PODCAST

The Music Show

ABC Australia

All kinds of music and all kinds of musicians in conversation with Andrew Ford.

music music interviews

All Episodes

0:54:36

Different versions of Daniel Avery and clipping's...

The Music Show ·

2026/06/05

Daniel Avery has been filling dancefloors around the world for more than a decade, both as a dj and with his own critically acclaimed records. On his latest, Tremor, Avery has embraced his love of rock and shoegaze, blending driving guitars with his normal electronics. Not content with one set of songs, Avery completely remixed his own album, turning it back to the dancefloor with his Midnight Versions. There aren’t many musicians who have been nominated for a Hugo - one of the

0:54:34

Cover Story: Jolene

The Music Show ·

2026/06/05

Every great song gets covered. Sometimes beautifully, sometimes badly, and sometimes by people who clearly should have known better.Cover Story, returning for its third series, hunts down the best, the worst, and the downright strange versions of classic songs, and asks the question: why does this version give us goosebumps while that one makes our skin crawl?According to some Dolly Apocrypha, Dolly Parton wrote Jolene and I Will Always Love You on the same day: a lifetime's worth

0:54:39

Miles Davis: a centenary

The Music Show ·

2026/05/31

A portrait of the legendary trumpeter Miles Davis on his centenary. We hear how Miles not only changed music but also the lives of those he played with. We've pulled interviews from The Music Show's archives with former bandmates including pianists Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, saxophonists Wayne Shorter and Gary Bartz, guitarist John McLaughlin, bassist Dave Holland as well as big fans of his music like Paul Grabowsky. We move from the Birth of the Cool to Kind of Blue,

0:54:38

A tribute to Sonny Rollins, Mahalia Barnes sings The...

The Music Show ·

2026/05/30

We pay tribute to Sonny Rollins, who died this week at the age of 95. Rollins played with many of the greats of jazz, but was himself something of loner. Driven by ideas of perfection, Rollins played into his 80s, but spent years away the music industry, including a famous three-year sabbatical where he played for no one other than himself on the Williamsburg Bridge in NYC. Andy spoke to Rollins in 2008, and we revisit that conversation here. For some, performing a show taking on

0:54:29

Hilary Geddes' Redleaf and Kae Tempest's Self Titled

The Music Show ·

2026/05/24

Hilary Geddes is a guitarist of understated virtuosity, and a composer of music that takes jazz into a rolling, lush, environmental register. Her latest album Redleaf, with the Hilary Geddes Quartet, is a record of the sounds she's heard, the music she's created, and the relationship between the players over the past four years.Kae Tempest returns to The Music Show ahead of his appearance at Vivid Sydney. His latest album Self Titled is his most personal, threading the needle

0:54:30

Barry Conyngham's rarely performed classic & Mogwai...

The Music Show ·

2026/05/23

Barry Conyngham’s piece Ice Carving isn’t performed very often, and almost never in its intended configuration - a solo violinist surrounded by an audience, who are then surrounded by 4 string orchestras. It’s finally getting its proper form at The Ian Potter Centre in Melbourne and Barry takes us back to the inspiration, at The Imperial Palace in Tokyo.It's been 30 years since Mogwai released their debut single, Tuner/Lower, and the band have gone from one of the young teams of

0:54:36

Folk fixtures: Judy Small's Swansongs, and the...

The Music Show ·

2026/05/17

Judy Small is a fixture of the Australian folk scene, a writer and performer of songs about politics and people. She joins Andy to recap the thirty-ish years since she was last on the show, including a career in family law and as a federal judge, and the process she's been undertaking of recording some of her last songs (Swansongs) and appearing at the 60th National Folk Festival.And Ce Benedict reports from the festival itself, where transcontinental dulcimer jams, children

0:54:36

Xiu Xiu take on Eraserhead and Pinchgut Opera's first...

The Music Show ·

2026/05/16

Xiu Xiu has been a leading figure in American avant-pop for more than two decades: combining abrasive noise and extremely dark subject matter with a catchy pop sensibility. It’s perhaps no surprise then that they’ve been drawn to the work of David Lynch, releasing their version of the music of Twin Peaks, and now, appearing at Dark Mofo in Tasmania to present their take on Eraserhead. Jamie Stewart talks passion, performance, and Dolly Parton. in 1707 Alessandro Scarlatti wrote an

0:54:37

The mystery and music of Connie Converse

The Music Show ·

2026/05/10

American Singer-songwriter Connie Converse would be hard enough to pigeonhole had she not disappeared without a trace in 1974. She wrote folk songs, and art songs, and the story of her life and disappearance is a fascinating one. It's the subject of a biography called To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse by Howard Fishman, who joins Andy to tell the tale and listen to her wonderful and wonderfully strange songs. Gia Margaret's new album is called

0:54:37

Raven Chacon's Pulitzer Prize-winning Voiceless Mass...

The Music Show ·

2026/05/09

Voiceless Mass, by Raven Chacon, can be performed in 'any space of worship with high ceilings and pipe organ' and plays with the amplifying power of a church's architecture, while commenting on the silencing of voices and languages that churches have been active in throughout their history. It won the composer the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2022 and is heading to the Rising Festival in Melbourne.Raven talks to Andy about the intersection of politics and music, his role as a

0:54:38

The prodigy and the piano: Ruth Slenczynska 1925-2026

The Music Show ·

2026/05/03

The American pianist Ruth Slenczynska, who died last week at the age of 101, was a childhood prodigy (although she denies the label). That came at a huge price, including a punishing concert schedule from the age of 4, orchestrated in the main by a tyrannical teacher-father. She went on to be one of the great pianists of the 20th century, playing duets with Harry Truman, touring with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops and being taught by Artur Schnabel, Egon Petri and Sergei

0:54:37

Anna Meredith wants her music loud and the musicality...

The Music Show ·

2026/05/02

Scottish composer Anna Meredith creates a meeting place between the concert platform and the rave in her music. Her piece for electronics and string quartet, Tuggemo, takes its name from an archaic English word for a swarm of bees, and demands to be heard loud. It's being given its Australian premiere by Omega Ensemble as part of their Howl concert season.Sophia Brous is an Australian composer based in the US, and she creates semi-improvised song cycles from selections by

0:54:36

Music Now & Then: Jeremy Sams

The Music Show ·

2026/04/26

Jeremy Sams is a composer, theatre director and a long-time friend of the show. He's the latest in our series of long conversations with old friends. He joined Andy recently in London to talk about how opera, music theatre and the industries behind the art forms have transformed over the years. Music heard in the show:Title: Balloon MusicArtist: Royal Philharmonic OrchestraComposer: Jeremy SamsAlbum: Enduring LoveLabel: Mellowdrama RecordsTitle: Act II: Tell me what love is from

0:54:36

ZÖJ deafen the devil's ear and The Three Seas embrace...

The Music Show ·

2026/04/25

ZÖJ, the collaboration between Gelareh Pour and Brian O'Dwyer perform the opening track from their new album, May The Devil’s Ear Be Deaf, live in the music show studios. The album was recorded at an artists retreat in Banff, Canada, and features music “built on fragility and on the fear of its own erasure." They also talk about performing a live score to a remarkable 1925 silent film, Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life.The Three Seas have been coming together and then flying apart

0:54:36

John Darnielle: meaning, musicals, and The Mountain...

The Music Show ·

2026/04/19

The Mountain Goats started out as a solo project by then-psych nurse John Darnielle recording directly into a boombox in his room. Their latest album (Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan) is a "full-on musical", complete with french horn and a string section, recorded on what sound like very nice microphones. Darnielle's tastes and influences are esoteric and wide ranging, and so is this conversation with Ce Benedict, in which they discuss religious schisms, instrumental

0:54:26

Going gospel with Robert Finley and going ham(mond)...

The Music Show ·

2026/04/18

Robert Finley's first album was called Age Don't Mean A Thing, which was fitting because he released it in his 60s. Before that, he was a military man and then a carpenter. When he began to go blind he sat down his tools and returned to music - initially the blues - but his latest album Hallelujah! Don't Let the Devil Fool Ya is a gospel album, and a very special one. Robert is on tour in Australia 16-19 May. Jake Mason's new album with the Jake Mason Trio is called The Modern Ark

0:54:39

Hitchock and Herrmann: the thrilling partnership that...

The Music Show ·

2026/04/12

Film composer Bernard Herrmann’s career started and ended with classics: his first film was Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941), his last was Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976). But it’s the nine films that Herrmann worked on with Alfred Hitchcock that define his legacy, and in his new book, Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema, Steven C Smith examines the work they shared together.Music heard in this program:Title: Music from Psycho - The

0:54:39

Sparks rennaisance continues and Mo'Ju's rebel heart

The Music Show ·

2026/04/11

There aren’t many bands that are still going after 50 years, but Sparks, who had their first big hit back in 1974 with This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us, have seen a renaissance of sorts in the last few years - they wrote a film, starred in a documentary, collaborated with Cate Blanchett, and have released some of their best work. The brothers, Ron and Russell Mael, talk about their shifting style, creative use of repetition, and the work of Bernard Herrmann. After

0:54:37

Tabaran is a Sound of Australia and Carl Vine's final...

The Music Show ·

2026/04/05

Tabaran, the 1990 album by Not Drowning, Waving and the musicians Of Rabaul, Papua New Guinea featuring Telek, has been inducted into the National Film and Sound Archive as one of the Sounds of Australia. David Bridie looks back on the album, which saw the band head to Papua New Guinea to work with George Telek for the first time.The music of Australian composer Carl Vine serves as a swan-song for the Goldner Quartet, who have wrapped up by releasing their final album Child's Play

0:54:37

Disney's Renaissance man Alan Menken

The Music Show ·

2026/04/04

Alan Menken’s name is synonymous with Disney’s 1990s purple patch: a so called ‘renaissance’ of the animation empire’s fortunes, where a run of films starting with 1989’s The Little Mermaid cut through to a new generation. Ahead of a series of solo performances in Australia, he talks to Andy about how he's brought characters to life through songs. And from the archives, conversations with three musicians inducted into the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia for

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