Is It Just Me? - BONUS: Churi chats with Tones and I

Episode Date: May 17, 2020

Tones and I chat about her HATE of red carpets and LOVE of Red Rooster on #KIISNights with Mitch ChuriSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is it just me? A podcast by a couple of Mitches. Mitch, you caught up with Tones and I recently. I did. Tones and I and I hung out. It was real fun. Actually, I got a good couple of scoops out of her. She went to a celebrity's house in LA, like a big Hollywood Hills party,

and left midway through because she was over it when I had fast food. She's a bit of an introvert, yeah. She is. It was a good story in that. Speaking of fast food, I got out of her what her favourite fast food restaurant is, and it's going to get me brownie points with you. Yes, you did tell me in our full show that you plugged Red Rooster, and you spoke about that with her.

Thank God. She loves a Red Rooster roll, for one. Another reason that I now love her. And also, she talks about a collab that she's never announced, never spoken about, and actually hadn't planned on releasing. But I think I convinced her to do it. It was Chappelle Corby, wasn't it? It was.

Palm Trees released too. I aired this on my night show, Kiss Nights, and we had to cut it down a bit. But this is the full unedited chat with me and Tones and I. Yeah, no edits at all. Any swearing? Yeah, she fucking swears like a fucking sailor. Does she? Yeah, I can't remember what she says.

We're talking about busking. And she's like, let me tell you the thing about fucking busking. And I was like, oh, my God. Byron Bay roots are coming out. I feel like I could be friends with her. Me too, actually. And she was one of those people that were really present. She kept referring to me by name.

Like, Mitch, that's a good question. You know when someone does that, you don't know what that is? I don't have that skill. I suck at that. What's your name again? Get it. Anyway, here it is. Me and Tones and I.

And I. Enjoy. Mitch Tell Midnight. Kiss night. Hi, Mitch. How are you? Oh, I'm so good. I'm so bloody good.

How are you? I'm good. What have you been up to? Let me tell you. I'm fangirling for a moment because I'm such a massive fan of you. And when they said this is happening they're like she's going on kyle and jackie oh i'm like okay my odds have now been halved and they're like and then she'll do your show i'm like you but you get out of here because

i need tones and i i have been literally saying how much i love you since day dot and i think it's all come to fruition on this show here if i saw saw you in Byron Bay, I'd throw you a $1,000 check. I'm obsessed with you. I think you're incredible. Dead set. I'd stop. I'd fix your hair. I'd be like, you're doing great.

Let me just tune your guitar a bit. I'd be the mum with the little GoPro filming you on the side of the street because I love you. And I'm so glad you're here. Thank you for coming. You'd be the mum of mean girls with the camera in the centre. You'd be performing. I'd be like, Tone, what do you need? Do you need me to

tune your guitar? Do you need some condoms? What do you need? Do you need a drink? What do you need? In the middle of the street. I don't know why you'd need them, but I'm supportive. I'll give you what you needed. You know? Never know. And I love someone that has everything, just in case. Exactly. One of those trench coats, just full of anything you need. Bottle of tequila.

I got your back. Oh, shit. Dude, I honestly have to say congratulations on everything that has happened to you. I don't even, normally when people come on, I can list it because, you know, there's a 10 second list, but there's a bloody Bible for you. You've done everything. Thank you. Yeah, I know. I don't even, I don't know. It's crazy. It just all happened Thank you. Yeah, I know.

I don't even, I don't know. It's crazy. It just all happened so quickly. Yeah. You know, it's such a crazy thing that has happened. Yeah. It is crazy, isn't it? Do you almost think, like, it's not happened?

Like, do you ever think it's a dream? Or do you ever wake up and go, come on, like, it's got to end now? Like, because it just hasn't stopped yeah i do i do think that i think that it you know i feel like that about the world but not australia like i feel like australia have supported me through busking to through johnny runaway through dance monkey through never seen the rain the Rain, the EP, now Bad Child. I feel like Australia is home, and that's the place where, you know, I'm an artist. Around the world, you know what?

A lot of people come to my shows thinking, Dance Monkey, OK, I want to hear other stuff, and have no idea that I even play an instrument. Yeah. You know? So it's different over there. I think that's the Aussie spirit, though. We love an underdog.

We love watching someone come from nothing, not saying you're at nothing, but someone come from the bottom to the top, and that's what you've done. That is the epitome of an Aussie icon. We love that in artists, and I think that's why everyone loves you so much and loves your music,

because they can see the journey, and they can hear it in your music. I mean, Dance Monkey, I could do a whole interview on, but, I mean, that's old stuff now. Bad Child Tones is, oh, my God, I think it's better than Dance Monkey. You must be happy with how that's doing, like getting airplay. I'm just happy that the main thing is that really makes me happy is that, like, I finally released a song that's vulnerable

and it's about me and i've opened myself up more instead of hiding behind other names like jimmy and and johnny and and all this stuff you know like i think i made the decision to release this song it was very hesitant i never thought i would but then when i made that decision i was like i'm gonna do it and and i think that the way that people take that and support that is huge for me because first of all, like I produced that track, 99% was all on my own. I sent it to a producer to get it cleaned up and ready for radio

but I mean, I'm starting to produce my own music from The Kids Are Coming to now and Can't Be Happy All The Time and that's so huge for me, you know, so I think that like, you know, to see the support when you really put extra effort into something and it's very vulnerable for you and you're nervous, you know, that really matters to someone. So how long have you been writing music and performing?

Well, I've always sung in the shower, but I've never had a lesson or anything. Like, I always played basketball growing up. But I would say I probably used to play at, like, pubs and clubs. Some people, like, say, Tones and I completely skipped the pub scene, which all Aussies do. No, no, no, no. You're like, I've had a schooner thrown at me. Thank you very much. I know the smell of cigarettes and a shandy.

I've had all the pub experiences, but when I realised, which a lot of people either do and don't want to do it or just don't realise, that that wasn't enough, if you really want something, I went to busking. And I think that's the new Aussie experience now anyway. We've got so many amazing buskers that come from Australia that get that support and blow up. You know how hard it is? When you're in other countries, they do so many amazing buskers that come from Australia that, like, get that support and blow up. You know how hard it is?

When you're in other countries, they do not care about buskers. When I'm in America, they don't even know what busking is. They call it street performing, and they think it's, like, the lowest of the low homeless kind of shit. Hollywood Boulevard stuff. Yeah, so it's, like, you know, homeless people tapping on the pavement with sticks. Like, they don't even realise the culture that we have in Australia.

It's amazing. We're so lucky. And I think I've been doing that probably all up, like pubs and busking for about four, five years maybe. My God. And you're so right. The amount of times I've been to Pitt Street in the middle of Sydney and Chapel Street down in Melbourne,

and there's been a busker that's got me stopped. Like, I stop and I go, who is this? I need to know. You're right, we have such good quality on our streets. Yeah, and I think that the mindset behind buskers is, like, I have to get out there and I don't know how, so I'm going to put myself in the middle of a bunch of people that don't know who I am.

It's so nerve-wracking, but this is how much I love what I do. And I think that no matter, even if you don't, you don't like what they're sharing, it's not your taste. Like that's something to be appreciated already before, before even deciding that all of a sudden, Oh, well, they're really talented as well. Or, or what, whatever you think about buskers, you know, just to do that. I remember my first time it was so scary.

And even up to my, almost my last time, it's always scary, actually. I always was nervous. Yeah. Do you cringe? Like, I've seen videos come up in the last couple weeks. Tones and I busking. Tones and I busking before she was big. Do you cringe looking at that?

Or are you like, no, man, that's what got me here? I'm just really proud of myself. I actually look at that video i saw that video um you know the other day i popped up on my news feed and i thought to myself like shit like looking at my younger self going you actually had no idea like if i could talk to you now if i could look at you right now and on that video when i'm busking that was the night i wrote dance monkey about that's so strange because that was the night someone knocked over my keyboard stole my money that was the night and looking back on you know how deflated someone

can feel and then going fuck i wish i could talk to you now you have no idea sometimes i have a look at like my try and look back on my past or whatever i printed out a lot of photos from last year just to like have some memories of what's been going on. And I looked at them and I went, you know, I never thought this was going to happen. And when I see those busking videos, I'm like, shit, keep going because, like, you know, it's going to work. Now, that's what I want to talk about.

Like, it must just be nuts. I think I read an article and it was praising you. It was an Aussie article. You seem to get a lot of love from Aussie press. But this article was like, Tones and I invited to this Hollywood Hills mansion party, took her best friend, and then, like, hated it, left and got KFC in her apartment.

If that happened, my new hero. Is that true? It's very similar to true. So we went to the party. Me and my friend Abs were both pretty bogan-y And then Everyone was just really snooty We didn't like it so we went back to our hotel room

And we got Denny's I didn't even know they had KFC We got Denny's which is like a diner And watched Netflix And just yeah We pretty much the same except we didn't get KFC Here's like a side note I I don't like KFC. No one knows.

Really? I guess they assume because I'm an Aussie. I guess they're all Aussies like KFC. You're not into Wicked Wings? No. I just, I don't know why. They're just, sometimes they're hairy. Yeah.

Yes. I know what you mean. I know exactly what you mean. What's your meal of choice? Are you like a snack wrap at Macca's or like what do you fill it a fish if i had to eat takeaway okay um i'd probably get red rooster oh my god you're my girl like a half chicken roll or full chicken roll let's be real like if you're gonna get takeaway like why would you go half he's like i don't get takeaway all the time so if you're gonna do get takeaway, like, why would you go half? He's like, I don't get takeaway all the time.

So if you're going to do it, like, you've got to do it. You know, it's like when you're hungover and you're like, righto, guys, we're ordering Uber Eats. Tell all your roommates, Uber Eats day today. I'll pay for it. Get your order in. You know, one of those things. You'd be the coolest friend. Are your friends like, oh, like, just loving you at the moment?

Or are you getting, like, old ones out of the woodworks? And you're like, you bullied me in year seven. Thank you very much, Rebecca Smith. Like, you can you at the moment? Or are you getting, like, old ones out of the woodworks? And you're like, you bullied me in Year 7. Thank you very much, Rebecca Smith. Like, you can piss right off. Well, actually, it's funny you say that, because I think my friends are the coolest, so I feel so lucky. But, um...

Um... No, I think in school, like, this is the way I see it. In school, everyone makes mistakes. We're children. We're young. Like, you know, I see it in school everyone makes mistakes with children we're young like you know I feel like in school I would never harbor anything that happened to me in school and there's a lot of people that I knew from school that I've known since then that have

changed and myself has changed so much in school so the way I see it is like since anything from high school and beyond is you know we're all learning we're all trying to figure out who we are and I have a little brother and I know what it's like to be that age and I think that it's Anything from high school and beyond, we're all learning. We're all trying to figure out who we are. I have a little brother, and I know what it's like to be that age. I think that it's important to remember that people change. Otherwise, we're all going to look at each other like we're fetuses for the rest of our lives. No, I feel you. Because we all grow.

Oh, my God. Now, let's talk about new music very quickly. Obviously, Dance Monkey, huge. We loved it. That's what got the name Tones and I in our minds. Bad Child's Out, we love that. I love Johnny Runaway. Can't Be Happy All The Time is around.

Is this all sort of bubbling over? All these tracks got a feature on your debut album coming this year? Well, I was going to, the first two songs of the album was going to be Bad Child and Can't Be Happy All The Time. But now that I have this time off, I was kind of almost going to keep them as singles and write new songs for the album. Yeah. Because I've got so much more time off than I thought I would have. And I was meant to be writing this album while I was on tour.

So now it's hard for me because every time I write music, by the time I get to the end of the album, I'm like the first few songs I wrote that I loved, I'm like, nah, I hate them now. I'm used to them. And then I want to write a new song and it keeps happening. So it's really hard. Did you have that feeling with Dance Monkey or Bad Child? Did you ever get over those songs or did you know,

like, nah, there's something here that is special? Dance Monkey I didn't because it was doing some crazy, crazy, out-of-this-world things without a release. Like, the things that song did in Byron Bay, that town, like just to bring people together were crazy. I was so excited for that song. But Bad Child, yes. Can't Be Happy, no.

I could still listen to Can't Be Happy all the time. I listened to it before the phone call, actually. It's definitely a song I wrote for myself, and I never intended to release that. It's so vulnerable of me to write like that, that when I did release it, I feel proud when I listen to it. And I do love the song, and I love performing it. So that's a song that I'll listen to,

because I wrote it for myself when I get down or whatever. So I tended to listen to it and sing it all the time for myself. And now it's out there in the world. I can listen to it, you know, on Spotify when I want to. Yeah. I love that. What about like when Aussie artists drop their albums and we love Aussie artists, but then they often struggle to get like the big international names to do covers or to do features.

We live in our little Aussie music bubble here down under. But now, you're an international name. People know who you are. You're in and out of LA, I can only imagine. Are there big names that have approached you or you're trying to approach to get on the album? Well, I actually had this rule, no collabs. I've been offered some collaborations with some amazing artists that I would like to collab with but I really wanted to do work on my own first

I wanted to have like a big body of work that I've done on my own to prove more like I just feel like I know that you know Dance Monkey's gone big and stuff but it's so important to me that I still haven't figured out really what's going on inside my head sometimes and I just need to figure it out on my own before I'm like okay I'm ready like I met up with Macklemore he's obviously my favorite artist and we wrote two tracks together and he's the first person I've ever collabed with because obviously he's my favorite artist of all time so to get asked he just he just surprised me at my show backstage and then stayed for the show it wasn't meant to be on songs. And then the next day he called and was like, I want you to come work with me on some songs.

Like he really wanted to be on Can't Be Happy all the time. And I was like, that song's about to, like it's finished. It's going to be released soon. Cause that song's been obviously finished for a while. But, um, you know, then we wrote some songs together and I was like, it's definitely Macklemore. Like I want him to be my first collaboration. So we've written two songs together and I feel as though, like, you know,

that to me is just, like, the biggest goal. Like, where do I go from there? Like, he's my favourite artist. Imagine if he wanted to come record at your house. You're like, sure, let me take the Macklemore posters down, give me 10 minutes and you can come. And I've just got to remove all the posters of you. That is so cool.

Wow. Excuse me, sorry, sorry, Mitch. Just a two-minute wrap posters of you. That is so cool. Wow. Excuse me. Sorry, Mitch. Just a two-minute wrap. Thank you. Oh, good. Sorry. Goodness me.

Getting too caught up. No, no. I've been talking too much. I mean, where do we end? Who's the coolest person you've met that you've got besides Macklemore? Like, is it just a standard celebrity or someone that you've met that you're like, oh, yeah, I'm cool now? Well, I would have to say say because i have to pay the

respect to this person obviously i met sir elton john and he did an interview with me on his um rocket hour bbc radio apple yeah apple music sorry rocket hour show and um you know and the reason i loved elton john so much and something i never knew about him until now is he's pretty much based this whole radio show around discovering new artists that he's inspired by and not only did he meet up with me and and you know uh Winston Surfshirt but also like he asked us what up-and- coming artists we like and he and obviously I said Adrian Eagle, everyone knows I love Adrian Eagle. He then played Adrian Eagle on his show for the whole next week. Oh my God. It was amazing.

I just loved that. Far out. Now quickly to end before we go, because I'm being rushed off. The Grammys, people are saying Dance Monkey's pegged for a Grammy next year, or this year, nomination this year for next year. I mean, it's now the highest streamed song ever by a female artist on spotify what would you do if you won a grammy like what would it literally just be like on a red rooster i'm getting a mountain dew and a chicken roll like where would you go what would you do i can't even tell you but i will tell you this one thing that

would be amazing but the first thing i think of is, oh, my God, I hate dressing up and I hate red carpets. That's the first thing I think of. I'm like, so, you know, you might see tones in attraction at the Grammys and I will not be told to dress up. You know what? You damn well know it's going to be Gucci or it'll be Balenciaga and I love it. I love it.

Balenciaga. Yeah, you're so funny. Oh, I love you so much. When all this COVID's over I've died to meet you I'm here at Kiss with Kyle and Jackie O

so we'll get you in and we'll do another chat okay so proud of you love your work sorry to keep you for so long just fangirling out stay safe

and then we'll chat we'll chat soon okay okay it was so nice to meet you we'll see you soon you too and congratulations

on everything genuine like it's so cool thanks Mick all good see you soon bye You too. And congratulations on everything genuine. It's so cool. Thanks, Mitch. All good. See you soon. Bye. Bye. Love you well.

Is it just me? A podcast by a couple of Mitches.