MusicMusic Interviews

The Music Show

ABC Australia

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

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24 episodes
Avg 54 min
English

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Friday · 54 min
Four hundred years of family singing: Bob Copper
For hundreds of years, the Copper family have sung for their own pleasure, and for the pleasure of the people of Rottingdean, the East Sussex village where the family have been living since at least the 1500s. Singing together in pubs and houses, the BBC first recorded them in 1951, and they've gone on to become stars, particularly in the United States, where they toured extensively. Andy went to East Sussex to sit down with Bob Copper, the paterfamilias of the family, in 2003 when Copper was
Friday · 54 min
Bryce Dessner's Trembling Earth & Bob Scott's enormous radio
Drawing references to Kerouac, Munch, and Hildegard of Bingen, Bryce Dessner's music builds on a rich tradition of art that extends far beyond music. The classical composer (and guitarist for The National) is presenting the Australian premiere of his cello concerto, Trembling Earth, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and talks to Andy about his influences, NY's music scene, and his new opera. In a new sound installation called The Enormous Radio, Bob Scott and Roslyn Oades are tuning a huge ro
September 12 · 54 min
Benjamin Clementine isn't a jazz musician
To mark Andy’s departure from the show at the end of this year, we’re bringing you some of his favourite conversations from 32 years on air. This week, we’ll hear the American pianist, composer and teacher Seymour Bernstein in a conversation from 2015. Bernstein died earlier this year, just before his 100th birthday, and in that long life he passed on a huge amount of wisdom about music, from how to play Beethoven to helping Ethan Hawke overcome stage fright. Benjamin Clementine, who is an ama
September 11 · 54 min
John Farnham: The voice behind The Voice
You’re The Voice remains a favourite for generations of Australians and the album it's on, Whispering Jack, has sold more than 1.5 million copies. But John Farnham was 37 by the time he recorded that album and the music industry wasn’t all that interested in a new direction from a 60s pop star - until word of mouth began spreading that this was something special. In some ways it’s that background that makes the result so remarkable. Andrew Ford charts the story behind Farnham's biggest hit and
September 4 · 54 min
Robert Forster's Swedish Strawberries and the Red Spirit Singers let their voices ring out
Recorded (largely) as-live in Sweden, with a group of that country's indie luminaries, Robert Forster's latest album Strawberries shows the singer-songwriter in a playful mood and embracing the role of storyteller. Speaking to Andy for the first time in quite some time, Forster explains why he made the trip and why he refused to tour the album until he could bring the band over to play it with him. With up to thirteen singers and ten drummers, all clustered around a giant communal drum, the Red
September 4 · 54 min
Camp Cope's Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich on the artists rewriting the rules of the Australian music scene
Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich, or 'Kelso', of the great all-woman Australian rock band Camp Cope, is also a phenomenal writer. Her new book It's Not For You is part memoir, part feminist journalist project, in which she traces her own musical beginnings alongside conversations with a cross section of women and gender diverse musicians. She joins Andy to talk about the book. Noongar composer, violist, conductor and programmer Aaron Wyatt returns to the show to talk about Decolonising the Bells, a collab
August 29 · 43 min
Belinda Webster and Tall Poppies Records: a life's work
Belinda Webster, the producer, engineer and singular force behind Australia's art music label Tall Poppies died this month at the age of 74. Across 278 releases, Webster recorded and released music by many of Australia's best classical and jazz musicians, often playing Australian music. In 2006, Andy visited Belinda at her home in Kangaroo Valley for a wide-ranging conversation about her passion and approach to music. Music heard in this program: Title: Come, My Love Artist: Ian Munro & Jan
August 28 · 54 min
A concerto for accordion and orchestra & the Persian tar gets Comfortable with jazz
With a recent concerto for amplified accordion and orchestra and another for more than 60 recorders Holly Harrison clearly loves a challenge. She shares why she enjoys writing for new instruments, and how she composed a work that will be performed by everyone from virtuosos to second-grade students. Hamed Sadeghi has released two albums this year, each of which fuses his instrument, the Persian tar, with different Western traditions. The latest, Comfortable, features some of Sydney's best jazz
August 28 · 54 min
Dolly Parton (1946-2026)
Dolly Parton said she wrote over three thousand songs, so we can barely begin to honour her extraordinary songwriting in just one hour. From her early country duets with Porter Wagoner, to the extraordinary purple patch that brought us Jolene and I Will Always Love You (allegedly written on the same day), to lending her voice and country music bona fides to Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter record, her impact on the musical landscape is hard to overstate. Her image was genuinely iconic, modelled after s
August 21 · 54 min
The poetry of aja monet and Thomas Meadowcroft on composing for sound effects and orchestra
"I think if we saw every conversation as music, we would drastically shift the course of history." So says the poet and performer aja monet. For her latest record, the color of rain, monet worked with Meshell Ndegecello, Justin Brown, and a whole host of musical collaborators to create something that spans genre, but has seen her named as one of the early headliners of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. From the quietest footsteps to the loudest explosions, foley artists craft the soun
August 21 · 54 min
James Ellis Ford made a Mercury Prize nominated record in a chemotherapy ward
James Ellis Ford is better known as James Ford, producer for artists like Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Florence and the Machine and Fontaines D.C. When you add the Ellis, he's a solo artist making his own music and he joins Andy to talk about his latest album Lost In Another World, and the War Child charity album HELP(2) which he made during his time as a 'boy in the bubble' of a quarantined chemotherapy ward. Cafe of the Gate of Salvation are old friends of The Music Show: a gospel choir celebrating
August 14 · 54 min
Kate Miller-Heidke on Handel and planning for the apocalypse
Kate Miller-Heidke's new album, the first since 2020's Child In Reverse is a very theatrical and sometimes funny slice of gothic-folk called The Kiss and the Abyss. In between live performances of two new songs, Kate talks about referencing Handel and planning for the end of the world. Pianist Maki Namekawa has an enduring relationship with Philip Glass - performing the world premiere of several of his pieces, including the Piano Etudes. Namekawa is in Australia to perform the first 10 of those
August 14 · 54 min
Grace Cummings' Bloodhorse! and the legacy of Vivaldi's star orphan
Grace Cummings’ latest album is called Bloodhorse! and it's fantastic and fantastically strange. Her ragged, bluesy voice floats through a lush, ornate sound world on tracks like 'The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Morphine', and 'WITCH! WITCH! WITCH!', the latter of which was recorded whilst Grace wielded a grim reaper style scythe in the studio. She joins Andy to take us into the highly-strung world of the record. Anna Maria della Pieta was a Venetian orphan who was taught, celebrated and
August 7 · 54 min
Tom Service on the classical music that shapes us
Can you tell the history of the world in fifty pieces of music? No, but BBC Radio 3 presenter and writer Tom Service has given it a red hot go in A History of the World in 50 Pieces: The Classical Music That Shapes Us. He joins Andy to talk through the surprising stories behind some of those pieces, from Handel to Happy Birthday. Music heard in the show: Title: Overture from The Marriage of Figaro Artist: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Riccardo Muti Composer: Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Album: M
August 7 · 54 min
The travelling community of the Grateful Dead, Don Walker's Love Songs, and a performance lasting 639 years
All The Grateful Dead are one of the iconic bands of the last century, not just for their music, but for their extended tours, which saw their fans follow them across America and create a very special sort of travelling community. Mischa Richter shares stories from the road and explores his new documentary Summer Tour. Don Walker talks basement recordings, lessons from Nashville, and his new album Love Songs, plus he shares a memory of Glenn A Baker. And in a church in Germany, an organ is 25
August 1 · 54 min
The dangerous jazz life of Anita O'Day
Anita O'Day was a jazz singer who lived 'the jazz life'. She's been compared to people like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald: an incredible singer, storyteller, and a deeply troubled drug user and alcoholic. Despite the turmoil of her personal life, she's one of the most precise singers of her generation, on the beat and right in tune for every note. Author James Gavin, who knew O'Day, returns to The Music Show with his fresh biography, Cool Heat: Anita O’Day and Her Dangerous Jazz Life. M
July 31 · 54 min
William Basinski hosts a sleepover, Will Swenson plays Neil Diamond, and vale Glen Hansard
American composer William Basinski's very long and much celebrated avant-garde electronic work The Disintegration Loops was born from the gradual decay of magnetic tape. It was created over a month in August and September 2001, during which time Basinski witnessed the collapse of the World Trade Centre from his New York apartment. 25 years later, the piece is being presented in its entirety in Melbourne, with Basinski hosting a sleepover of sorts as part of the Now or Never Festival. Will Swens
July 26 · 54 min
Music Now & Then: Liza Lim
The latest in our Music Now & Then series with composer Liza Lim, who first appeared on The Music Show in its early years when she was in her mid twenties, where both her youth and the 'difficulty' of her music were remarked upon. As her opera The Oresteia is remounted by Sydney Chamber Opera and ELISION Ensemble, Andy speaks with Liza on stage about revisiting works and ideas over more than thirty years. The Oresteia is staged at Sydney's Carriageworks 24-31 July. Music heard in the show:
July 24 · 54 min
Music for winter stillness and electromagnetic storms
The Veils frontman Finn Andrews joins Andy to talk about love, death, and Sinead O'Connor, all features of their latest and aptly named album Fragile World. Married couple Anna Maria Friman and Arve Henriksen are both Norwegian musicians who've benefited from Norway's remarkably genre-blind attitude to making music. She's a classical vocalist (one third of Trio Mediæval), he's a jazz trumpeter, and together they're teaming up with the Australian Chamber Orchestra for a program of Nordic music.
July 17 · 54 min
Middle of the Air: The Music Show at Sydney Writers' Festival
Ziggy Ramo, Leah Senior, and Kate Fagan join Andy to talk about the art of turning poetry into song. Recorded live at the 2026 Sydney Writers' Festival, in partnership with Red Room Poetry. Songs performed live: Ziggy Ramo: Little Things (after Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly) Leah Senior: The Arbour (text by Giles Watson) Kate Fagan: Child Upon the Road (Kate Fagan, based on Child Ballad #3, The False Knight Upon the Road) The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung

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