To mark the 10th anniversary of Gotye’s global smash Making Mirrors, we rewind it back to when Richard spoke with Wally De Backer for the premiere of the album.

Gotye’s third album Making Mirrors turned the Melbourne musician Wally De Backer into an international star.

After going #1 here and selling double platinum, winning numerous ARIA’s, the J Award for Australian Album of the Year, and being voted the top album of 2011 by triple j listeners, it was time to watch the success of the album rollout internationally. It went to #1 in many European countries, and Top 10 in both the UK and USA. It’s success in the States was especially notable, seeing Gotye achieve triple platinum sales there, as well as scoring a prized Grammy. 

While we patiently wait for the follow-up, let’s go back 10 years to when Richard Kingsmill premiered the album on triple j and had Gotye talking about the writing and making of it all.

WILLOW is the 20yo daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. With her 5th album, she continues to expand her own path in music.

In 2010, a nine-year-old dazzled the world with a song called ‘Whip My Hair’. Many saw it as just a novelty, but it was actually the start of a music career that’s now five albums deep.

WILLOW is Willow Smith, the now 20yo daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. Her latest album is lately I feel EVERYTHING, and it explores her love of punk, rock and emo, hearing her collaborating with the likes of Travis Barker and Avril Lavigne. The album also follows a little in her mother’s footsteps, as Jada once was the fierce frontwoman of the metal band Wicked Wisdom in the early noughties.

In her first triple j interview, WILLOW speaks with Richard Kingsmill about race, rock and the road to her 5th album.

In the lead up to his second EP, the Brisbane-based rapper travelled back to his homeland of Zimbabwe. He found himself in the process.

The Zimbabwean-born/Brisbane-based rapper Carmouflage Rose hit the ground running with the single ‘Late Nights’ back in 2017.

As he watched the streaming numbers increase million by million, he then dropped ‘Wildflowers’ which continued his ascent on the local hip hop stage. Then come the start of 2020 – with plans in play to work off this momentum internationally – he and the rest of the music industry ground to a halt.

 Despite the setback, there have been some positives for Carmouflage Rose along the way, the biggest being a trip back to his homeland and the resulting realisation of who he should be as a rapper. With the release of A Night With No Moon, he opens up to Richard Kingsmill about finding strength through vulnerability and the significance of his second EP’s title.

Built On Glass was the acclaimed and award-winning debut album for the Melbourne artist Chet Faker.

A couple of years after its release, Chet retired. Any new music that followed would be released under the artist’s birth name Nick Murphy. For many, it was a confusing and potentially career damaging decision. But in the years in-between, Murphy came to grips with the two identities, and why the move was so important for him as a musician.

From his small studio in New York City where Hotel Surrender - Chet Faker’s comeback album – was made, the man himself speaks with Richard Kingsmill about his ordeal with long COVID last year, the death of his father, and how Chet re-emerged into his life.

It’s a complete understatement to say the last two years for Tones And I have been extraordinary.

When her debut single ‘Johnny Run Away’ was released early in 2019, Mornington Peninsula’s Toni Watson was a busker on the streets of Byron Bay, living out of the back of her van. Today, she’s a worldwide star, breaking all manner of records, winning a stack of awards, and achieving streaming figures into the billions.

And she achieved all of this before even releasing a debut album.

With Welcome To The Madhouse now ready for release, Tones And I sits down with Richard Kingsmill to talk about how she got to this point, the highs and lows of such a ride, and what she wanted to say and write about on this first album. She talks about the lack of co-writers on the album, who she wants to collaborate with in the future, and what the madhouse is for her.

Early in 2020, at an APRA song writing workshop in Melbourne, the three members of Telenova met for the first time.

Joshua Moriarty and Edward Quinn had been playing for years in their respective groups, Miami Horror and Slum Sociable, and singer Angeline Armstrong had been pursuing work across both video and music. But none of them had ever met each other. On that first day working together, they came up with a song called ‘Tranquilize’. It was clear, even that early on, that they had something special between them.

More writing followed, and the ideas kept coming as easily as that first day. Early in 2021, their debut single ‘Bones’ dropped and immediately it resonated for both triple j and Double J listeners. With their first EP now out, and a headline tour to come, Armstrong and Quinn speak here to Richard Kingsmill about their story and how everything has unfolded so quickly for them.

She’s keeping tight lipped about what’s to come, but Holly Humberstone looks certain to keep building on the quick start she’s had on the music scene.

The 21yo is from the small English town of Grantham. Encouraged by her parents and inspired by the likes of Damien Rice and Radiohead, Humberstone found an audience quickly with her debut EP in 2020. The fact she couldn’t play any of it live didn’t seem to affect her getting her music out to a wider audience.

With a new single called ‘The Walls Are Way To Thin’, the singer/songwriter speaks to Richard Kingsmill about her upbring, the haunted house she grew up in, and the experience of writing songs with the likes of Matty Healy (The 1975) and Sarah Aarons.

Even though it’s only a five track E.P., K.Flay’s latest release requires plenty of unpacking.

The American artist has worked with some legendary figures like Travis Barker (blink-182) and Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) on her Inside Voices E.P. But it’s what she reveals about her own life that really captures your attention.

She’s never really held back in her writing before, but K.Flay (real name: Kristine Flaherty) is totally pushing her emotional content to the limits here on songs like ‘Four Letter Words’, ‘Dating My Dad’ and ‘Good Girl’.

Hear Richard Kingsmill speaking to her about her alcoholic father who she lost when she was 14, her revelations via therapy, why she got a ‘Tears Of Joy’ tattoo, and what it was like working with both Barker and Morello.

With a mix of indie, hip hop and jazz, the English five-piece called easy life have released their debut album after four years of singles and mixtapes.

They’ve built a sizeable following at home, but Australia has also picked up early on the band’s charms and knack for catchy song writing, with Sydney rated as one of their top five cities for listeners online.

Lead by singer Murray Matravers, who was raised on a farm in Loughborough in the middle of England, you’d think singing about the beach would be the furthest thing from his thoughts. But once lockdown hit, escapism followed, and he explored a set of song ideas based on a trip to the beach.

He explains more to Richard Kingsmill about the band’s history and his approach to song writing on their impressive album life’s a beach.

In the late ‘90s, the New York rapper DMX (born Earl Simmons) came to define the sound of hip hop with his run of chart-topping albums.

With that rough growl in his voice, he stood apart from the pack, and sounded every bit as tough as the upbringing he had endured.

DMX’s successful career though didn’t make life any easier for the man. Prison, drug addiction, and multiple attempts at rehabilitation, all stood in the way of the rapper maintaining momentum in his professional and personal life. However, he hung onto his deep spirituality, and his concerts became known as much for the rapper’s prayers as they did for his barking party anthems.

His last album was in 2012. After he saw the fan’s love coming in during his Verzuz battle with Snoop Dogg last year, he realised another release was long overdue. Working with long-time producer and friend Swizz Beatz, they started on new music, bringing in a stellar cast of guests befitting the man’s reputation. JAY-Z, Nas, Alicia Keys, Bono, Lil’ Wayne, Usher, Snoop Dogg and others now appear on Exodus, DMX’s eight and final studio album.

Richard Kingsmill covers the album and DMX’s place in hip hop in this conversation with Swizz Beatz.