Mick Radojkovic sits down to talk Sydney music through the decades.
Mick Radojkovic is a pillar of the Sydney music community. He’s written for The Music, Faster Louder, LunchBox and presented on community radio across the city KIC 106 and 2ser. His industry knowledge is almost as impressive as his enthusiasm for all facets of Australian music, you’re just as likely to see him sitting down and chatting with Alex Lahey as you are to catch him moshing at Grinspoon. We caught him for a few minutes in his busy schedule to walk through his story.
1. Radio, reviewing, interviewing… you’re all over it! Tell me a bit about what you do.
Radio has long been a passion of mine, ever since high school where I was involved in the high school radio station (Yeah, just like David Silver from 90210) and then started volunteering at KIX 106 (rip!). My life took a turn away from being involved in the music scene for a while, but the last 10 years has seen me writing, starting out doing live gig reviews for Faster Louder and The Music. I also got back into radio, volunteering at 2ser, a community radio station in Sydney and this has given me amazing opportunities to interview musicians live on air. All through this time I have been writing my own music blog and doing freelance writing here and there. This year has seen me jumping on board with the brand-new (and awesome) Australian music site, Lunchbox. This has given me the opportunity to spread my wings even more and write reviews, articles and interviews. I feel eternally lucky to be able to meet musicians, chat about their craft and inspirations.
2. Tell me a bit about your story with music and where the passion began?
Music has been a constant in my life. Being a child of the 80’s I was obssessed with Michael Jackson, Prince, Inspector Gadget and Star Wars. My music nerdiness saw me taping songs off Rage on a Saturday morning, making mix-tapes medlies of artists (including The Cure and Guns n Roses) and collating a massive CD collection (about 600!). My first album I owned was ‘Choose 1985’. It had ‘amazing’ hits like ‘I Wear my Sunglasses at Night’ and ‘Agadoo’. I’d like to think my taste has improved, but I don’t mind pushing a bit of pineapple and shaking the tree.
In the 90s, when Triple j finally came to Canberra, I was a devoted listener. We’re talking back in the Mikey, Helen and Tunny days! They opened my eyes to Australian music more than any commercial station could do and from there I was hooked on new music, particularly Australian.
I also play music, covering piano, trumpet, tuba and bass guitar and am never happier than when I am on stage. Unfortunately this has been pretty rare lately, but hey, always looking for a gig! I have a constant music soundtrack going through my head and I have an urge to have background music going wherever I am. Now-a-days, I keep my ear to the ground and love discovering new artists and seeing as many live gigs as I can. I try to get to one or two a week at least and love nothing more than watching musicians do what they love on stage. My ears, however, are paying the price.
3. There’s an interesting point of discussion in music education and how relevant it is in today’s industry… can you weigh in?
I’ve known a lot of people that are a) very good at playing music, b) amazing at picking good music and c) great at talking about music and none of them would have a degree in anything musical or even had musical training. Music is one of those things that can be so subjective and one persons Radiohead can be another persons Grinspoon or another persons Kanye. I admittedly used to be a bit of a music snob and judge people on their tastes. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve definitely learnt that people’s person music tastes are just that, personal and I don’t judge much any more. I actually really like that you can pursue a job or a passion in music without any sort of proper qualifications. The most important thing (and this translates to almost all jobs) is passion. If you are passionate and work hard enough, you can work in anything.
I think the thing that is more important than any sort of music related qualification is to just listen to as much music as humanly possible. We now live in a generation where almost of the music ever written is accesible at our fingertips, so there is no excuse not to listen to anything old, anything new and anything that interests you. The danger, of course, is that there is so much music in the world that we can’t possibly listen to it all! I think it’s so important for people in the biz and hoping to get in the biz to listen to old music, find out what’s been out there and how it’s evolved to where we are today.
Whilst there are certainly jobs in the industry that require more formal qualification, I still think that anyone can do almost any job if you put your mind to it.
4. Who are some people in the Aussie industry who you think are doing amazing things?
I love meeting people in the music industry that are as passionate as me for music and everything that goes along with it. I constantly get blown away by people that live and breathe music and digest so much content every single day.
In the radio scene, I have long admired Zan Rowe for, not only her awesome radio work, but her passion for music, her taste in music and her interviewing techniques. She is easily one the top ‘taste-makers’ of music in this country and I can always guarantee that if Zan admires or enjoys an album, that I will too. I love that you can always tell that she’s excited about a song or an artist and she is so eloquent at sharing her passion to her listeners. Truly a national treasure!
Since moving to Sydney five years ago, I have been lucky enough to meet some people in the industry that are constantly working to bring music to the people. Matt and Dan Rule, known for owning the Annandale Hotel for twelve years are huge champions of live local music in Sydney and I feel privileged to know them. The Annandale is now just a gentrified bistro, but the brothers have continued to bring music to people through their booking company, ‘Music, Booze & Stuff’. They put on shows at a range of Sydney venues including the resurrection of the Landsdowne Hotel and putting on their own festivals (The Newtown Crawl!) I love their constant passion for music and their commitment to live music in particular.
When I was looking around for opportunities to write about music a few years back, I came across a little blog called Project U. The site, run by Nic Kelly, a teenager at the time, was just getting started and I was excited by its direction and style and fun content. Whilst I decided that I probably wasn’t well suited to write for them (read: old), I have met Nic and enjoyed watching not only his personal journey as he follows his passion, but the site flourishing along with his other projects. I would recommend any young writer, music lover or journalist take a look at how enthusiastic Nic is and let it inspire you.
5. Where is an area of Aussie music that you feel needs to be addressed?
Oh boy, where to start. I can see there being multiple fronts where Australian music can be pushed better. The first one is radio and online content. I see a real opportunity for an All-Australian music portal at the moment, to really promote our amazing brand and get it out to listeners both here and abroad. We really only have Triple J’s Unearthed platform to access new Australian music and with the industry constantly growing, I see that we should have new methods to access local music. Radio is a tough one and I always get angry at the paltry Australian music content on commercial radio. I realise that not everyone enjoys listening to the latest Australian music, but I really wish the quota was increased and some sort of rule around the age of the music as well. (enough with the Midnight Oil, AC/DC, INXS and Cold Chisel!)
Live music is the constant battle for Australian music. This battle is mostly related to having sufficient venues to play in, particularly outside of the capital cities. We have to really be careful that as cities develop and grow, so to do the venues. It always seems like the live music scene in Sydney and Melbourne is on the brink of collapse when a couple of places shut down. This shouldn’t be the case. Despite the closure of venues over the years, I actually think that Sydney and Melbourne are currently doing ok. When one closes, another opens, but I am more concerned about smaller towns, Canberra, Newcastle, Wollongong and then interstate. There needs to be incentives to create live music and arts venues for owners. The other hard part of touring for any artist is the cost. Not only is it expensive just to go around our own country, but if you want to go overseas to try and crack it, you’re needing $20,000 to $40,000 just to get there! I would love to see some sort of attempt made to help artists export their brand but also to perform around the country.
To learn more about Mick head over to his profile.
