Give us a blow-by-blow of your audition process to get this job? What was the weirdest thing you had to do?
The first few stages of the audition process were online, and pretty much encompassed written tasks and dodgy home-recorded video submissions (from memory, I wrote about the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack. God love it). I survived the first few culls, and it wasn’t until I had made the Top 30 that I actually had to do stuff in person and in front of a real life producer and video camera. Said stuff included an impromptu album review, interviewing Kevin Mitchell and eating Gefilte Fish. This was apparently relevant to the job, although to this day, I still fail to see how. When I was made a grand finalist, I found myself competing against some tall chick from Top Model and co-hosting a live broadcast from Homebake. And evidently, I blew the bitch away and was named the winner onstage at the end of the day. The weirdest part of it all was having Mess+Noise repeat all the insults Tumbleweed fans were yelling at me while my victory procession delayed their favourite band. It was pretty rad seeing “Fuck Billy!” in print.
Who is the celebrity you’ve been most awestruck to interview?
I tend to get starstruck by everyone. And I’m really bad at hiding it. Like, Brian McFadden was in our office the other day and even though I think he’s a grade-A chump, I was still like, “Wow, that’s the guy who put it in Delta!” But I think my most awestruck (read:awkward) interview moments have been the following: telling Joel Gion from Brian Jonestown Massacre that I used to have him in my ‘heroes’ section on MySpace; having no small talk to offer Lady Gaga other than “you look pretty”; and actually addressing Kanye West with what was intended as a compliment but was received like a turd in a lunchbox: “I can’t believe so many people hate you!”
Who has been the nicest star you’ve ever had a chat to?
Dan Sultan. He is without a doubt the sweetest, humblest dude in rock’n’roll. Dan, if you’re reading this, I love you.
Most shit-hot part of the job?
It’s pretty cool having all the people who were mean to me in high school now sucking up to me. Arseholes. But I’m also in it for the free stuff.
Most shit-house part of the job?
Sometimes it’s a bit sucky being the face of something you don’t necessarily believe in. If I’m given a promo script, for example, and it has words like “epic!” and “sick mad dogz!” in it, then I tend to feel compromised. Also, I despise MC’ing events because I much prefer talking to a camera than to a room full of drunk people I don’t know. Drunk crowds are only fun when you’re in them.
Any advice for hopefuls?
Be yourself, love music, and leave your ego at the door.
Get yourself to vmusic.com.au, register your details and complete the series of audition tasks for your chance to take out the title.
