Ozi Batla – Can you get a more Australian Moniker than that? I think not!
Two Flat Whites talks to the Batla about all things Wild Colonial, which in my opinion is “album of the year”… Read the rest of the Ozi Batla - Wild Colonial Interview»

After just a few moments in the company of Melbourne-based singer/songwriter, Bridget Pross, it becomes clear that she is a woman who fearlessly wears her heart on her sleeve. Some pessimists warn that it’s dangerous to display emotions out in the open as it leaves you exposed and vulnerable.  Bridget reckons these people worry too much.  “If you hurt me, it just don’t even hurt me,” she proclaims in a lyric from an upcoming single.

One marvels at how an isolated teenager from the remote town of Westerway in Tasmania has arrived at the age of 25 and in the possession of such self-assured exuberance.  With one album already released and a second currently being recorded, I meet with Pross just as she is busy packing her bags for Sydney, having just won an APRA-sponsored trip to attend music discussions and workshops at Song Summit 2010.  “Everything is happening at once,” Pross grins.  “I’ve had this massive spurt of creativity and I’m waking up with songs in my head.  It’s so good, it’s just happening, my music is happening.”  For the envious among us, the truth is that Pross’s road was not always paved with yellow bricks.  It’s just that she learnt how to put on a brave face and get on with it.

From a young age Pross knew that her destiny lay beyond the restrictive confines of Tasmania.  Life at home continuously presented difficult challenges: at the age of four Pross and her two year old sister went to live with their mother’s new partner, whom had 6 children from a previous relationship.  Though the household atmosphere was always lively and high-spirited – Pross’s new dad, who loved to sing, referred to himself as American folk hero Davy Crockett – Pross struggled to find her place within the new family and never felt completely accepted. Read the rest of Bridget Pross's Diary»

Writer/Director Pene Patrick feels that truth should be at the heart of good Australian cinema.  Her debut film, Playing for Charlie, delves into the life of working-class Melbourne teenager, Tony Hobbs, as he struggles to find a balance between caring for his dependent family, and pursuing a rare opportunity for personal triumph.

An important new voice has emerged in the Australian film industry – one that looks poised to tear apart the current model of chasing the next blockbuster and set about creating a culturally-enriching body of work.

Two Flat Whites chats with Pene Patrick…

TFW:  Playing for Charlie is a humble film but it’s very strong in heart.  This is your directorial debut for a feature-length film.  You also wrote the screenplay.  Have you always written from such raw emotional territory?

Pene Patrick:  Well I think I’ll always go to the heart of a character.  That’s when I most lose interest in a film, when they haven’t gone to the heart of a character, and instead they’re being used to comment on something.

TFW:  How did you develop your writing?

Well it developed through my acting training which involved a very intense and serious training period in New York.  I was taught to look for the truth of humanity and the truth of the character in a situation.

TFW:  The actor who plays Tony Hobbs, Jared Daperis, resonates on the screen.  He seems an odd choice for the part, but it really pays off.  Was this intentional?

I think I cast him because he’s not a stereotype.  I see a lot of stereotypes in Australian films.  He has an international universality about him.  The thing that really excited me is that he has a boy / man quality: a wisdom.  He was an embodiment of everything I was trying to do in the film.

TFW:  I think his performance guides the wonderful score, written by Lisa Gerrard.

Yes her score is a character in the film, that’s what I love about it.  She’s brought another level to the narrative.  She’s come in and given a lovely river for everything to flow.

TFW:  It reminded me of Jane Campion’s ‘Bright Star’ in that respect.

Oh lovely, thank you.

TFW:  Audiences for Playing for Charlie are responding positively to the optimism in the film.  I did too, although I found some elements melancholic, particularly the Thomas Gray poetry whispered at one point; “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen”.  I felt this line reflected the fate of many disadvantaged young Australians: kids who don’t have the full opportunities to explore their talents.

Yes that was the core note from which the film sprung from.  But I also want the audience to see that it’s not always the case and that it is possible to move forward.  Tony is so certain and has a solid rock faith which I attribute to his upbringing and his relationship with his father.  These are good elements in this boy from a working-class background.  It’s actually a very positive statement about working-class values, so it’s very uplifting in that way.

TFW:  Producer Jan Chapman recently encouraged Australian film-makers to be “courageous and challenging,” and to “keep an Australian national spirit whilst appealing to an international audience.”  Do you agree with her?

Yes, and I think the issues in Playing for Charlie are universal.  It transcends race, class, and spirituality.  Tony’s boy to man journey is everyone’s journey.  It’s such a crucial time, the boy to man phase.  Playing for Charlie is about the struggle to protect that which is really vulnerable in us – whether that is our sex, or our race, or our art.

TFW:  Do you think films can make a difference?

Yes they get the issues out there.  Playing for Charlie explores the difficulties relating to young carers.  Since the film opened we have had a letter from the Minister for Health’s office – two years ago they provided a lot more resources and money to aid young carers.  Radio National has done a program on young carers.  There are thousands of people in Tony Hobbs’ situation in Australia so it’s important to tell these honest stories and bring greater awareness.

Playing for Charlie is in limited theatrical release at the Cinema Nova in Carlton, Melbourne.

Interview by Ryan Nance.

Emmanuel Mollois has cooked in some of the best restaurants in France and Melbourne and now owns Choux Café in Swanbourne; a small patisserie which was recently crowned ‘best in the west’ by the Sunday Times. He has just released his first cook book titled Et Voila! Chef Emmanuel Mollois will also appear alongside Master Chef Runner up Poh Ling Yeow in her new program Poh’s Kitchen which will air on ABC1 in February 2010.

Where did you grow up & where do you hang your hat?

I grew up in Vendee, a little town called St Hilaire de Riez on the West Coast. I usually leave my hats all around my house in Subiaco, Western Australia. I’ve got lots of them! My favourite hat is a World War 1 helmet that my brother gave me. When I’m not exploring obscure recipe books from earlier centuries, I’m reading about history. I collect lots of antiques and this particular hat is very rare and precious to me.

Tell us about your new book Et Voila!

Well, great, easy-to-follow, beautiful pictures from Karin, truly a book everyone should have and use, ha ha! The book takes you through the basics of pastry making and then has recipes for the most popular French pastries. It covers croissants, éclairs, lemon tart, crème brulée, madeleines, and cherry clafoutis plus some of my own creations. To me, there are no ‘secret’ recipes. I want to make my knowledge and the knowledge of the talented chefs who came before me accessible to the home cook.

Are you looking forward to appearing alongside Master Chef Runner up Poh Ling Yeow in her new program ‘Poh’s Kitchen’ on ABC 1 starting in February 2010? What can we expect?

You can expect a lot of me! You will see pastry, fish and sauce, all in my French style. But the main ingredient for the show is lots of laughter. Working with Poh is fun. She approaches food from a totally different background to me so when we get together we are always learning new things.

What and/or who inspired you to become a chef?

My Dad kind of pushed me into it, my dear uncle Fernand taught me his love for cooking, and I haven’t stopped since 1985! I originally wanted to be a cartoonist but, after a summer working with my uncle Fernand at his catering company, I started to like the idea of working with food. He was smart, he got me into the creative side – the decorative side of food – and this is what inspired me.

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Ash Grunwald is a soulful bluesman in the most pure sense. Raised in outer Melbourne, he first picked up a guitar at the sprightly age of ten. Grunwald grew up listening to classic bluesmen like Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and then later BB King, James Brown and Jimi Hendrix. This melting pot of blues and soul provided inspiration for what would become his signature eclectic style.

Grunwald continues to tour widely, showcasing his unique one man band style of the blues. His latest album Fish Out Of Water is a thrilling hybrid of styles and sounds.

Where did you grow up & where do you hang your hat?

I grew up in the burbs of Melbourne and half in the country when I was in my teens.  At the the moment i’m living on the road with my girl and baby.  We plan to move up around Byron Bay at some stage but its pretty fun living on the road.

In your own words, what do you do?

I’m a one man band that plays groove based modern blues music.   My sounds and themes have a pretty Australian feel.

Where did you learn your craft?

In the inner suburbs of Melbourne.  I used to go to a lot of gigs around town on my nights off and learned a lot about blues from some of the great players there.  I found my own sound out on the road by just gigging as much as I could in as many dfferent places as possible.

Who and what inspires you?

My lyrics are very reflective of my life experiences and the basic human condition so I would have to say, life.  How to live it, whats the best way forward, whats the point of it. These are the kind of questions that inform my music.

Childhood Memories:

TV Show –  The Goodies
Hobby – Surfing
Food – Vego curriesm Morrocanm Thai Indian
Fear – Day job
People – I believe that our love of other people is one of the innate things that allows us to overcome adversity without big teeth, strong muscles or being nimble.
Defining moment – The birth of my daughter.

Schooling memories, chore or cherished?

Chore,  I had a pretty good childhood, but being an adult is heaps more fun.  I play more now than I ever did as a kid.

Tell us about your new album “Fish out of Water”?

I had a great time collaborating with Countbounce who co-wrote many of the songs, created all of the beats and produced the album.  Its got a pretty fresh modern sound, I reckon.  Its my favourite by far.

Who does Ash Grunwald listen too?

I almost never lsten to blues any more, funny enough.  At the moment its mainly groove based stuff.  Fat Freddy Drops latest has been getting a spin while I’ve been touring England.

Where is the most beautiful place in Australia you have visited?

In truth it’s hard to name one.  I love the Australian coast so much and have had good times almost everywhere,  I think around Margaret River and Byron Bay I get the best feeling.

From the hours of 9am to 5pm, what do you get up too?

Usually travel.  If its a day off, and I’m lucky, a surf,  But almost everyday I’ll be hanging out with my girlfriend and our 9 month year old little miracle.

Where can people see you perform?

Australia, England and Canada mainly, but I’ve played in many other places.

For love or money?

If I did it only for the love then I’d have to do a day job for money, and that wouldn’t be nearly as good as doing what I love for the money.

What future endeavors are in the pipeline?

More collaborations and a few more holidays hopefully.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I really don’t know.  Hopefully doing exactly the same thing but at a higher level in the places that I’m developing like England and Canada.  I’d like to somehow create a couple of clones of myself so one could just gig his arse off, one could be living in Byron being the perfect family, and one could be surfing remote point breaks for months on end.

If you could invite 3 people to chat over coffee, who would they be & why?

Tom Waits would be the most interesting dude I could think of to talk to – he’s an amazingly inventive songwriter and character.  In the same boat I’d put Hendrix and Biggie Smalls.

Coffee or Tea?

I’m definitely a coffee dude, basically because I’m always tired.

Alice recently caught up with Two Flat Whites to discuss life, passions, future endeavours and her new novel ‘The Last Sky’. The Last Sky moves between a love story in wartime Shanghai and a failing marriage in Hong Kong during the handover to China. A very ambitious and resourceful young author. Don’t forget the name Alice Nelson!

Where did you grow up & where do you hang your hat?

I grew up on Cottesloe Beach in WA and always find myself drawn back there, though I’ve lived overseas for extended stints – in New York for the longest. I’m living in Perth at the moment but am just about to head to rural France for several months for a writing sabbatical of sorts.

In your own words, what do you do?

Joan Didion once described writers as lonely, resistant rear rangers of things, people who spend their most absorbed and passionate hours arranging words on pieces of paper. That’s certainly part of it but there’s a tremendous joy in imagining, in telling stories, in entering into the sweet obsession of writing when it feels like there is nothing outside the world of the page. It’s a solitary occupation but you also have to be terribly interested in people.

Where did you learn your craft?

From reading mostly – I think that it’s impossible to be a writer if you are not voraciously, obsessively passionate about reading all kinds of literature. I used to copy out Ernest Hemingway in the vain hope that I might learn how to write the perfect sentence! I’ve studied creative writing at university, both in Australia and in the Masters program at the City University of New York, and while I’m not sure that you can actually teach the craft of writing, I found both experiences incredibly valuable. The discipline of having to produce work constantly, the thick skin you develop from the criticism, the contacts you make, are all so important.

Who and what inspires you?

Writers who are constantly doing new and innovative things with their craft, who aren’t afraid to challenge themselves. People like Anne Michaels, Pablo Neruda, Michael Ondaatje, Joan Didion, Marguerite Duras, Gail Jones, Brian Castro, to name just a few. The African refugees I know through my work with the Coalition for Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Detainees – incredible men and woman who have often survived unimaginable violence and loss and still look to a happier future.

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The Drones have become a bit of a household name in Australia these days and it’s not too difficult to understand the appeal.  Combining great musicians, blistering live sets and a relentless tour schedule the band has well and truly established themselves as one our best musical exports.  I had the pleasure of seeing them at their last Brisbane show and must admit that despite being only a fairly recent convert I was blown away, which was why when the opportunity to interview guitarist Dan Luscombe via email on one of the bands short returns to Australia (they headed back to Europe two weeks later) I was pretty darn stoked.

Now to digress a moment here I have a confession to make – this was my first interview and I wasn’t altogether sure what I was doing.  It seems relatively straightforward, and while in actuality it really is, for those who haven’t done it before it can take way too much time.  Having dredged my mind clean for questions I decided to put it to a panel of advisors (my girlfriend’s half-drunk house mates) who represented musicians and non-musicians alike, but most importantly were considerably bigger Drone’s fans than myself.  In the end I think we came up with something resembling a good list, but there’s always that fine line between stimulating and nonsense.  You be the judge.

Back to Dan though: Dan has been well respected on the Oz music scene for years but many people don’t know much more about him besides the fact that he didn’t join the Drones until late 2006, when he left his former outfit Alpha Male to replace Rui Pereira.  Besides Alpha Male, Dan’s also played in the Black Eyed Susan’s, Four Hours Sleep, the Paul Kelly Band and Stardust Five (w/ Paul Kelly, Dan Kelly, Bill MacDonald and his brother Peter Luscombe, 17 years his senior) and teamed up with Paul Kelly again to do the soundtrack to the Ray Lawrence film ‘Jindabyne’.  Perhaps a good way to get to know Dan and the rest of the Drones though (besides this interview!) is through Dan’s tour blog from the 2007 European tour @ http://dronesdiary.blogspot.com/.  It’s a great read that makes you simultaneously smug and jealous from start to finish.  At the risk of over-prepositionalizing any more sentences though I’ll let Dan do the talking.

So you’ve been touring all over the world recently, and you’ve done all this before.  How has this most recent European Trip compared to your others, most notably the 2007 one? What’s the general ratio of work time to play time?

Well, thankfully we haven’t been at the mercy of a fairly shoddy booking agent since that tour. And I’m being pretty generous in that description. The work to play ratio is a grey area. If sitting in the van comes under the “work” banner, and it probably should I guess, then it’s about 80/20!

Favourite travel destination?

I’d say Paris. We’ve got a few buddies over there, and they provide a very homely atmosphere. Nice lookin’ joint, too.

So Just what happened to Gorka and Van Morrison? (Read Dan’s blog for details). What measures have you taken to ensure this tour doesn’t end like the last one?

We’ve taken the necessary measures, put it that way. But one can never expect things to always go smoothly. “Be prepared” is not just a Boy Scout’s motto. I’m not sure what happened to either Gorka or Van, but I sometimes lay awake at night, wondering.

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While MasterChef Australia is heating up, Julia Jenkins is hard at work trying to get the edge over her fellow contestants. Julia takes a hard earned break and chats with Two Flat Whites. She is obsessed with food, and it wasn’t until she was in her late teens, Julia confesses that she was an extremely fussy eater and could never have imagined herself becoming a cook. The race to the finals is only week’s away, check out more right here.

Where did you grow up & where do you hang your hat?

I grew up in Perth, Western Australia but moved to Melbourne almost two years ago.

In your own words, what did you do before MasterChef Australia?

Before Masterchef I was working as a Marketing Assistant at a cinema company. It was a great job and a fantastic company, but ultimately it wasn’t where I wanted to be. Basically, it wasn’t food.

How did you become involved with MasterChef Australia & was it a lengthy process?

I resigned from my job at the beginning of the year and was in the thick of deciding what I wanted to do with my life and how I wanted to get into the food industry when I heard whispers that Masterchef was coming to Australia. I applied, managed to get through the lengthy audition process, and the Top 50 week, and here I am. I don’t think I ever expected to even get the first call back, let alone get through to the finals!

What has inspired you to become a chef?

I adore food. I love cooking it, reading about it, tasting it, eating it, cooking it, and talking about it. I have met so many passionate and knowledgeable people in the industry and they have really inspired me to follow this path.

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Award winning singer and songwriter Kate Ceberano gets comfortable to talk with Two Flat Whites. One of the great voices this country has produced, Kate has teamed up with multiple ARIA award winner and Grammy Award winner Mark Isham to create her first jazz album in 20 years. An album that could only be aptly titled, ‘Bittersweet’.

With five Platinum albums, four Gold albums and over 1 million albums sold in Australia alone, Kate Ceberano has performed countless sell-out tours, starred in acclaimed feature films and hosted her own television show Kate & Friends. Kate’s bittersweet musical journey is set to continue. So grab a warm beverage and enjoy the interview.

Where did you grow up?

Melbourne

You live in Melbourne – what do you love most about that now?

I always love Melbourne this time of year. The turning of the leaves and the early dark nights. It reminds me of warm kitchens after school, tram rides home through Hawthorn, Kew and Balwyn and the smell of rain. I also love the city and the drama of Southbank counterpointed with the Botanical Gardens.

In your own words, what do you do?

I am a performing artist.

Where did you learn your craft?

On the road, in pubs, small theatres, cafes and bars. Later, concert halls, arenas and film studios. It has never ceased to inspire me and thrill me the learning part of my craft. Each new skill challenge or obstacle has been a red flag. I never ever think that I know it all. The contrary, I always approach new experiences knowing nothing… more fun this way. Open heart, Open mind…

Childhood Memories:

TV Show – Bewitched

Hobby – tap dancing

Food – grandma’s chicken and banana cake

Fear – being left out

People –teenage girls in gangs have always made me wary

Defining moment – the first harmony I ever heard

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Our friends at 3CR interviewed writer and director Sarah Watt in her new Australian film ‘My Year Without Sex’. Starring Matt Day and Sacha Horler, if you are looking for a laugh, the humour is wry and infectious.

‘My Year Without Sex’ comes out in Australian cinemas on the 28th of May. How are preparations going in the lead up to release? Is anticipation building?

Yeah, I think so. We had some preview screenings this weekend. So, people are starting to see it, which is very exciting – and nerve wracking!

I happened to catch one of those preview screenings and I’m happy to report that there was a lot of laughter in the cinema – at all the right parts.

That’s good! That’s very good.

The title of the film came from the fact that you didn’t want to direct another sex scene – why is that the case?

It came out of a joke about directing sex scenes. I think they’re very hard to do well. Often, they’re done really badly. It’s hard not to be clichéd so; I didn’t want to try, because I don’t think I’m a good enough director. But then, how do you make a film without a sex scene in it? You just call it, ‘My Year Without Sex’! So, it was kind of a joke at the start but in the end it worked really well with the content and the themes that I wanted to explore about consumerism and anxiety and all those things. Sex kind of belongs in there.

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