Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Is Dasha suing us?!

Episode Date: July 28, 2024

We chat to country artist Dasha! What she thinks of New Zealand? Does she really know country music? And what Austin is really about... See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, with the Jono and Ben podcast. Cheers to Dilma, making the world a better tea. I'm good, how are you doing? Great to have you here. It's really beautiful. What have you seen so far? Like four blocks of streets. And it's a gorge.

Absolutely gorge. No, I was saying that I really want to go down to Queensland. Queenstown. I always mess it up. Queenstown. Queenstown, Australia. Yeah, Queenstown. Because I heard it's just beautiful and I'm also from wine country

and apparently it's wine country down there and everywhere. Well, I will say it's nothing compared to the four blocks of CBD you've seen. It's magical. We're quite insecure here in New Zealand. I know you like country music. Well, as a country in New Zealand, we're very insecure. We want to know what other people think all the time. Oh, God.

So you're saying you love the four blocks. That's great. No pressure. That's great news. Thank you. That is like our first question when four blocks. That's great. No pressure. That's great news. Yeah, thank you. That is like our first question when someone comes, what do you like about us? What do you like?

Go ahead now. We're going to put you on a tourism campaign, Dasher. The four blocks were great. The four blocks were wonderful. Hey, it seems to us like you've had a meteoric rise to fame with this one song. How quick has this happened for you insane it's like in january for context i had like 100 000 monthly listeners on spotify and that had been from releasing music since i was like 18 independently and just like grinding

it out release my album all that stuff and then um we started pushing austin on tiktok just with that line dance that i made up and within within like a month, I was pushing like 10 million monthly listeners, something crazy like that. And now we're sitting at like 24 million. Jeez, what does that get you, like five bucks or something? Yeah, yeah, about. 550? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That is incredible. How has your life changed? The one thing where you're like, wow, that's really different. Kind of everything. Like everything has kind of switched around. It's been interesting, though, because I'm so busy now, which I'm so grateful about. But basically, I have people running my life. So I'm kind of just told where to go, like a puppet.

Like, kind of like sheepdog. Like, okay, in this interview. Okay, okay, okay. Make up real quick. Okay, in this. In this. In this. And so it's kind of like a puppeteer.

It's fun. Like, I'm having a good time with it. Because you feel like I would thrive in that environment. Yeah. You don't have to think for yourself. It's like that meme of, like, when your boyfriend's around, you get to turn your brain off you're like i don't care that's how i feel what was the last mundane thing you had to do for yourself mundane thing i had to go to the doctor because i thought i had this parasite so i had to like go to the doctor oh geez and i was like where's my manager what

because you talk about it's been such a big rise over the last few months. But before that, you were grinding it out. You know, it was like nine years old. You're performing in coffee shops. And you've been singing for a long time. My whole life, yeah. I got lucky as a kid because I knew that I wanted to be an artist. And I fell in love with songwriting at such a young age that I was kind of that one kid that was just like, No, I'm going to be an artist.

That's it. Period. And now it worked out, which is crazy because I know that doesn't happen for everybody. So I'm really grateful that it all paid off. Well, Austin obviously has been the ticket. But the song is, we got it wrong. We thought it was about a place. It's about a guy.

You thought it was about a place? Austin. Austin, Texas. After you listened to it, you thought it was about a place? We vaguely listened to it, to be honest. We were like, I knew it was about a guy. Did you? Yeah.

But I thought he was based in Austin. No, that is true. He is based in Austin, but also that was made up. Yeah. It's about someone else. It's about an actual breakup, not his actual name, right? Yeah, yeah. Austin's not his name at all.

Austin was literally just me. I mean, honestly honestly a lot of the details in the song are true it's just the name of the place nashville didn't rhyme with anything and didn't sing and so i was like where's another cool place and i was like austin oh that's it what about bashful that kind of rhymes with nashville bash that's where you'll be wait what is the line it's where you'll be so bashful In 40 years you'll still be here Junk's washed up in Nashville

Or you could be like You're riddled with a rashville In 40 years Still itchy up in Nashville Still itchy Still itching yourself in Nashville God you're so right It's too late now to change that

It hasn't even come out yet Next time you get stuck for a rhyme you know I'll just fly it back to New Zealand Is that hard because obviously it was A sad time in your life The breakup but now you know You started the line dance thing But people are line dancing a happy song

It's funny yeah the juxtaposition kind of cracks me up sometimes. And when I play the song stripped or on piano, people can see like, oh, you were really sad. But it's cracking me up because people were like, drunk and having a good time and line dance this song. And I was like, wow, I was so down bad when I wrote this song. Like I was unwell. But like, hey, men are business expenses and this just proves it. How is your relationship with that person now? Like I was unwell. But like, hey, men are business expenses and this just proves it. How's your relationship with that person now?

I sent him Austin as a demo along with the entire album about him. Before it came out, it was like a year ago when we were still kind of like in cahoots. And he loved the attention of me writing an entire album about him because he is that bitch, you know? And I was loving it too. I was like, oh like oh he broke my heart but here's the album you know and then and then um and then i met my current boyfriend and i forgot all about him if i'm being honest and so i haven't really spoken to him well my my boyfriend arden he's an artist so he does the exact same thing i do so but i'm guessing also like not too complimentary you know so he's not like oh i wish that song was about me no yeah no i'm writing really cute

love songs about my boyfriend now so he's stoked he's getting his moment but it's funny i was just saying that like him being backstage at shows and i'm like telling all these stories on stage about this guy and he's just like bro stand Just stand there and watch me do that. For the time that we did think it was about a place called Austin, we thought on the show we should make a version of your song about Auckland where we are. Junk wash up in Auckland. That fits.

Bit of backstory from Auckland because you've only seen like four blocks of Auckland. I know this place really well. I mean Wayne Brown's the mayor. Traffic's kind of like big cities. Traffic's bad. Coffee's expensive. They had a few problems with sewerage going into the water at one stage. Couldn't swim.

A great place. Housing. Very expensive housing as well. So you need, if you can, because these references will mean nothing to you. If you can keep those in the back of your mind. This is going to be awkward while we play this to you right now. Yeah. Okay.

Before we play this to you, no lawsuits. No lawsuits. Can you guarantee no lawsuits? No lawsuits. No lawsuits. Okay, great. Okay.

While we present to you Oh my God. Auckland. Your parody of Auckland. Yeah. Okay, here we go. Shut up! Did the train stop working?

Did the bus break down? Eighty bucks for parking or get towed in town. Expensive homes with pricey rents and almond mock coffees. Ram Raiders smashed through shops at night. And Wayne Brown seems so stroppy. Was the sewer flowing in the beach at night? Did you go out to town And get in a fight I crawled away on the motorway

Stuck here on the southern In 40 years I'll still be here Grit locked up in Auckland Wow! There you go. Oh my god, that popped off. Wait, was that you singing?

No, I wish it was. Who was it? You like hire some girl? Rosie, who works next door. No way! What did you think of her cover of you? That was really good. That was like the coolest thing that's ever happened.

No one's done that yet. We made a little video to that as well. We can cheer you on if you promise not to sue us. But yeah. You had a whole music video? We never expected you to actually hear that. I know. Are you playing me in a blonde wig?

No, we actually didn't. No, no. He wanted to. We said no. Yeah, it's waiting for my hair to grow out, actually. One, two, young bears. What do you think of Ben and Em? We call him Ben and Em over here.

She doesn't need to know. Yeah. He used to have dark hair. He's gone bleach blonde. I honestly really like the blonde in you. I think it makes you look young and fresh. Oh, thank you. Stop it.

What do I look like, old and dusty? No, it's so good. Stop putting her on the spot. I'm trying to give you old men some compliments. Oh, you have no idea. You have no idea what's been said to me. It's all good. This is nothing.

Now, your life has changed, obviously, you know, over the last few months. And I was reading you got a text from Keith Urban out of the blue as well. My boy. He's originally from New Zealand as well. Ozzy's trying to claim him. He was born up north. I was literally in Australia, as you guys know, and everyone's like, yep, he's from here. He grew up there, but he

was born up north as well. But he texts you, and then he had to put his name in sort of brackets. Yeah, he said, hey D, I love that he already abbreviated, this is Keith Urban in parentheses. And I was like, you humble king, I know who you are. And he was just being so kind, like, yo, love the song,

congrats on everything. And then a few weeks later, he's like, hey, I would love for you to come sing Austin at my show. So that's when that happened. Mind you, to be fair, he probably didn't have to put Urban in brackets because you'd be like, who's Keith? I know, but my manager told me that he would be texting me. So I was kind of expecting a text, and that's why it was funny because I'm like who else do people like famous

people reach out to you now yeah it's pretty crazy it's cool getting to be friends with all these artists that like I love so much and like it's it's been cool we've got Dasha with us uh now we wanted to play a bit of a game with you we it's called country or not country okay yeah these that will say the title of the song. You tell us if it's a real country song or not. Okay. Okay. The first one, Flushed You From The Bathroom Of My Heart.

Flushed You From The Bathroom. Do you think we've made that up or that's an actual country? Flushed You From The Bathroom Of My Heart. I don't think that's a real song. Apparently it is. What? Johnny Cash. Are you serious?

You just fooled me. Apparently it is. What? Johnny Cash. Are you serious? You just fooled me. Oh, no. I've been flushed from the bathroom of your heart. Okay, okay. Yeah. Okay, I understand the context. Just smash it.

Okay, yeah. You guys got me there. She thinks my track is sexy. It really turns her on. It's real. She thinks my track is sexy. It really turns her on. She thinks my tracks are sexy. It really turns her on. She thinks my tracks are sexy. It really turns her on.

Another one. All right, guys. You got more attractive tractors over in America, have you? Yeah, I just rode one the other day. Yeah? Yeah, I have a thing. I don't know what it is. I think it's because when I work on the horse farm back in Nashville,

I get to shovel the horse shit into the back of the tractor and then fly the manure everywhere, you know? That couldn't be sexier. And it's really, it's empowering. Like as a woman, like I want to get on there with a bikini on and just drive that John Deere around. It's so good. Rural New Zealand is fizzing at this chat.

You've won over the South Island. You'll be welcome in Queenstown. What can I say? It's been so fun hanging out with you. Thank you so much for coming in. It's been awesome. And congratulations on all your success. It's incredible.

Thank you, guys. You deserve it. It's awesome. Thanks.