Dougal Shaw is the leading man in the Naarm based band Dr Sure’s Unusual Practise.

A really great and rocking synth punk band.

I first met Dougal at 2024’s Camp a Low Hum and then ended up being their driver and photographer for their European tour that same year. 

Having done interstate tours in the past, it was good to have a fly on the wall experience of what it’s like and what it takes for an independent band to do a tour over that way. Dougal was always up late talking to fans and friends and the like, and then always up early dealing with the large amount of daily admin when we’d hit the road each morning. He’s a very likeable guy, and puts his heart and soul into everything he does, at the same time as being a loving family man with his lovely partner Liv and their little one plus another one on the way.

Not long ago he wrapped up his music label Marthouse after running it for ten years.

We talk about his early years, Rockhampton, Pete Murray, being artistic, how AI is cooking that and powering on despite the state of the world. We also talk about Dr Sure’s going off of the streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Tara Burnett is a Naarm based polymath and legend.

She was the Greens candidate in Cooper in the 2025 Australian Federal Election.

We talk about growing up in Tasmania, her time in the army, teaching, politics, and the faux rivalry between sport and the arts.

She's a proper goodun.

Marcus is a really really incredible musician and performer. Super lovely guy, also a vegan which we wholeheartedly endorse. Sydney based, but always playing shows about the country, so decent chance you've seen him play in the last 17 years or so. Marcus was in town for his run of Ecstasy performances at the Substation in Williamstown. Do see it if you get a chance.

Here's his official bio:

Marcus Whale (b. 1990, Sydney) makes music, performance and writing about the ecstasy and horror of desire, the void and the divine. His shows, often taking place in the round or amongst audiences, range from sets of live music to song-length club moments, from gallery performances to full-length stage shows in the theatre. He is a current member of the band Perfect Actress, a former member of Collarbones and BV and is a 7-time nominee for the Australian Music Prize. With Gus McGrath, he presents the show Sleepless in Sydney on FBi Radio.

Bliss is a musician and photographer based in Gadigal Land/Sydney. We discuss music and photography at length in this chat.

She makes dominative electronic pop. Pop seems a lazy descriptor, so take this instead:

Imagine if Orbital got into a fight with Suicide and then one of them gets knocked out AND then Kylie Minogue comes in and smashes chairs on top of both of them. Then you would have Kidskin, or at least that's how I would describe watching and listening to her.

As of writing, she's yet to put out any recordings but here's hoping we don't have to wait too long for them.

She's also a fkn great photographer. In may 2024 she launched her first published book of photographs courtesy of MOM Publishing.

Check out Bliss' photography here

MOM Publishing here

Cease and Desist here

Here is a link to the Bliss' favourite photo by Ren Hang mentioned in the interview

If you have a chance to see her play, do yourself a favour.

Kind regards

Kieran

Evelyn Ida Morris is a composer, multi instrumentalist, songwriter and artist.

He’s made score for films such as Acute Misfortune, of which the soundtrack was nominated for an Aria in 2018. Have also scored Michelle Savill’s Millie Lies Low, and most recently scored the abc comedy drama White Fever.

Evelyn has an extensive practice composing and performing for performance artists and dancers such as Deanne Butterworth, Jo Lloyd, Lauren Brincat and Agatha Gothe Snape. Most recently they composed and performed for a sculptural performance work in collaboration with Emily Parsons Lord and Shan Turner Carrol at Liveworks Festival 2024.

I first came across Evelyn’s work when they were making music as the experimental pop act Pikelet. Pikelet toured all over the world independently and released a lot of music. If you were a musician in the late 2000s and 2010s then you definitely would have crossed paths with Ev, and if you didn’t then I would question if the music you were making was any good.

We didn’t really talk about what Ev is working on at the moment, but they’ve got some Creative Victoria funding (the actual Creative Victoria, not Liam Kenny’s mesmerising musical project) for directing some collaborative films exploring choreography and music.

Anyway, it was good having Ev round, during the interview he just doodled on some paper with pencils, and I was on day 2 of not vaping.

https://www.evelynidamorris.com/about

Rick Morton is a multi walkley award winning journalist and author.

He spent many years as the social affairs reporter for the Australian. He’s written a few books, his autobiography One Hundred Years of Dirt is fantastic, it was shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, as well as shortlisted for the National Biography Award.

I’m currently going through his other book My Year of Living Vulnerably, which is also a banger.

Rick is currently the senior reporter for the Saturday Paper as part of Schwartz Media, which we won’t hold against him. Free Palestine.

Anyway, give those a listen.

Rick also is a runner and is very much a Queenslander which we also shouldn’t be held against him.