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Transcript

Interview: Rogue Traders · The Smallzy Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Small Z, now on KISS.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: They're back, baby. They've got a brand new song and
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: we are about to play it here at KISS for
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: the very first time. Hey, what's up?
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: This is Nat Bass.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: And James Ash.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: We are the Road Traders.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: I see you watching me watching you. You are my
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: boo-boo child, my boo-boo child.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: You're listening to Smoothie on Kiss.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Hey, on the show this afternoon, 21 years ago, is
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: it right, that we first got the Rogue Traders together? Yes.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: That's my 21st birthday.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Where were my spring chickens?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. You look better now than you did then.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, feeling strong.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: The Botox looks fantastic.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you for noticing.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Hey, I need some. Don't worry. Nat Bass, James, welcome
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: to the show.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Hello.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Wait, wait, wait, wait. What's up? What's up?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, how are you guys? Congratulations. Rogue Traders are back,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: if you haven't heard.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a bloody ride. We're having the best time. Like,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: we are having the best time.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I wipe the smiles off our faces.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: No, you actually look like you're having the time of
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: your lives.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: We genuinely are.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: This is real this is real i mean we've been
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: buzzing we've been haunting your radio station all day yeah
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: waiting to talk to you we've been hanging out with
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: people playing them the song we.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: We feel like it's christmas eve right now yeah.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: That's right this is your gift though this.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Is your gift because you're our gift you're the one
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: that that we've we've come to see and yeah it's
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: it just feels really awesome to have something to share
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: and to work of course with the icon that is
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Miss Dani Minogue.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Someone said to me, Minogue's gone rogue.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: I know!
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Yes. How good is that?
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: I mean, come on.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I'm going to say, because I've been saying it for
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: like months.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Did you come up with that? Guys.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Minogue's gone rogue, and they're like, what? And I'm like,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: How is that?
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, so I'm taking credit.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Absolutely take credit for it. But you can totally use it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I just did, so it's okay. It's okay. I just did.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: So you've teamed up with Danny Minogue. Yeah. The song
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: is called Dirty, Dirty Disco.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: We are about to give it a play for the
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: very first time here on Kiss. But before we do that,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: I'm going to ask the question that everyone wants to ask. Yes.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: How much money do you owe someone? Why did we
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: decide to get the band back together? Are we in debt?
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: What's going on?
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: We're so in debt. Well, where do we start? Who
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: don't we owe money to?
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: No.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Well, actually, you know, we've actually been doing shows for
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: a while.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we've been doing little bits and pieces.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes. No, sorry. Sorry to interrupt. Yes, I know
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: you've been doing shows. I'd like to apologize on behalf
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: of some of my team out there. They went to
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: the Caring Bar Hotel and they were at the front
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: and they embarrassed me and they were disgraceful and I apologise.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: That was such a night. We had a crazy time
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: that night.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: You know I've heard.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: It was like shoulder to shoulder. No one went to
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the bar because there was no room to move. It
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: was one of the best.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: It was off the chain. I don't know. I mean, look,
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: I guess, you know, maybe when you hit a big
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: anniversary like 21, you do look back and you go, OK,
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: what have we done? But also, what have we done?
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: But also you stop caring as well. And you're like,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: let's just do music that excites us, that lights us up.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: And it doesn't matter about trying to make Voodoo Child again.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Forget that. You know, we're proud of that legacy.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Totally.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: But let's do stuff now. that just excites us. And
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: once we made that decision, it all happened really quickly.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: It actually did happen quickly. We started like writing, James
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: was sending like bits and pieces of like, what do
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: you think? Do you like this?
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Do you like that?
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: And yeah, it all happened relatively quickly.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: And working with Dani worked quick as well.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: So thankfully, you know, when your partner in crime is
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: the awesome Nat Bass, you know, when we're working on
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: a track, wow, imagine Dani on this. And she'd go, oh,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: let me ask her.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And so you asked her direct. Is that how
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: that came about? And you just sent her a cheeky text?
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I sent her a cheeky text. I was like, babe,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: this is probably strange, but we have a song and
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: we can only think of you to do this with us.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: There was no list.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: What are you thinking? And like, it was so quick.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Her response in caps was, oh my God, this is fab.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: And then we just started talking.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: And then like, are you really considering doing this with us? Like,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: is this a real thing? And yeah, it's been unreal. Yeah.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Well, should we give everyone the chance to listen to
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: it for the very first time? Yeah, please. Okay, well,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: I'm going to.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Is everyone going to dance?
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, everyone's going to dance, but then you can
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: do the intro because, well, hello, you're back on the radio.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: You can plug the new song, intro it, wind it up.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: I know you might be a little rusty.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: No, no.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: But you just say the name of the song and
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: then the radio... We're all ready for this. Okay, all right,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: here we go. Whenever you're ready.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Guys, it's Nat Bass and James Ash here.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: From the Rogue Traders, baby, and we're about to play
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: our brand new song with Danny Minogue and it's called.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Dirty, dirty disco. There it is. Guys, how good is that?
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: I think it's good, but you know. Yes. Can you
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: feel the air moving? Absolutely.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: That's what we're going for. Incredible.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Dirty Dirty Disco featuring Danny Minogue, brand new
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Rogue Traders. Have you got the tour that we talked
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: about a second ago, but you've added more dates, right?
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So we had some dates at the beginning of
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the year, and we were getting some grief from WA
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: and some places that we hadn't been.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, come on.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: So we're doing it.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: We're doing it.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: WA, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Yep. I love it. Yeah, it's going to be big.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: RogueTraders.net, baby. Go check it out.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: RogueTraders.net. Are you doing the TikToks? Because, you know, everyone
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: does the TikToks.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, the TikToks.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're doing those. Yeah.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Are you doing the TikToks?
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, sometimes. Do you dabble?
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: I dabble.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: I don't enjoy it. I won't lie to you, but
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: you have to do it. You have to do it.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Let's do it.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Should we do something?
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: We can, but I'm just asking, are you doing the TikToks?
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: We just started doing the TikToks.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: We do.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Is that like doing the web?
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Sorry, we sound like learners.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: I feel like I should just clarify. Yes, we are
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: posting on TikTok, but we're not doing dances. Oh, but
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: you should. But no one wants to see me do that.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: I do. Really? Sometimes, yes.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: Well, let me know when that moment strikes.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Not daily, just every now and then.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: And then it would be cute. Yeah.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: Look, it's, yeah, it's a real thing, huh?
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we are on TikTok.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: You have to be, right?
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: No, you have to be. I was going to say, hey, Nat,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: I know you're doing The Waitress, the musical.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: And sadly, that had a season announced in Sydney and
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: then it didn't happen.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: And I wanted to ask, because now that I've got you,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: you said something to the effect of like the arts
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: are struggling or the arts are dying.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Now that the road traders are back together, how can
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: people show up? for artists because like do you know
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: what i mean like how can everyone make sure that
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: they can do their bit to make sure the arts
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: don't die how can you support bands or whatever that might.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Look like i mean i know like yeah life is
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: expensive right now right it's really hard but if you've
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: got 30 40 50 depends on what show you're going
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: to we try to make our shows affordable so that
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: more people can come and experience it and i think
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: there's nothing like a live show right like that The energy,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the connection, like it's just there's nothing like it. So, yeah,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: come along. Like even sharing posts of what people are
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: doing and sharing music that you like and, yeah, support
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: the arts by attending pretty much.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because then sometimes if you don't go, people think, oh,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: I'll do it next time or I'll go to the
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: next one.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Well, that's the problem now, right? People do say that
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: and then there's no next time.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: There is no next time because it falls over, right?
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: So do it in the beginning because also producers are like, oh,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: we're not going to have, You know, producers need long-term
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: ticket sales, but the world isn't like that anymore. No
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: one books that far in advance. They just go, what
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: are we doing tonight? Do you want to go to
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: see a show? So that's really hard too. And if
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: you think you want to see a show, book straight away.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: And that will give the producers confidence to keep it going.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because even like the show for us, people rang
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: me and went, oh, my God, I bought my flights
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: and my hotel, but I didn't book the tickets yet.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I was just waiting until I got down there. I
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: was like, well, that's quite a problem.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: That's what happens. Yeah, it's quite a problem. I didn't
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: realize that that's sort of like– because you are right.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Like you do see shows, tours getting announced, and it
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: used to be long lead. Like you used to get
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: like 12 months notice that someone was coming. Now tours
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: drop and they're here next week.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Millions of dollars to transport people. The sets and things
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: like that from one place to another. So if they're like, oh,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: we don't have those pre-sales, we can't risk that.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: And because of that environment, I think, and because, you know,
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: we were in the AI era already, right? So human-to-human
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: contact and sharing something with other people has never been
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: more important. Totally. And so when you do, you know,
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: go and experience live music in this case, you know,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: it can be quiet. quite an emotional transcending experience when
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: you're there with other human beings.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: We all need more IRL stuff. It's the connection that
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: we've lost a little bit.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Where are the rogue traders on AI, by the way?
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Are we an AI-free band or what are we doing?
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. Musically.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Musically. Absolutely.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: 100%.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: That's a no. But I'm also a software developer as well.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: Oh, you like to dabble on the side, do you?
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: So with that, it's I am.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: This man here is like the smartest human on the planet.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: No, no.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: The things that he, I like. You just blow my mind. No, no.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: So with that, yes. But with music, absolutely not. Anything creative,
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: absolutely not.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: You're like, you're completely, no. No way. I think the.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: Struggle is important. You know, those moments where you go,
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: I don't know what this chord should be or what
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: is this hook going to be? Sitting there with it.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: That's what leads to those moments. Like when we wrote
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: Voodoo Child, there was nine different top lines that we
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: wrote over the top of that song before we came
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: up with the song that people know now.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, wow.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: And that's the best bit, right?
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So the struggle is important.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Okay. So, yeah, it's interesting to get your opinion because, like,
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: obviously Australian music is having its own sort of reckoning
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: with AI vocalists and AI production and all of that jazz.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: It should not be available. You should not be part
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: of the industry, I don't think.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay. Yeah.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: And look, I mean, obviously there's been big changes to
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: Aria recently.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: And on Spotify, there's massive changes. And that's good. And
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying that there isn't a place for it
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: maybe in some capacities. If it lowers the barrier of
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: entry for some people, I can appreciate that.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Want it to be elitist.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: But I guess, correct me if I'm wrong, but at
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: what stage does AI no longer become art? It's just
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: a machine churning out something versus there's no human creativity
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: behind it, right?
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and like I said, that struggle and those imperfections
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: that come from human beings, that's the magic.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: I'm so serious right now.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: No, I love that. Hey, let's go back to Dirty
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: Dirty Disco. So roguetraders.net is the website.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: Roguetraders.net.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Tickets go support Aussie artists, Aussie shows. Get up there.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Get up the front. It's a sweaty, hot mess at
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: a Rogue Traders show. I didn't see it. I'm just
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: telling you what my team told me. We were sweaty.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: They were sweaty. It was a collective sweatiness.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: We treat every gig like it could be the last
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: show that we do. Not in a morbid way.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: That does sound quite dark. Say it again. Say it again.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: That sounds very dark.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, let's get out there and let's do the
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: show of our lives.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: We really do. We leave nothing on the.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: All right, go see the road traders before they die, everybody. Exactly.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Keeping it real.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Lovely to see you both. Thanks for being here.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: Our pleasure. Thanks for having us.