Uncut with Tones and I - "You’ve Got to Be the Whole Package and I Just Wanted to Be the Music"

Today's interview felt like such an honour. It's with one of the most successful Australian artists, who likely needs little introduction, Tones and I!
She has over 10.5 billion streams worldwide. Her songs have been number 1 in 31 countries and she was the first female artist to reach 3 billion streams on spotify! 
But, Tones rarely does media and we feel so lucky that this is her first ever long form podcast. 
We chat about: 

• Why Tones felt like hiding from a public life was a safer option
• How she grew up and why she worked so hard for what she wanted
• Dance Monkey catapulting her into the public space and what that felt like behind closed doors
• Being in her sequin, confidence era
• Choosing to go sober
• Living as a married person with a bunch of friends
• Touring with P!nk after offers from Robbie Williams 
• Announcing her OWN national tour!

You can find everything about her tour at her website!

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Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! xx

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lifelun Cut acknowledges the traditional custodians of country whose lands
were never seated. We pay our respects to their elders
past and present.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land. This episode was
recorded on Drug Wallamata Land.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Hi guys, and.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome back to another episode of Life on Cut.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
I'm Laura, I'm Brittany. Joining the podcast today is an
incredible woman who just so happened to join us at
our live show in Melbourne last year. She has over
ten point five billion streams worldwide. Her songs have been
number one in thirty one countries. She was the first
female artist to reach three billion streams on Spotify and
the second artist to do so. We absolutely fell in

(00:48):
love with her at the live show and I think
we saw a completely different side because she does an interview.
She hasn't done another podcast before and we feel really
honored to be able to speak to her today. Welcome
to the podcast The One and Only tones An This
is where if we had sound effects, but we don't
afford it like Betty's Dreamers.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Welcome speak.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
After the live show, Britt and I left that show
and we were like out, We so deeply hope that
you come on the podcast and we get to have
an extended version of the chat that we had that night,
because you were so vulnerable and when Britt says saw
a different side of you. I think sometimes when you
look at someone who is so successful, so incredibly unique,

(01:35):
and has been such a powerful force in the music industry,
you just think that person has it all, and then
maybe it was an easy route to get to where
they are at. And your story is something that I
think is fascinating.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
But before we get into it, there was a.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Story you shared the live show, which hopefully you're okay
with sharing again.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
It is your accidentally unfiltered story.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
Oh yes, okay, I did. I was trying to see
if there was another one. But this truly is definitely
one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, and
I think you need to really put yourself in my
position here to really feel that that embarrassment. But I
went to my friend's wedding two of my best friends.
One of them is called Lolly and he's one of

(02:18):
my choir members and his wife beck Bali is a
Fijian man, but he is albino, and I think that's
important to mention, and when I got to the wedding,
like I hadn't met his family yet, and I was
really excited to meet them, obviously being such a big
part of my life for the last few years and
with COVID, so it was really nice to kind of
get to know them. And you know, I saw his

(02:40):
mom at the wedding, like, you know, hugging all the boys.
So I was like, right, Okay, I'm going to go
up to her the wedding and I'm going to introduce myself,
like I want to get to know his family. So
I'm at the wedding, I'm having a good night. It's
like nine point thirty, so, you know, all the speeches
are done, and I go up to his mom and
with chatting, and you know, I was just saying like

(03:01):
how proud I am a Folly and how much of
an impact he's had on my life. And she's like
into it, but she's kind of like also like introducing
me kind of like oh, there's my other kids or whatever.

Speaker 5 (03:13):
She's like, oh, that's my son. I'm like, oh wow,
oh You've got more like what about Folly?

Speaker 4 (03:17):
Yeah, And I just kind of kept going back to
Dolly anyway, I was like, okay, that was a nice chat,
like she was nice. And then the next day, Bolly
comes up to me and he's like, hey, look at
the recover party. I want you to, you know, meet
my mom and dad. And I was like, okay, well
I did briefly meet your mom last night, but I
didn't meet your dad.

Speaker 5 (03:34):
So like, yeah, okay, So we're walking over.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
We're walking over, I see Dolly's mom. We keep walking over,
and then we keep walking past Solly's mom and I
was like, oh no, so this is where, you know,
it's embarrassing and it's also a little bit ignorant on
my behalf as well. That was Molly's sister, who's also
all by no, but Molly's mom and dad aren't.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Oh so you just made it assumption.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
And I think because all the boys were hugging her
in a line to line to hug her, I just
immediately was told myself that's definitely Molly's mom. Because it
was before the ceremony, they're all lining up to hug
I was like, that's Molly's mom.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
I'm going to jump in the line.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
So I walked past what was Molly's sister. Now I'd
realized that's why she was trying to tell me the
night before.

Speaker 5 (04:22):
These are my kids.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Who are a lot younger probably than they.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
Molly is forty two and these kids were six, so
Molly could have definitely been their father, in some cases grandfather.
But I didn't click, and I think she was just
being so polite she didn't want to tell me so.

Speaker 5 (04:39):
But what happened was, so I moved past.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
The table with Dolly's siblings on it, I got to
Bolly's mom.

Speaker 5 (04:45):
I was like, oh no.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
Then Molly goes, hey, tones, I wanted you to meet
my mom and dad, and they are They were so warm,
they were so amazing, And as soon as I leant
him to hug them, Bolly's table full of siblings just
started losing it after, like they'd already know. And I
was so embarrassed, and I don't I realized in that
moment the only thing to do was to just come
clean and not try and play it off like, oh,

(05:09):
like a girl, because Molly was like, I think Bolly knew.

Speaker 5 (05:13):
He wasn't like, oh, so you guys spoke yesterday. I
think he knew the situation.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, there's hard.

Speaker 4 (05:19):
Yeah, so now we laugh about it and yeah, but no,
his family are amazing. But it was definitely so embarrassing
for me because I just I just thought, and I
don't know when I decided that was definitely Molly's mum,
and also his sister doesn't look that old and.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Thatssness like somebody came up to me and my brothero
was like, thought I was my brother's mom.

Speaker 4 (05:38):
I know.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
I devoed, like I'm going to get botox. I'm gonna
appeal this off.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Not to be fair, though, I find it very difficult
to gauge age, So for me, i'd be like, could be.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
A mom, could be sister?

Speaker 5 (05:48):
Who knows?

Speaker 1 (05:48):
All times I just mentioned it before. You don't really interview.
When we're going to have you at our live show,
we were like, let's just do a deep dive, get
some background, like find out a little bit about you.
It was quite hard because you don't really speak to
many outlets, you don't do many media interviews, you definitely
don't do podcasts. Can you tell us why that is?

Speaker 4 (06:06):
Well, honestly, I just think that when everything happened at
the start of my career, people were just making so
much out of nothing and mentioning my name was just
something that everyone did at a certain point in time,
and I just hated that feeling.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
It made me feel so disgusting and so like. I
didn't like it.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
I wanted to kind of stay underground, and I felt
like dirty when people made shit up about me, and
I felt gross like they could say anything and they did.
There's so much stuff if you really wanted to go
look down there, that's just not true. So I just thought,
why would I give an inch when you're already taking
a mile and saying whatever you want? And it just

(06:50):
really like made me think, why would I give anything
to the public when I am literally an Australian sing
a songwriter that started on the street, that went out
there and did my thing when no one knew me,
and I came up through other people's support of me.

(07:12):
In my honest sense, no one fucking looked after me.
People put me on this pedestal. I was so out
of my comfort zone. I looked like I just crawled
out of the gutter. I didn't have an aesthetic or
a style. I was a chubby little girl from the street.
You just put me up and then you just smashed
me so far down, like I didn't have a say

(07:33):
in anything. I have contributed nothing to anything that's ever
been in the media about me. My thought was, why
would I give you guys anymore to work on. I
want you to shut puck up about me. And I
think I've grown a lot more as a human being
in terms of my strength and knowing who I am.
And I needed that time to grow and no one
gave me that grace. I had to give it to myself.

(07:54):
And now I'm at a point where, like, you know,
I'm not going to go and do other podcasts, no,
but like, it's so powerful hearing you say that, because
you spoke about this to us at the live show
backstage and you said, you know, you got to a
point where you were like, it didn't matter what I
felt like I said about myself because people were going
to write things anyway, So then I stopped speaking and
they could make up their own mind. Was there ever

(08:17):
a point where you thought like, but no, I want
to get my truth out there. I want people to
know who I am or was it just truly the reverse?
Because I think people don't understand the impact that Australian
media has, what those headline and articles can have on
people who were actually at the bottom of that. Yeah. Well,
I mean there's so many good people out there, and
I really truly know this now, you know, I'm one

(08:38):
of the only I am the only like a version
in the history of triple JA like versions that have
had to have had the comments turned off.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (08:46):
And I've had radio presenters come up to me and
apologize on behalf of all men, which you know, I
see this stuff all the time. Sometimes I just want
to tell myself, I copy it as much as anyone else,
and I'm not the new Nickel.

Speaker 5 (08:59):
But for a while there, like it was hard.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Do you think it's because you don't subscribe to that
traditional ideology that people have of what a pop star
is supposed to look like or supposed to behave, Like.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
I think, you know, if you change, you're in trouble.
But if you don't change, you're in trouble. And with
me specifically, like people so offended by how I looked like,
just so offended that I started pre emptying what people
would think before anything was even out, and I judged

(09:33):
myself as harsh as I could so that I was
really prepared for all that criticism. And then it wasn't
a tactic anymore. I just started hating myself so badly
that anything I did I just couldn't see a positive
reaction to anything. I didn't want to do social media.
But I don't talk like this because especially now, you know,

(09:55):
I see it so much now, I definitely have noticed
a lot more positivity in my life. Yeah, this is
definitely not like I would say current moments stuff. I'm
definitely feeling a lot more love, and I feel a
bit more in my shoes. I think my shoes were
really big, and I was just trying to kind of
keep up with everything, but also I had to look

(10:15):
great at the same time or something.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
It's funny because you say, you know you felt like
there was no good coming out of it, or no support,
And I think what I'm about to say goes hand
in hand, because the support was there. In terms of
the love for the song, it was reaching astronomical heights,
like as we just mentioned, you have three billion streams
on Spotify, and I think that is the reason then
you also go and get personal hate. Is because we've

(10:39):
seen it happen a million times. We love the underdog
until they become the dog. We love the underdog when
you've come from the streets basking and you were different,
and then all of a sudden you got uber successful
and you challenged the norm of what uber successful should
look like, your style and who you are. We didn't
really see that. You know, the hats and the track
pants and the basket in the shoes. No one had

(11:01):
seen that before. And then all of a sudden, and
we're getting into this too early, I think in the episode,
but here we go, it leans into tall poppy syndrome.
We don't want that person to be successful anymore because.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
To be a certain point, yeah, yeah, I mean I
see it even with other artists now as well. But
I mean I think also, and this doesn't come from
I want to stand my ground.

Speaker 5 (11:22):
I wish it came from a more empowering place.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
But I think that there's a really good argument to
say that I didn't change. I was for a very
long time always that chubby hat wearing, oversized tea girl
because and it wasn't because I was like, I'm not changing,
because that's where I felt comfortable. I felt comfortable in
those baggy clothes. I wasn't body confident, and I wasn't

(11:49):
okay to change, you know, And truth be told, if
I was, I might have, but it was a true
I can't wear that. No, I don't feel comfortab in
that reason why I didn't. So you know, there is
a case to be made that, you know, the person
that was on the street might have even dressed a
bit nicer than the person that was on the stage

(12:11):
the following year. But as I said before, like there's
no winning at this game. You've just got to figure
out whether you have the guts for it, and then
you've got to take it and you've got to move
on and roll with it. And I mean if I hadn't,
you know, come out of that feeling more confident in myself,
then I probably would have been out of this whole
industry altogether.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Tones you just mentioned, and I can see it in
your social media as well, like your confidence in the
way you post in your like not just where you post,
but the how that translates from your stage presence.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
The happiness is being out.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, it feels like and I know you speak about
this retrospectively, this experience that you had when you were
absolutely catapulted into the start and that you were, but
what changed?

Speaker 3 (12:53):
Where did the confidence then come from. Where did the
sense of self come from?

Speaker 2 (12:57):
And why is it now that you're at a point
where you're like, this is who I am and you're
fucking uber successful, but you had the confidence to be
the version of you.

Speaker 5 (13:05):
It's a me thing, of course, like it cup of
stems from me.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
But I've you know, I've spent the first two years
of my life buying ten cars for different friends that
took them and left me, and paying other people's credit
cards off and buying holidays, and that's really what I
did for I.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
You know, you gave back to older people in your life.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
And sometimes and this is hard to say because I
would never take it back, but it was a learning moment.

Speaker 5 (13:31):
Because there are.

Speaker 4 (13:33):
Some things that you just don't do for people, and
then they come back for more, and then you do
it again and you don't want to let them down.
And I think I've really decided, like two two and
a half three years ago, to start cutting people out
of my life that only ask and all I ever
want in return is love, And all I've ever wanted

(13:55):
in return is love. And I will give someone the
whole world. I feel like I'll give them everything that
they ask for. But then I'm barely getting love back,
so I try and give more. And I didn't realize that,
because you know, I just want genuine love and connections
with people, and I just don't think I really had that,

(14:16):
And so when I had something to give, I gave
it to whoever wanted it that was giving me any
kind of love. I don't know if it's because I'm
a tourist. I don't know if I get into all that,
but apparently I'm a giver.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
I don't think that it was wrong being so generous.
There's nothing wrong with that if it's for the right people.
But it sounds like you just got taken advantage of.
That's what was keeping me down.

Speaker 4 (14:35):
And then I found good people that don't want anything
from me except for the relationship that we share. And
I didn't think I would find those people. As I
got more and more known, I thought it would be
way harder to find people that I could have in
my life that I could give.

Speaker 5 (14:51):
And take with and share food and cook for.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
And have around for dinner and watch the footy and
go to basketball games and go for runs or walks
and do those things together. And that's all I really
wanted like I wanted to recreate a family for myself,
and I've really found that in the last few years,
and I'm very stable in my happiness because of those people. Tons.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
I'd love to take this back a little bit to
get a bit of an understanding of like who you
were before you became the famous version of you that
we all know, But like, what was life like for
you growing up? And when you say you wanted to
rebuild a family, Like what was your upbringing like and
what were those relationships around you like at.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
The time, Hm, You're like, I don't want to talk
about it.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
We can bypass, we can bypass, but what it was?
I mean, you're from Mount Martha. What were you like
before you were famous?

Speaker 5 (15:40):
Since a really young age.

Speaker 4 (15:42):
I want to say six I gave everything I had
to basketball, So I'm just going to say I did
that because I needed something. And then by the time
I was thirteen, I played for sixteen so I coached two.
I was a ref as a job, and I would

(16:06):
wake up at four and train until school, go to school,
train before school. I would practice at lunchtime in the gym,
and then I'd go straight from school and catch the
public bus to coaching, and I'd coach two hours, referee
for two and then I'd run to the other stadium
where i'd train until nine thirty pm. And that's what

(16:26):
I did every day, and then I played on Saturdays
and Sundays. That was the way of me bringing myself up.
And I ended up going to a basketball school called
Revel Sports Academy in year eleven, and then I played
representative for the VIC Youth Championship CYBE when I was
seventeen or eighteen Frankston Blues. And then I when I

(16:49):
decided I wanted to do music full time, I took
all of that energy and all that power and all
that repetition and I put it into music and I
pretty much I will just say that I pretty much
raised myself through that, and that's what I decided to
do because it was the only thing that made me happy.
So I just was monotonously playing basketball every day.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Was the dream to be a professional basketballer.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
I don't really think that. I don't think I ever
thought that far ahead. I think I was just in
survival mode for all that time, and it's.

Speaker 5 (17:26):
Crazy to think about that. I don't really have like friends.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
I don't think I had friends, I guess, but I
don't know, like here or there when I was in
primary school, whatever, that's whatever. Yeah, in high school, you know,
i'd never really quite belonged. And I know this is
quite a normal thing, and I think that's why it's
good to share, because I think a lot of people
feel like this. But I was trying, you know, I
was on the edge of the group, and sometimes being

(17:54):
the least popular and in the popular group is the
worst place to be. And then I kind of wanted that,
but I wanted to play basketball. But then I kind
of had that, and then I just didn't give it
enough energy and I just focused on basketball. And then
one of my basketball teams like they just didn't you know.
I'd get there before training and just run laps for
like an hour and a half before everyone got there,

(18:16):
just to be there in full time. But I was
just you know, there was one team where I really
fit in in the end, But I even spent my
whole basketball life just trying to fit in. I don't
really remember truly belonging like I do now, like with
my choir or with my friends, and I don't think
I've ever felt this secure in a group of people

(18:37):
that where I feel comfortable, I don't walk in the
room and get nervous or who's saying what a god?
I really hope school isn't like this still, because that
would just be a nightmare for kids with with TikTok
and social media, to imagine if high school is still
this bad.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
Your tones, like even understanding that about your childhood and
even the small snippet that you've given us but no psychologists,
none of us are here, but like it makes you go.
Of course, that's going to be a period in your
life where you're feeling like you're buying people's affection or
like you're doing what you can to make people stay
like that must have been such an and especially when
your life has literally flipped on its head so instantly,

(19:12):
it must have been a really fucking challenging time for
you to navigate and to figure out who was there
for the right reasons.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (19:18):
I think when I went to Bar and Bay, something
had to give. I don't know why I thought playing
the same pub every Tuesday night was going to automatically
catapult me into anything. And with basketball, I knew how
to have that repetition. I knew how to stay focused,
and I knew how to work hard for something, but
I didn't really want that successfully. I just used that

(19:39):
as a blocker and I loved it. It gave me
this feeling that being on stage will never give me.
But with music, I really wanted it and I could
almost see it. And I think it was because I
really didn't like I really just kind of sat in
my space for my life before then, and I was
happy to do that and really give too much school.

(20:00):
I didn't really care about that, but I always knew.
And it was never because I wanted to go out
partying and stuff, but of course that was a part
of my life too, But it was because I knew.
When I knew what I wanted to do, I knew
how to do it. I knew how to be focused,
and I knew how to you know, just get what
you want. And you know, I think that the hardest
part of my life was convincing myself to take the

(20:23):
chances and the leaps and do those things. Whereas I
think that a lot of people right now, no matter
what you tell yourself, no matter what you say to yourself,
your biggest thing is that you won't start something, or
you won't do what you say you're going to do.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
Your failure is scary failure.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
But also like ye, people talk about the things that
they want to do for so long without doing the
things that you need.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
To do to actually keep that ball in motion.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Yeah, like we talk about where we want to be,
but we don't actually talk about what it is that
we're doing in the steps to get us there.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Well, so how did you get to Let's go to
Byron Bay, because that's where your second wind at life,
I guess started. How did you end up in Byron Bay?

Speaker 4 (21:03):
Well, I was working at Jetty Surf in Burke Street.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
Everyone so though it's.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
Fucking great, and it was on Burke Street, so Burk
Street notoriously is known for like buskers, and I usued
to just stand at the front of the store and
just watch the street performers.

Speaker 5 (21:24):
And my manager didn't really care. She was kind of
cool with it.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
She actually was so supportive of me wanting to be
a musician. And I was kind of playing at pubs
here and there on the keyboard, looping and the Pierce
Brothers would play and it was awesome. It was the
best thing ever. I finally figured it out. This is
what I wanted to do. I figured it out what
I wanted to do. I quit basketball. I wanted to
be a busker. That's all I wanted. I didn't want
to do anything else. I just knew that if my

(21:48):
job was to get up and play music every day,
then I had made it. And that's all I ever wanted.
And so I worked out. Took me like two years.
There was like interviews and auditions, but I got a
Burk Street busker permit and I was so excited.

Speaker 5 (22:01):
It was like the biggest thing ever.

Speaker 4 (22:03):
I did it for like four times and it was
just me with probably the most equipment, and I had to.

Speaker 5 (22:09):
Park like a k away.

Speaker 4 (22:11):
It was seventy dollars a day parking, so if I
didn't make seventy bucks, I'd lost money and I'd had
to get random strangers to mind my stuff while I
did another run to the car with the biggest trolley
from Bunnings. And then I was like, this is so
much more effort than what I'm earning. I even did
boxing day, which was so busy, but because everyone was
trying to shop, no one cares.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
They just walked past you.

Speaker 4 (22:32):
Yeah, So then someone said come to Barron Bay you
can pull up anywhere. Just open your van door, get
a van, open your van door, and busk. So it
took me like another whole year to get up that courage.
My friend's made memes of an old woman in a
van and it said when TONES finally decides to go
to Byron Bay.

Speaker 5 (22:49):
And then I just did it.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
But I took a new leave first because I was like,
I don't know, so took a new leave. I drove
up to Byron Bay and I it took me like
I was there for ten days and on like the
nine today, I finally.

Speaker 5 (23:01):
Got the courage to busk. I got my stuff down
to the street. I busked. I made one hundred and
twenty seven dollars in three hours. And I thought, well,
I'm going to live in my van. That's enough.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
And I got a card in my in my box
and I was from a guy called Jackson, and he
said to me, and I put this card in my phone.

Speaker 5 (23:23):
I didn't call it or nothing. I went back to work.

Speaker 4 (23:25):
I was putting a decal up on the window at
work said like sale.

Speaker 5 (23:29):
Or something whatever. And I went on lunch break and
I was like and I was back at work for
like three weeks. I was like, this is shit.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
Like, so I pulled this card out on my lunch break,
pull this card. What have I got to lose? I
call this number on the card and I was like, hey,
you put your card in my box in bar and
Bay And he's like. This guy is like, I'm I'm
a lawyer for artists, but I want to be a
manager and I want to manage you.

Speaker 5 (23:53):
And I told him I'm back in Melbourne.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
I was like, if you commit to coming back up
and staying here full time, you can use my place
to write music. I've got a studio wow, and will
be a safety net.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
He was just standing there watching you on the street
and thought, this girl's got it.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
There are so many parts of this that I love.
But he's also shooting his shot. He's trying to transition
to into a whole new industry and don't take this
the wrong way, but he's starting from the bottom. He's
going to buskers who obviously aren't represented yet, who he
can totally see something in and say hey, I can
work with that. I love that he shot his shot.
You've shot your shot by saying yeah, fuck, I'll go.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
But there are some amazing like you know, rags to
riches type stories about buskers who had discovered busking who
ended up being the biggest sensations, like especially in Barron
Bay where there's so many people who are creatively competitive
and that they're doing it. But you have the best story.
And I know it's the song that you fucking hate
talking about but unfortunately hear around it. But Dance Monkey

(24:50):
that is I mean, it sounded so different, it was
so catchy.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
It was the song that catapulted you.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
But you have a really interesting story about how that
song originally the very grassroots way grew legs when you
were playing at the local Barren Bay hotel, the Barnbay Hotel,
the one near the train station.

Speaker 5 (25:06):
No, it was the hostel Arts Factory.

Speaker 4 (25:09):
So the Arts Factory every Tuesday night has a talent
show and whether you're staying there or not, you're welcome
to go. You just walk in and you sit down
and people just get up. You can play music, whether
you staying at the hostel or not. It's quite big.
It's actually it was one of the biggest things I've
ever seen, you know, being a pub singer. Anyway, I

(25:29):
used to play there every week, and I did this
cover of Forever Young, which I actually still do on
tour today, and everyone used to always get up dancing.
I'd like loop the beats in and put bong goes
over it, and everyone used to get up and dance.
And I was like, I want to write a song
that's my own that these guys can dance to.

Speaker 5 (25:48):
That was my goal that week.

Speaker 4 (25:49):
So I went away that week and wrote some music
and I wrote this song. And it is about the
things that people say to me on the street. I
see the way you shine, they take my hand, they
look at me, and they go stopped me dead while
I was walking by, Like it's literally just people things
people say to me in a song.

Speaker 5 (26:05):
It's not that like deep and then.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
But also dance, monkey around, you're busking for people. You're
a performer for people.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
And it was originally when I wrote it, it was sing
for me, sing for me, but I was like, dance
is more universal, so I named it that.

Speaker 5 (26:19):
Anyway.

Speaker 4 (26:20):
For the first time I played this song, I told
my friends at the hostel, like, this is I just
wrote this song. I was reading my lyrics off my
phone and I set the loops up and everyone they
were eating. It was early, and everyone, even on the balcony,
were like all getting.

Speaker 5 (26:33):
Up and started dancing. I was like, oh my god.

Speaker 4 (26:34):
So at the end of the talent show they asked
me to play it again, and then once again everyone
got up, and I was like, this is crazy. I
played it on the street, where all of a sudden,
all these people like started messaging me asking where they
can hear it, where they can hear it. I didn't
want to do it. I wasn't releasing music. I just
wanted to be a busker. I was living my dream.
Now I'd done it. I ticked everything I wanted to do.
I didn't want it, which is so funny, man. And

(26:57):
then I never planned on releasing it. And then this
song got so big on its own before I released it.
This song got so big on its own that everyone
now officially would come to the talent show every single
Tuesday night, packed out, couldn't fit anyone else because I

(27:17):
would sing this song once at the end of the night.
I would always go last and I'd sing this song
once and everyone would just wait for this song. And
the hostile even started charging five dollars on the door
and saved enough money to buy a whole new PA
system in like a week, and then I ended up

(27:38):
doing like singing this song at the hostile It got
so big that I was, like eight months after I
started playing on the street, I recorded it, and then
pretty much when I released it, we saw the same
thing happen, but in a way bigger scale that what
had already been happening for eight months on the street,
and the people that were a part of that, Like

(27:58):
that's you know, no matter what I say, I like
this song. I love this song. I love it. I
love it so much. I'm so proud of it. But
the song has started to define me, and that is
where I draw the line, and that's where I start
backing away from only talking about it. But I don't
want to ever take away from past tones who actually
had the balls to drag that speaker and shit out

(28:21):
onto the street every single night, other buskers making up
group chats about me, saying let's run hero out of town,
please shutting me down, Like it was just all these
long haired guys with guitars and pitchforks coming for me.
And I still did it every night for myself, just
like I did when I was young, just like I
did when I used to get up early and leave
the house and just get away and play basketball and

(28:43):
build my own shit up from when I was thirteen.
I did it all again, and now, looking back, I
just have no idea how I even did all that,
because the tones I am now is looking a whole new.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
You need to motivational speak. I'm like, why am I crying?

Speaker 4 (29:03):
This is that?

Speaker 1 (29:04):
It's actually just yeah, it's so because there's so much
you can tell when you speak that it's there's so
much truth to it and honesty, and there's so much
warmth in the fact that you're like, you're in the
fact that your life wasn't set up for success, but
you made it anyway, which is huge.

Speaker 4 (29:21):
Yeah, And I think after all of that, maybe putting
on foundation for some old guy on Instagram was the
last of my worries, you know what I mean. There
was maybe a bigger picture there, Steven. But you know,
I actually here's an exclusive. I've actually just lost thirty kilos,
so I'm feeling the best love actualation. But I did

(29:41):
it on my own time. Yeah, you know, I started
last year. Actually, my turning point was your show. I
was talking to Mitch. Yeah, yeah, different ways.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
I remember the conversation you guys were having in the
in the little green room.

Speaker 5 (29:54):
At the back.

Speaker 4 (29:55):
Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with this, but I swear
in my life I'm not on nozen pic because that
is definitely gonna be in the media soon.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
But that's the thing too. Like Mitch our co host
who we all love, a good friend of yours too,
he did go on his own health journey and lost
so much weight, and then the difference in him was astronomical,
like the confidence and the happiness he felt. And I
know that's like what helped you kickstart your health journey
as well, and you can see it in you as well. Like, no,
I'm not talking about the weight loss. I'm talking about

(30:21):
the difference in who you are, like who radiates out.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
Yeah, how has it made you feel different?

Speaker 4 (30:26):
I can only explain it like this, And this is
so truthful to how I feel that I reckon other
people might feel similar before I did anything, whether it
was this, whether it was meeting new people, whether I
was going out for dinner and some people there I
didn't know, or social the smallest social things a photo
in war works with fan I could not connect or

(30:49):
enjoy the moment because there was this big like shield
in front of me that was saying like, you're ugly,
You're gross, this is going to be what people see.

Speaker 5 (30:57):
Doesn't matter what you do. This is offensive.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
And I know that's sad to say now because I'm
not in that headspace, but that was who I was
for a long time.

Speaker 5 (31:06):
I didn't want.

Speaker 4 (31:07):
To be super excited to meet people and give my
full self because I thought that doesn't matter. People have
already shown you that the way you look is so
much more important than the way you could act. So
I was so reserved, and I didn't want to be reserved.
I'm not a reserved person, but I just like really
couldn't put myself out there because the way I felt
about myself was so harsh because it was obviously like

(31:32):
dramaticized by what people had said about me in that
moment in my life where I was at my most
vulnerable that I didn't want to do anything or talk.
I definitely wouldn't have a camera in front of me
right now. I wouldn't go on any shows or do
anything anyone wanted. I said no to any camera stuff,
and I'd just be doing radio liners in my room
with a voice memo and I didn't want to post anything,

(31:54):
but I had to and it's the worst.

Speaker 5 (31:55):
And I had to do a photo shoot for the
first time and that was horrible.

Speaker 4 (31:58):
But it's all a part of If you want people
to listen to music, you've got to be the whole package.
I just wanted to be the music.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
But now look at you. You're on stage supporting Pink
as well.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
In Sequins actually like literally yes, and you're dancing like the.

Speaker 5 (32:12):
All out there I'm in my Sequin era.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
Yeah, I fucking love this.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
But also it comes down to like, and this is
something Taylor Swift has talked about loads, but like reinventing
yourself as a female performer. It's almost like we don't
have the allowance to just be the same version. You
don't have the allowance to be the same version of
yourself throughout your entire career. There's variations of what tones
and I will be. Where do you think this fits
into your journey in being musical and like what's coming

(32:37):
next for you in terms of like where you want
your music to be.

Speaker 4 (32:41):
Well, I mean right now I am in a like
I'm trying to, you know, be as confident as I can.
I wore just such a small thing for anyone listening,
But I wore shorts on stage for the first time.
I don't think anyone had ever seen my knees before
the last four weeks.

Speaker 5 (32:59):
You know.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
I don't think that's a small thing, though. I think
there's a lot of people listening right now that feel
exactly what you're saying.

Speaker 4 (33:05):
To have a pop female pop artist say that she
showed her knees for.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
The first time, that's the headline, like to.

Speaker 5 (33:16):
Me, And it was such a big deal.

Speaker 4 (33:17):
And I stood in the mirat for so long backstage,
and I thought, the way that I'm moving, the way
I'm just enjoying myself.

Speaker 5 (33:23):
Who gives a fuck about your knees? Like, what is
even wrong? Like I've got normal knees.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
You literally have beautiful knees. They are knees. I can't wait.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
I can't wait to hear this knee exclusive out there
for everybody who hasn't seen them before.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
I know. So I think I'm taking it day by day.
I am speaking even now. Obviously I'm still reserved, but
I'm speaking from a way more open point than I
ever have ever before.

Speaker 5 (33:51):
I don't want to say too much.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
I'll say two sentences at a time usually, But I
think that show we did together was just so nice
to see, so warm. That made me feel comfortable. But
right now I'm not thinking too much ahead. And then
that cautious tones and that tones from before, like she's
still there because she's you know, she's keep keeping us
all wearing makes you safe.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
Yeah, she's kept.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
You safe for this amount of time. But also something
and which makes me so excited for this new version
of you, in your confidence error, in your sequin error,
is how much people love you more when they see
you authentically, when they can see behind the curtain and
they understand your story. Because with that, and I know
for you, there's always been this fear around well how's

(34:37):
the media going to turn the truth?

Speaker 5 (34:39):
Then?

Speaker 2 (34:39):
If they know the truth, well what the fuck are
they going to write about then? But what actually happens
is you have this army of people who see you,
who recognize you, who identify you because they've lived a
similar thing, they've experienced a similar feel like I actually
have goosebumps, where they have felt the way that you feel,
and you were humanized at a whole other level. Other
than just being an incredible artist, you become an incre

(35:00):
human and that's really really cool as well.

Speaker 5 (35:03):
I think I'm on a journey.

Speaker 4 (35:05):
I want to see myself as someone that I would
be proud to call a friend, and that is what
I'm working towards. And I think that I have to
work on myself personally, and I think that will resonate publicly.
But I have no plans and never have had any
plans to work on my public image because I can't

(35:28):
fake anything. So you know, I'm if I'm upset, I
won't post, I don't announce.

Speaker 5 (35:33):
I'm not going to post.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
I'm having tital media.

Speaker 4 (35:36):
I don't do that, and I don't indulge in stories
because there's no point me villainizing anyone in my past.
It does nothing for me. It does nothing but bring
up stuff. If there was someone right in front of
me right now that it would help and it wasn't
going to go public, I would share that story. But

(35:57):
for me to talk about any of those things, it's
bringing it up for me for people to consume. And
at this point in my life right now, I'm in
a positive place. But I don't think my fans or
the people that like dance Monkey have shown themselves prominent
enough as my core people like you guys have with
your podcast for me, if you're comfortable enough to indulge

(36:19):
in my past yet, yeah, but I'm always open to it.
But if it's just for the point of entertainment, I
would never go back there. Yeah, it's just a journey.
I'm on.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
You know, you should be so proud of yourself.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Thank you, deeply proud of yourself talking about your music,
and you know, I know obviously dance Monkey, and I
love that you say it's something that you're proud of,
but also something that you can say, well, the thing
that you hate about it is how it started to
define what you've created and to find you as a person.
How did you manage to navigate away from that and
where are you at now in terms of the music

(36:51):
that you're creating and what you're putting out in the world.

Speaker 4 (36:54):
Well, I went from like a song that went pretty
global in terms of it just was everywhere everywhere. So
then I had to figure out, well, they're not my fans.
They like the song, and there's going to come a
point where you're so I start like this, this is
the global song and then slowly, over time you find

(37:14):
your pocketive fans that listen to your album and your
next stuff and go look at your other songs, and
that is dramatically smaller, and then you work with them,
You appreciate them, you communicate with them, you write for them,
and you always.

Speaker 5 (37:26):
Write for yourself. I truly believe.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
But don't ever try and recreate the same hit just
to get streams. I just feel like that style of
song was born with me and died with me, and
like if someone tried to recreate that or of myself,
we were like, oh God, like it's just the same
way over it. I just feel like I had to
come to a point where I found that these how
many people listen to that one song?

Speaker 2 (37:49):
This?

Speaker 4 (37:49):
How many people listen to my music? And they're the
people that will go to shows or like, will you know,
want to know what you're doing, and you know, you
post publicly for these people. That was the moment where
I kind of realized, and I think, then that's when
you find those fans, and whatever I released, they consume
and if they like it, they like it. If they don't,

(38:09):
they don't, And that's just all a part of it.
But I never release a song thinking it was gonna
have to ever be that. The way I think of
Dance Monkey is if I ever tried to live up
to that standard with everything I did. I need to
realize that Beyonce hasn't done that. Ariana Grande hasn't done that.
Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift they've never done what that
song has done, and I'm not gonna say what I've done.

(38:32):
So they're all very successful women in music and they're
not trying to beat this because that wasn't their first song.
So why should I compare myself to this crazy thing
that all the people I look up to you haven't done.
When that is fine enough. I'm not even trying to
be Beyonce. Like I'd be happy to play the Forum
once a year, you know what I mean? Truthfully, I

(38:53):
really would. This Pink tour has been amazing, but take
me to the Forum. You know, I'm okay with that.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
It's crazy, but take me back to Byron Pump.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
But it's crazy when you put it into perspective at
the scale of which you have reached, because always you're
only ever going to be chasing something. Then that would
leave you disappointed. But the fact that you are very
consciously aware of like where you're at and what you
want to achieve.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
It's really really amazing.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
Something that we talk about a lot here and that
we both feel really passionate about, and I think it's
always great to highlight it with someone that's been through
It is back to what we said at the beginning
of the episode, and that's the online trolling and the harassment,
and I know you have been on that side of
it quite heavily. And at the live show you spoke
about a really big event when you're flying to America,
and I think it was Nicki minaje what happened in

(39:42):
that time?

Speaker 4 (39:43):
Yeah, so this is like probably the worst trolling I've
ever had. I was on my way to do my
first American tour.

Speaker 5 (39:51):
It was all sold out. I was so excited.

Speaker 4 (39:53):
I was four hours out of lax and I got
Wi Fi on the plane and my phone was.

Speaker 5 (39:58):
Like ding ding ding.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
And essentially what has happened is Nicki Minaj has gone
on her podcast, has not said a thing about me.

Speaker 5 (40:06):
Nothing about me.

Speaker 4 (40:07):
Nicki has said I'm about to release a new song,
do whatever you can to get it to number one.

Speaker 5 (40:12):
That was it? Now At the same time of this,
my song had.

Speaker 4 (40:15):
Just broken the record for the most days at number
one globally, so one hundred and fourteen days or something,
And so no one in that whole six months, not
one song went to number one globally while my song
sat there. So obviously I was the target of the barbs,
which too truthfully, I kind of was a barb at
the time, and I still loved Nicki Minaj and so

(40:38):
they came to me.

Speaker 5 (40:39):
And what they did is they came.

Speaker 4 (40:41):
They came for me by editing all my photos, whether
it was the cap I was wearing or a pluque,
and they put like racist signs or swastickers everywhere over
my stuff and then re posted it on Twitter, which
I didn't run my Twitter, so I couldn't even see this.
But then someone screenshot it and put it and spag

(41:02):
me on Instagram all over my stuff because they thought, well,
let's make her look like the bad guy instead of
us just trying to bring her down, which does at
least I like that about Ossie's They just are dicks.
They'll say it from their chest like they'll say the
mean thing, but it's so much more manipulative overseas like
they make.

Speaker 5 (41:20):
You look bad.

Speaker 4 (41:21):
And then obviously I was so distroyed. I called my label.
I said I have to say something, and then they
said no, if you bring it up, it's going to
get more attention. But then there was like a retweet
on Nicki Minaja's twitter that said, this is not what
I meant, like as if you're trying to bring a
female down like this, Like so she kind of called
it out. And then she said, or someone said, you

(41:41):
forgot to edit her blue tick in. So the person
that had edited these forgot to edit my blue tick
back in, so it so it looked like like they.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
It was a photoshop.

Speaker 4 (41:50):
Yeah, so that was probably the worst thing. And then
I was sitting and then I met Maclamore on that
tour and I was sitting with him. This is the
first thing I met him, and he's like, I want
to do a song with you in the studio, and
I sat with him and I was like so embarrassed,
and I was like, I really like, this is the
dream come true. He's my favorite artist, always has been said,
I would love to do this, but I need to
let you know first what people are saying about me

(42:12):
online in case it sways you. So I show it
to Ben and his manager and they just kind of
start laughing to each other and I was like what,
and they're like, they do it to everyone. They even
do it to Lizzo, they do it to Doja Cat.
They're like, if you're coming up in the music industry,
this is their go to. They will villainize you. They
do it to a lot of people. But obviously as
an Australian artist, like I just don't think I've seen
it where that ruthless. I haven't seen that no, So

(42:36):
I was really embarrassed and like I really needed to
let all my friends know that if they'd come across anything.
But it died quickly, thank goodness. But there's maybe like
a few things that I just feel like places you
would just never go. But obviously people don't care. And
I get so disgusted when I see, you know, young

(42:56):
girls online just copying heat for anything. It's just kind
of gross. But I think I came in just before
TikTok took off.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
It's also frustrating when when you said you called your
managers and your agency and like I'm gonna say something
and they say don't because it gives it more oxygen.
But it's so hard to have your character assassinated and
you're told to sit back and just let it happen,
even though every part of you wants to say, but
I know, I'm not that person.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
It's a really.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
There like even if you do say I'm not that person,
there's there's no winning.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
Well this is I mean, we've had a conversations similar
on the pod before, but with mea Friedman, she's always
kind of given the advice to ask as a bit
of a mentor of like, don't put gas on the fire,
Like if other people are saying things about you, the
worst thing you can do is weigh in because it
just puts a spotlight on it, which is great advice,
but when you're in it, you're just like, fuck, I
want people to know that I'm not the person that
they're saying I am. I know, But then it's like

(43:50):
even if you do that, you still are met with
the vitriol of people who don't care.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
Yeah, it's yeah, it's amazing.

Speaker 4 (43:56):
You can't wait to Australia, which I'm thankful for, Like
my home is still my home and I don't feel
as toxic here, but it tainted the US for me
tainted it and that USD conversion rate.

Speaker 5 (44:06):
You got to go, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
You gotta own the bank.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
Don't tell us tell us more about what you've been
doing with Pink because like it's from looking in across
social media, I produced a Keisha got to go and
see you live, Like what has this experience been like?
And what did it mean for you to be able
to headline for Pink? And also like how long was
it in the bag for? Like what's it like?

Speaker 4 (44:28):
Well, I didn't find out I was definitely doing it
a few years ago, but I was alluded to the
fact that I was a really really really like strong
contender a few years ago. So I haven't been touring
and the tour got postponed. No one knows this because
it wasn't public yet, But when I thought it was
gonna happen, I got postponed.

Speaker 5 (44:47):
Da da dah.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
I don't think it got postponed as much as I
just hadn't decided on a date yet, so like I
held out doing anything myself. Actually, I also got asked
to go on the Robbie Williams tour, but I couldn't
do both, so I was holding out, thinking maybe and
it wasn't confirmed, but.

Speaker 5 (45:01):
Robbie had an official offer.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
But then I was like no, but Pink's fans would
like get my music more, and robbie fans might be like, why.

Speaker 5 (45:09):
Is she here?

Speaker 1 (45:09):
So that's a tough ways to be man between Pink
and Robbie.

Speaker 4 (45:12):
I know, good plays, but we didn't get an official
offer from Pink. So I was like, no, no, I'm
just gonna rely and hope for this and hope for this,
and I just kept saying no, no, no, and then
the offer came through. And you know what I love
about the whole thing about working with Pink. I run
so deep with my tour party. They are not just

(45:33):
my choir. I wish there was a better word, but
they my choir and my band. And asked like, we
are so close. It is not the same without us altogether,
and to have the full acceptance of that and the
full love, and yep, you can bring them. They even
approved for more if we wanted, And like the confidence
like that they have in their own show that They're like, yep,

(45:55):
bring your mad house, bring your choir, bring.

Speaker 5 (45:57):
Your note, what do you want?

Speaker 4 (45:58):
Obviously there are a few cuts here and there, but like,
there's nothing more confident and badass about someone that knows
their own worth so much that they are telling the
Support Act to go as big as you want. They
literally say, go as big as you want, and I
literally have. I think I knew that these were pink shows,
but this was my chance to not be just a

(46:20):
song on the radio for a lot of people that
would have known nothing more.

Speaker 5 (46:23):
About me, and to embrace every moment.

Speaker 4 (46:26):
And I truly feel like with four shows to go,
I really feel like I have embraced every single moment
on this tour and I've taken it all in. Unlike
other tours, which people might be surprised about, I'm actually
completely sober, which I'm not a sober princess like I.

Speaker 5 (46:44):
Wasn't before, and I would always get sick on tour.

Speaker 4 (46:46):
I'd always get run down, and I'm really looking after
myself now and I've enjoyed every moment. It's beat euphoric
to be able to, you know, see these faces of
the people that start like this and like and literally
jumping up and down, and that's the best part. And
today I actually announced that I am finally after three

(47:10):
years doing my own Australian tour, which will only be
my third ever Australian tour.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
Yeah, there's those terrible staturf.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
The dogs are like running around.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
We are so excited for you. What it was that
prevented you from doing it? When you say it you're
only your third What stopped you from doing it sooner?

Speaker 4 (47:34):
Well, obviously I thought I had this opportunity as well,
and I think to you know, to really lock that
opportunity down, like they want to know that you know,
you haven't toured for a bit. If you've just done
a tour and everyone's bought tickets to see that, then
you really won't add to ticket value. So they always
like to make sure a sport act helps. Like for
my headlining tour, I will bring on a sport act
that will help a bit with tickets if needed, and

(47:54):
if we do sell out without awesome as well, it's
just how it goes.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
Do you have ideas of who you have?

Speaker 4 (48:01):
Oh? I do have an idea and the person that
I've picked is perfect and we're very close backstage or
everyone's allowed in my dressing room support act or not,
like there's no bad time to come and see me
and the choir, and we want it to be a big,
loving family, so we've picked a support act that would
fall into that and enjoy it and embrace it.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
Tones what made you want to stop drinking?

Speaker 4 (48:22):
Like?

Speaker 2 (48:22):
What was it that was the catalyst that made you
want to do this experience with pink?

Speaker 3 (48:26):
But be sober?

Speaker 2 (48:27):
So?

Speaker 5 (48:28):
Maclamore is a sober boy.

Speaker 4 (48:30):
He has struggled with drug addiction quite publicly his whole life,
and he's been sober for a long time and he's
killing it. I went on tour with Maclamore last year.
I was supporting him, but I also get on stage
with him as well.

Speaker 5 (48:40):
So did my show.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
Then his show, I got really drunk, like I always have,
maybe a bit too drunk.

Speaker 5 (48:45):
My show was great, and then I fucked up. So
can I swear on this problem?

Speaker 2 (48:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (48:50):
And I fucked up all his songs, so my he
was bringing me on tour and then and that was
because of drinking. Anyway, I swore from that night on
I wouldn't drink for the rest of his tour.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Right to him, did you make that commitment?

Speaker 4 (49:03):
Like?

Speaker 3 (49:03):
Did you guys have a conversation?

Speaker 4 (49:04):
He didn't know I was drunk, but I've seen like
they take it really seriously on tour, like you can
have a drink like they're not, but like, don't you
don't need They're always like you don't need it to perform,
Like so like lucky, they didn't know, but I could
tell Ben now and he'd be like okay. I was like, okay,
I got away with that one. Scott Free just gave
me a look. He looked back and he's like and
then I like went straight on my tour bus and
went back. I didn't even see him after the show.

(49:26):
And then before the next show, he just said to
everyone in the huddle, no fuck up snipe, and we
all know it was because of me, and I was like, hey,
So I was like, I'm not doing anymore. It's like
it's getting in the way of things for me. So
I did the whole tool rest of the Tool sober
last year with him. It was amazing. And then when
I was with you guys last I did, I said, like,
I want to lose weight, I want to be happy,

(49:46):
and this was a huge part of it for me.
So I just literally from that day on, I was like,
I am just going to prioritize whatever it is I
need to do.

Speaker 5 (49:56):
The next decision that I make has.

Speaker 4 (49:58):
To prioritize my happiness and my health, and I've just
been doing that and now it's like I'm thirty kilos lighter.
My mood swings are way less. I have so much happiness,
Like that's genuine. These pants never used to fit me.
But that's okay because that's what happens when you lose weight.
That's the least of my happiness. I'm just a happy
person now.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Yeah, for now. And yeah, it's great to be able
to wear your favorite pants too.

Speaker 5 (50:18):
Yeah, I know. So then I'm just decided, like I'm
not like sober forever.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
Sorry, Ben, But like I just keep saying no, yeah,
and even when I'm like I could, I'm like, oh nah.

Speaker 5 (50:29):
And then I just feel so fine, you know.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
So good. And it's also so amazing to hear someone
who's kind of done the partying, done the drinking, done
the performing on stage, which I'm guessing also makes you
feel a little bit more confident because you've got a
bit jazzy, but then also has gone out there and
done the really frightening thing of being on stage in
front of thousands of people and had the experience I've
been able to say, Okay, it's just as good. It's
a different type of high.

Speaker 4 (50:53):
Absolutely, it's so much better, I think.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
But also, like you know, each to their own. You
never know the next work. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
I'm a ship face all life Like.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
Life's a journey, I said, guys, I could go back
down this roller coasters. It's on a high right now,
but it's life's of roller coasters or whatever.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Something people might not know about you is that, despite
the fact that you're married, you live in a sharehouse
with your closest friends. Like, friendship to you is something
that is so important.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
It's like you're still in that hostel.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
But I feel like I love this because you speak
so much about it, but you live it authentically as well.
Where like what is your life like now in terms
of like living with your friends, living with your husband?

Speaker 3 (51:33):
How does that dynamic work?

Speaker 4 (51:35):
So I, me and Jimmy had to talk to our
friends after we got married, because we had a chat.

Speaker 5 (51:40):
We were like, does this mean we have to and
we're like, no, let's just create our own normal. We
don't want any of our friends to leave us. There's
no difference.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
We're married.

Speaker 5 (51:49):
Yeah, we love each other.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
We've just proven we love each other a little bit
extra than we did before.

Speaker 5 (51:53):
Big deal.

Speaker 4 (51:54):
We love our friends around us. We told them we
don't want you guys to move out. We have no
plans on trying to get you out slowly. We wanted them.
We sat them down literally and we're like, we want
you to know like we love you, we want you
to stay. You're a part of his family. So, for example,
last night, we had one day off, this whole tool
one day off. Last night, all the boys came around
and some of them have got new partners, really cute.
We all just watch and I put in the group

(52:17):
family group Chat, situationships welcome, and so we had some
new faces.

Speaker 5 (52:22):
Last night.

Speaker 4 (52:22):
We watched the footy and we all got pizza and
we just talked about our lives, whatever's going on, and
we just it's almost like if the story of my
life was to end now, it would be and they
lived happily ever after, you know, but I know there's
more to go, but it's this is everything.

Speaker 5 (52:39):
I ever wanted.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
How many people do you live with?

Speaker 4 (52:42):
So I live with Jimmy obviously, Frankie just moved out.
Jack Ryan is pretty much lives with us, and then
Charlesi in the other room, and then Daniel lives around
the corner, so he's out like every day, and then
we're really close with his family. Did a mini Cantonio's
are looking after my dog's boss right now. And then
Gozzie as well is always over. And he's got a

(53:04):
new partner, Jade, who also plays at netball club with everyone,
so we already know her. And then that's kind of
like our core group. But then we like have people
that are always welcome, you know.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
Imagine go to Netbule on a Wednesday, there's tones and
I just play netble in the netball group.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
We already know her.

Speaker 4 (53:19):
They asked me to be number one ticket older three
years in a row that footy club.

Speaker 5 (53:22):
And because and I said to them, I refuse.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
Do you know how many old dogs at the club
that have played there when they were young. They're always
there with beers or whatever.

Speaker 5 (53:31):
Be like, well, okay, you just want this pop girl
to come in. So I said no.

Speaker 4 (53:35):
Third year, They've asked me again this year and I
was like, you know, Jay's fucking.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
All right time. I'll do it, so get these knees out.

Speaker 5 (53:41):
I'm number one ticket older for Frankston Bombers, what does
that mean? I don't know.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
Because I'm like you say with so much confidence, and
I'm like, well, I'm number.

Speaker 4 (53:51):
One ticket older for Melbourne United and that means they
give me court side seats every game, which is awesome
because they're actually in the Grand Final this week.

Speaker 5 (53:57):
I'm so excited.

Speaker 4 (53:57):
But I don't know if Franks and Bomber is going
to get me a fold out deck chair, because they
already tell me every week. It's so funny because every
week you see me walking down the hill with my
deck chair under my arm and I set.

Speaker 5 (54:09):
It up and then I sit there.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
So it's number one ticket holder, but byo your own
deck chair. So maybe if the Bombers are listening right now,
ge Tones up deec chair, don't make a walk with
her own deck chair?

Speaker 2 (54:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (54:21):
Maybe we could nail it into the ground.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
Yeah, make it a permanent one. Yeah, a little plark
next to the deck chair.

Speaker 5 (54:25):
Oh I love that.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Ready for the people, so good, Tones, thank you so much. Genuinely,
from the bottom of our heart. We are I mean,
we were so honest that we got to speech with
the live show.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
And I know.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
I hate to say it, but I had a preconceived
idea of who you were, and it wasn't bad, but
it just was that you were really shy and introverted.
I didn't know how funny you were because you never
put yourself out there. I didn't know how articulate and
intelligent and deep you can go because we never see
tones like Australia, never got to see who you are.
And I just fell in love with you at that show.

(54:58):
I thought you were so funny and such a beautiful
human And yeah, we're just the fact that you came
on today to share with us.

Speaker 5 (55:04):
Witchhuft, thanks guys, talking to you guys.

Speaker 4 (55:07):
This has been such a good, like great safe first podcast,
and there won't be a second with anyone else, So
don't come from.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
That's what she's say. We'll have you back anytime.

Speaker 4 (55:19):
I would like to keep working on being more and
more open with you guys. I'd like to do it more.
Maybe we can make it. I think that you know
we do. I'm not definitely not going to go another
podcast and bear my soul, but I think if we
work on the you know it, maybe we could just
like a.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
Six month therapy sessions.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
We want you.

Speaker 5 (55:39):
Also.

Speaker 4 (55:40):
One most thing Hey, Tash, I know that you're a
massive fan of the girls, so this is for you.

Speaker 5 (55:45):
Love you. That's my sister.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
Of course you told us that it's the live show.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
It's so cute, Hia. We love you too.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Tones is single I Get High, came out two weeks ago.
It's an absolute banger. So if you haven't heard it yet,
get out from under your rock go and stream it
and you're going to love it just as much as
any other song she's ever put out.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
And we'll tell you as soon as tickets are.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Available to her tour. As long as we get tickets