How did you first connect with Triple R?

After i dropped out of Monash Graphic Design to go to the VCA (sorry mum) i set out from my hobbit hole in Glen Waverley and found myself in a swirl of inner city boho and dirty futons. About then i was working as a lighting guy at a theatre where i met Dave Taranto and Vic Plume, doing a live version of their Osso Bucco show. So, mid nineties maybe? About the same time, in Tripod, we were trying slightly too hard to get Dave Taranto to like us. 'Never Laugh', he said to me later, nursing a pint up the back Late and Live in Edinburgh 'It shows too much favouritism.'

What/when was your first show?

The first time I got behind the creaky mic with any regularity was with Tripod, as a musical ingredient of Fi Scott-Norman’s show Trash is My Life. Our job was to compose a musical parody based on puns on the name of that week’s celebrity guest. And perform it live. To their face. In a very small room. Sounds pretty awkward doesn’t it. Actually it was kind of fun, mostly. Maybe the high caliber of the puns got us across the line; Holden Years (for Mark Holden)? Delectable. 'Alison Whyte' to the tune of Chisel's 'Saturday Night'? Effervescent. My personal fave was 'Rod Quantock and Roll To Ya' but it didn’t get in.

Gatesy subsequently stole the technique wholesale and shot to stardom with 'Bevan the Musical'. TripleJ Hottest 100. I shit you not.

What's your favourite Triple R story?

Hmm It’s gotta be when Shane Paxton mooned Kat through the studio window the day we had Jude on the Trash show... there was a lot of yelling. Us and Jude just kept our heads down and drank our plastic cups of water.

Your favourite other Triple R program and why?

I like listening to All Over the Shop because i can barrack for Stewie and have a good yell at the radio. Normally when i’m driving. That’s where i do most of my yelling.

What does Triple R mean to you?

There's a picture in my phone of my 2-year old daughter and her mate Lilah, holding hands in sunnies and hats, dancing up the front at the Triple R barbie this year. Snags in the other fist. In the photo the Wolfgramm girls are onstage caning it - I’ve known them since uni - used to go up to the Rooftop cafe for my chicken sandwiches back when Triple R was on Victoria St and Aggie and the girls were upstairs. Went round to Kel’s for a stiff drink the night Nell was born. 

The studio door has accidentally jammed shut with you stuck inside. If there was only one CD in there with you what would you want it to be and why?

Supersexy Sounds. White Zombie. Because then i wouldn’t mind jemmying a door open with it.