by Ash McGregor
Listen up! This is your new favourite music hub. From big names to the next-gen, Ash McGregor brings you unmissable conversations with artists shaping the sound of now. Each week, deep dive your favourite artists and discover the musicians about to take over. You'll hear it here first. Keep up to date: ⭐️ @listenupwithash ⭐️ @ash_mcgregor ------ We'd like to acknowledge and pay our respects to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation where this show is filmed.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
10/8/2025
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July 22, 2026
<p><a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/6S0IvKlvPMX1RtAYtVpUV8?si=SpdQYs2JScGDk1VNvpSAvA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer"><strong>Drax Project</strong></a> are one of the most unlikely success stories to come out of New Zealand: three jazz school kids plus a fan-turned-band-member, who started busking on the streets of Wellington to pay rent and somehow ended up on the same stage as <strong>Ed Sheeran, Lorde </strong>and <strong>Christina Aguilera</strong>.</p><p>In this episode Sam & Ben take it back to the Wellington jazz scene, the busking days, the toga parties, and what it really took to build an audience from scratch in a country where breaking out is genuinely hard. </p><p>We get into why coming out of jazz school and wanting to make pop music was considered embarrassing by pretty much everyone around them, why they stayed independent, and how they found their sound by deliberately doing the opposite of what was already working in their city.</p><p>We also talk their viral side project <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/1UvoaAj09BAuVAKbvpkg80?si=3OSgjPbcTKaP4-WHcF0V_A" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer"><strong>BlindBeat</strong></a> and why after two albums and countless EPs they're done with grand plans and just making music that feels good - they're ripping up that rulebook!</p>
July 14, 2026
<p>Not many people know the full story behind <a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/7CIW23FQUXPc1zebnO1TDG?si=Ao4vcAFsSi-tbqdk_mXZPg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Matt Corby's </a>career. Despite being a household name who has soundtracked generations (hundreds of millions of streams, huge hits like Brother and Resolution) the journey to get there is not what you'd expect.</p><p>We go right back to the beginning singing as a ten year old with a vibrato he couldn't control, touring the country at 14 and landing on Australian Idol. From there it's the move to the UK, coming home broke and in debt, and making coffees six days a week while writing the songs that would change everything.</p><p>We also get into label politics, the unreleased album he hopes no one ever finds, why he's always pushed back against the industry, and what it means to produce for other artists out of his studio at Rainbow Valley. </p><p>Plus we hear about the creation of his latest album <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7oLX84jA6AHnCyELknktHA?si=y4ALddqvQO-gI9QuH2lmnQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Tragic Magic</a> which came out of a hard period for Matt. </p>
July 7, 2026
<p><a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/1VXE1xqGNlT9HG6TcjpQ9I?si=_3fzMpRkTzWW1-RZgIoOdA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer"><strong>Hooligan Hefs</strong></a> is the Western Sydney rapper putting Australia on the map.</p><p>We go right back to the beginning growing up in the 2767, Doonside, making music in a mate's wardrobe with soundproofing and doing it purely for the boys before the rest of the world caught on.</p><p>We get into what it really means to come up in Western Sydney, why staying independent when the label contracts started rolling in was the smartest move he made, and how he became the pioneer of Australia's drill-meets-EDM sound. We also talk performing at Rolling Loud Miami, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1gX5qhfO1fwgxb7jElb0f8?si=4949c7f2eb5046cf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">linking up with Savage</a>, and the career move Hefs is now making off the back of one conversation with him.</p><p>Plus: the A$AP Rocky shoutout, and a deep dive into his brand new EP <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0XWpADTHTFe7AM9GfUSwYH?si=c_aE4bEBTGe2DmYrwnGKVA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Sixth Sense</a> - packed with collaborations, an evolution in sound, and plenty of nitty gritty in between.</p>
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Listen up! This is your new favourite music hub.
From big names to the next-gen, Ash McGregor brings you unmissable conversations with artists shaping the sound of now. Each week, deep dive your favourite artists and discover the musicians about to take over. You'll hear it here first.
Keep up to date: ⭐️ @listenupwithash ⭐️ @ash_mcgregor
We'd like to acknowledge and pay our respects to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation where this show is filmed.
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