in from the it's together the to stand above it all weal the blood [Music] with voice and fire voice and fire from P here you go that's actually was released this year I think yeah mid this year so June yeah cool

um First Impressions feeling wise hit me it's got ah just real Cris production I really liked how listening to it you could just hear all the different instrumentation it was just all very clear you could pick out different parts and just had this very athematic kind of building feel you know like I mean prog metal like I do enjoy a little bit of that it's yeah just awesome production just great sound on it you're right it everything was very well articulated wasn't it absolutely often in their

genre things can get a bit blurry cuz it starts to stack up and get a bit crossed over with frequencies and stuff but no it was very very articulate and you're right I really I really liked the build throughout the song it seemed to have a good for me a good balance of order and that there was parts that um reoccurred and felt familiar but then the injections of um novelty throughout the song kept me engaged to the end that's good yeah you just had these you know very powerful sort of passages I

guess but then there just be these little bits of instrumentation sort of slinking in and just giving it that extra oomph you know I could just hear another guitar coming in doing a little arpeggio kind of rip or something like that it just it was great it was just like everything coming in just sort of lifting the song as it progressed totally yeah uh you guys can check out some more payon um they just they released that was part of their EP um debut EP as well um friend of mine Jacob who uh fronts

that band and I guess they'll be playing some shows in Melbourne and around so you can go follow them on your local your local Instagrams and whatnot as well cool um just another kids up on that uh Jacob's someone that I recently uh did some work with with Jim jop um song feedback form so this is something that you can access today all you listeners out there you can send me a song maybe it'll show up on this podcast and I'll send you back a document worth of detailed feedback from one listen a one

listen analysis that's all for free or you can get that deep dive 12 listen analysis um with a bit of a pay wall on that but if you want the finer details if maybe you're working on new song You're a bit stuck you don't know where to go my perspective could be of value to you um what I what I did more with Jacob is the the gym job artist development process and this is something we we pra myself on something that I've developed over the last seven years it's something to uh get your goals aligned with your

reality uh look into your values look into your motivational forces and try to stack all that in your favor um to make your career in the music industry that much more sustainable that much more viable if that's something you're interested in head on over to jim.com Au check out our services in more detail give us a buzz I'm always ke to hear from you and use his ears folks use his ears um talking about artist development more broadly you've you've spent some time in a anr for

Sony what were the perspectives on artist development when you were with Sony and how has it influenced your General perspectiv on artist development yeah it's um coming into a anr was uh God great time to be doing it I mean 2020 as we went into a lockdown so that was fantastic timing um so it went from going to gigs and checking out artists to a lot of it yeah hey I found this band online they seem pretty cool let's uh let's give them a shout but I think you know with Sony it still gave

me a good Insight um there's like you know a whole team sort of just like working around artists and working out what platforms to put them on what opportunities to put them forward to we were having um weekly meetings with the the anr team and they would just be giving updates on the artist they're looking after um and I mean a lot of them can be even just it's not even artist they've signed yet it's just someone they've just been sort of mentoring in the background just sort of

trying to get them up trying to get them moving with uh some recording some uh gig opportunities because obviously they've seen something really great in them that could you know be awesome to bring over to the label so it's just sort of chipping away at it I guess um yeah some of them have been relaying with the same artist for most of that year or something like that and then you know they're just waiting for the right opportunity to really present them as a package and bring them into the fold so

there's just sort of a whole uh Brain Trust I guess of a team to sort of working around what would work best and people exchanging ideas like hey they would be good for uh this gig this Festival they would be good linking them up with this artist we already have on the label and trying to get a collab going there cuz I can just hear them working together in that sound space yeah was there a general a general direction that Sony was trying to take artists once they were on the label so this is after the fact after the signing

what what how were they trying to empower these artists I mean it was you know from the artist perspective it's trying to get them to realize their full potential but I guess from the label perspective it's it's I guess the numbers at the same time it's like you know how can we get this artist to this level where they're getting this amount of followers on social they're bringing this many people into concerts they're getting this amount of streams on the platforms um I

mean you know like we could pretend to be like oh it's all about the USS and you know empowering them but I mean at the end they're still a business right so it's it's still a matter of numbers still a matter of uh goal posts to reach in terms of uh getting them to yeah a position I guess you know among the other artists in their label where they can slot in and bring in that audience how is it h how did that role at Sony influence your own development as an artist as a musician I think it was just sort of

seen it from the inside um well I mean before that you know on the outside I think you always get stuck in the whole idea that you know it's just a matter of getting that you know one good release and then you're going to get signed up and then you know you're going to be traveling the world in the the jet and the limousine all that kind of stuff but you know obviously not quite the reality of things it's uh I think you can't really rely on you know the idea of being signed to a big label to start off

I don't think that's going to benefit a emerging or Independent Artists I mean hey sometimes it does but I think there's so many great grass roots and smaller level like uh labels that they'd be all about like championing up and cominging talent because for them it's if this artist starts doing really well and they're they're from the get-go it's only going to bring the label up as well MH I think with uh you know big big labels like Sony Universal I mean look they'll they'll take a punt on artists

absolutely you know up and coming if they see something special in it but I was also there seeing how we had a whole uh emerging upcoming list but you know at the end of the Year they'd be looking at which ones do we cut off you know it's sort they like we gave this a crack but we're not just we're just not seeing the number growth we're not seeing them picking up where we want them in these markets so it's uh Time to Say Goodbye yeah okay cool yeah it it it can feel quite brutal when

you put it's a big cut throw it I think you know you kind of you sort of given that position but you got to you got to perform obviously like uh you got to start hitting those markers or you know they're you're not going to be able to stay around for much long yeah what what could an artist do to um from the time you were at in the anr team in Melbourne right mhm what could have an artist done that would be um of interest to you in your A&R team H I mean it sounds what's the word

like cliche but it's like you know what's your unique selling point I guess you know what separates you from you know the other 30 something rock bands playing in Melbourne you know um so I guess yeah definitely early on in that role especially you know when I was working from home I was just sifting through music on uh you know B camp and Unearthed and all these different platforms i' just be playing through so I it's almost like your um how do I put it it's like your uh elevator interview

or your pitch you know it's like elevator pitch yeah almost like a lot of the time I was listening to the first 30 seconds I'm like all right is this you know is something capturing me here something like making me want to stay and listen on or was it you know like okay you know this sounds like you know any other sort of uh old rock song Hard Rock song Whatever it is um it was just yeah just looking for something that just like got me in that first 30 seconds and I mean that also comes back

to uh trying to make a song viable for radio and such it's like you got to kind of get to the Crux of your song very early on like it's awesome to have you know if you want to sort of build your Artistry and have these amazing like intros and concept albums which I think is awesome but I think if you're looking for that label grab who wants to you know find a spot for you in radio and Spotify and finding that platform for you you just got to have that that pull from the first 30 seconds of the song I

Feel yeah right yeah that that can feel quite restricting in terms of your creative Liber Liberty absolutely I think that's why you know if you just got your heart scene on being an artist being an independent artist and it's 100% your own Vision then I think you got to do it from the in you know an independent uh method of things but if you're looking to sort of get that big break or find that big audience spot in that Festival spot I think then you're probably looking at more some label help

but there go to have a little more say in the direction of things yeah well would you say that labels are looking for a little bit of proof in the pudding before getting involved absolutely yeah it's um were were there metrics of proof definitely it was um it'd actually be we had a thing called a what was it it was Whit list and it's sort of um it showed the metrics I guess of an artist their social media platforms their spot ify their streaming platforms and it would show sort of the

growth patterns I guess it would sort of look at um where were they sitting last month compared to the next month right and if they could see you know exponential growth or upward trajectory it's you know to them it's like all right maybe this is someone we need to jump on now because we're seen signs of growth they're only getting bigger from here the time to act is now but if you had someone that sort of put out something but it's just sort of sitting here it's like this is probably a longer

term project you know maybe we can go in there and sort of mentor and trying to you know shape things a bit for them but you know they wouldn't be scrambling to get on it cuz I guess it's all competition with the other labels they're trying to find the next thing that's just going shoot it up true you got to have a close eye on the market absolutely well stepping us stepping away from that business lens um as an artist yourself and someone who's been engaged with multiple projects um

what would be the key piece of artist development uh advice or an experience that you had um or realization that you've had for your artistry for your artistic empowerment l so from the business lens just something that's made you feel like uh a bit of creative I think the biggest one is and you know it's probably thrown around before but uh collaboration is key as they say I think think um I think you know I mean hey sure there's some artists that they've got their own Vision they know what they want to do

but I think in terms of development and building your sound or you know experimenting with different sounds you know you're going to do it much better in a collaborative space reaching out to new musicians uh hosting those Jam sessions it's um it's only going to benefit you I think like just getting in touch you know going to gigs meeting people getting those contacts having a little Dam it's all just going to add to your own musical sphere of things I think totally you have any tips for

musicians that struggle to to to find collaborative um courage because it can be quite a daunting thing to say go to a gig and uh start running in and talking to a bunch of musicians or whatever that point of connection looks like it's not always as easy as it sounds yeah I mean it is a bit tricky in that sense I mean I think I was lucky going to you know a school with a good music program because that's where it started all for me I already had peers who were really into music connecting with them they were

showing me their stuff likewise showing myself showing their me showing me me showing their can't even talk that you got it you got it showing me showing my stuff to them sorry I kept saying why am i showing their stuff anyway um yeah and just connecting through that and then check out geks but I guess if you're coming off someone who's yeah starting from scratch it can be pretty difficult I guess um I guess maybe I guess there's a lot of great forums and chats online uh what band

camp I think is another good one like uh I think there's another one called submit Hub where you can put your music up there and reach new people that way I think that's a good starting point to maybe get the contacts or you know try and reach out people get a bit of feedback on your own stuff I guess and totally hopefully that empowers you a little bit more to put it out into wider spaces yeah heading out to some gigs start swapping um contacts CDs uh QR codes whatever it is uh yeah I think

that's starting point I would even say it's you can think broader than that you can almost just think about interests at large so if you're interested in volleyball if you go and join a volley social volleyball team at some point you might find yourself running into a musician it's not that uncommon like the musicians pop up in all sorts of fears obviously it's uh more reliable to go to like a gig setting or like a creativity Workshop or a music school for the example where you're just sort

of putting the deep end with musicians um but sometimes in terms of having that connective courage and getting that uh that collaborative opportunity it can be nice just sort of stumbling into those opportunities as opposed to like uh going to a certain place when you know there's going to be opportunities to connect with musicians and then it's like this pressurized thing but maybe your volleyball team you're just like oh yeah I play guitar and he's like oh yeah I play guitar too

you guys already were connected before that and then you're like oh my God we should Jam sometime you know but you never know where it'll pop up sometimes uh that actually makes me think of um how the dead Amigos started it was um drummer sha he was working in a kebab store at the time MH and uh would be frontman playing in another bands stumbled in drunk one night causing a ruckus they somehow got onto the you know the notion that they were both musicians they're like hey you play guitar I play drums it's like oh let's

uh let's have a jam some you know when those classic drunk encounters I guess but um you actually follow through they had a jam the next well probably not the next day but a couple of days later and you fast forward now we been a ban for nearly 8 years just off the start of that chance encounter really yeah there's always some good band Genesis stories out there peculiar peculiar things on that note though I would also say don't take it personal if a musician says to you one night that they're Keen

to have a jam and it doesn't happen because it it's it's just going to happen you know don't take it too too harsh you know H I think we've all been there where we've been out on a you know Night Out couple of drinks in you just get a little too excited by the idea it's like oh yeah we're going to come together we're going to ride an EP we're going to do all this but then the next day like uh yeah maybe I got a little ahead of myself in that instance but you

never know sometimes sometimes that person will call them on have a jam it's just it's always up in the air yeah put yourself out there put yourself out there absolutely cool well that's about it for us folks thanks so much for coming on Loy appreciate it um do you want to send people anywhere send people anywhere uh I mean you can check out dead Amigos on our usual social sites Instagram Facebook same with the calans we have a gig coming up December 13th at Pockets moraven that will actually be with both

bands so um if you're around come on down great great awesome um yeah thanks again to payon for letting us feature their song this episode and go over to Jim jot check out what we're doing over there check out the dead Amigos and the calans until next time team take care ciao