It’s famously said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture, but Mawunyo Gbogbo (Hip Hop & Hymns), Kate Scott (Compulsion) and Jonathan Seidler (It’s a Shame About Ray) have bucked conventional wisdom with vividly crafted books that convey compelling stories about sound and song. Mawunyo draws on her role as a pop culture writer for the ABC, and Jonathan and Kate on their former lives as music journalists. Join them as they chat about music in literature with Robbie Buck.
Jonathan Seidler (Australian)
Jonathan Seidler is an author, creative director and culture critic. His work has been published frequently in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Monocle and GQ. Jonathan co-founded the long-running music blog One A Day, launched two nationally syndicated fiction series for Broadsheet and recently commissioned, edited and published an Unyoked anthology of nature writing. Jonathan wrote and performed the score for Snare, shortlisted for SXSW and Tribeca 2019 and more recently was music supervisor on the SBS series Latecomers.
Mawunyo Gbogbo (Australian)
Mawunyo Gbogbo is the author of Hip Hop & Hymns. Published by Penguin Random House, her book is described by Books+Publishing as “a beautiful and heart-wrenching memoir”, and Stan Grant as “Puberty Blues with a hip hop beat”. Raised in the sleepy coal mining town of Muswellbrook, NSW, Mawunyo's love of storytelling takes her to the city that never sleeps – New York City. She's worked in the media for 20 years and is a Pop Culture Journalist for ABC News.
Kate Scott (Australian)
Kate Scott is the author of Compulsion, a novel animated by her early career as a music journalist and editor. She spent ten years with The Australian Ballet as their in-house writer and head of marketing, where she edited the award-winning photography book Luminous. Kate now lives in Thirroul on New South Wales's south coast, works as a freelance arts strategist, and has two rabbits, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. Kate Scott acknowledges the Dharawal people, on whose lands she lives and works. Sovereignty was never ceded.
Robbie Buck (Australian)
Robbie Buck has been a radio broadcaster for over three decades. He's currently filling in on The Music Show on Radio National. Prior to that, he co-hosted the highly successful breakfast show on ABC Radio Sydney. Robbie's been a recognised voice on Radio National and the triple j network. A great lover of music, Robbie created the iconic Australian music show Home & Hosed for JJJ as well as The Inside Sleeve for RN. He’s also spent time hosting television shows for both ABC & SBS TV. Most recently he’s been on the road, spending 2022 away from the mic, to travel around Australia in a 4wd campervan. He lives in Sydney with his wife, two children, and a very cheeky whippet named Billy.
