Author: Larry Heath

While SXSW continued to boast big name performances and branded events in 2017, it still remained a platform for new music discovery and for fresh artists from around the world to play their cards on stages right throughout Austin. One such artist is Jain. The Toulouse born singer came to Austin as one of the music festival’s…

When it came to the trends of SXSW 2017, there was a lot of take note of. Firstly, there were the hordes of concerts that championed nostalgia (Hanson, Weezer, Smash Mouth etc.). Then there was (what felt like) the larger-than-ever focus on hip-hop (T.I., Gucci Mane, Vince Staples, Wu Tang etc.); something that has been…

Now in its eighth year, BlenheimFest is a locally supported, volunteer run, not-for-profit festival, held on Good Friday at Blenheim in the Clare Valley, South Australia. This year they’re extending their event to two days – starting it on the Thursday – while they continue to raise funds for New Hope Cambodia and throw an…

One of the highlights among the many premieres at SXSW this month was the documentary Behind The Curtain: Todrick Hall, which took us on a behind-the-scenes journey of the creation of Hall’s record Straight Outta Oz, its music videos and a subsequent tour – all put together in an impressively short amount of time. While…

Canadian indie rock legends, The New Pornographers, were back in Austin for SXSW recently and we were lucky enough to get some time with vocalist and guitarist, Carl ‘A.C.’ Newman. No strangers to the chaos of SXSW, Newman reflects on his previous visits to the city with the band and the development of their music right through to…

Chances are, if you haven’t yet become familiar with the name Starley, you’ll know what she sounds like. Her single “Call On Me” has transformed from a pop hit into a club chart demolisher thanks to Ryan Riback‘s remix last year and since, the Sydney native has been embraced by territories all over the world. When we…

Jacob Collier may not have visited Austin, Texas prior to this month but best believe, the UK buzz artist left SXSW reeling with his presence. The 22 year old has been catapulted to global fame over the last year in particular; with two – yes, two – Grammy Awards to his name, the multi-instrumentalist and producer…

It seemed more than apt to be sitting down with Spoon in their hometown of Austin, Texas, at possibly one of the busiest times of the year – SXSW. The band has Australia firmly in their sights with shows on the east coast commencing this week, but before they make the trip out, Larry hung out with Alex…

Hot on the heels of winning the SXSW Audience Award for the “Visions” programming, we sat down with Aussie actor Josh Lawson, Director Josh Greenbaum and Australia’s own 007 George Lazenby to talk about the film Becoming Bond, which premiered at the festival last week. This pseudo-documentary tells the story of Lazenby, the only Australian…

It was a slightly different agenda for Pandora at SXSW this year as the digital radio service concluded their annual Pandora House at Austin venue The Gatsby earlier tonight. Running from Monday to Thursday and crossing into both Music and Interactive programming – as opposed to concluding on Saturday as in past years – Future…

For the past two days, the iconic Austin venue Mohawk played host to the annual House of Vans, featuring a mix of primarily rock and hip hop acts – some well established and plenty emerging. But it was the surprise addition of At The Drive-In during the event’s first night that proved to be the…

During a special Q&A at the Lionsgate Lounge at SXSW, two-time Academy Award winner Justin Hurwitz hit the stage and the piano to discuss the processes behind composing the music for La La Land. At the end of the almost hour long talk, which included a number of brief performances from Hurwitz as he detailed how…

One of the most anticipated panels at SXSW this year was one featuring the cast and showrunner of the acclaimed HBO comedy series Veep, which returns for a ten episode sixth season on April 16th. The panel, which was the show’s first at SXSW, featured writer/executive producer David Mandel, executive producer/star Julia Louis-Dreyfus and cast…

What started as an exclusive music event held at Willie Nelson‘s Texan ranch, the now popular Luck Reunion has turned into a musical pilgrimage for fans of country, rock, folk and Americana music. Celebrating the evolution of musicians and artists, the event also plays host to a number of pop up stalls and local food and beverage…

Kicking off in Austin tomorrow, this year’s SXSW has one of their most eclectic line-ups ever, full of hidden treasures through the entire line-up. Trying to cut it down to just ten picks of the event proved impossible, so here are our 11 picks of the films you can’t miss at South by Southwest 2017:…

US network AMC have revealed its biggest ever presence at SXSW in Austin, Texas, with a pop-up Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant from Better Call Saul amongst its most prominent activation at the iconic festival. The network also will have presence from their brand new series The Son and returning favourite Preacher – which originally premiered…

When Sonos announce a new speaker, the whole world takes notice. This is a company that has spent the last 15 years focused on quality over quantity, with years of R&D behind every new speaker that hits the shelves. In fact, as of today, this is their entire range of products: On the bottom left…

Today, iconic Speaker manufacturer Sonos have unveiled their latest speaker, the PLAYBASE (read more about that HERE). I had the chance to test out the system last month at Sonos HQ in Boston, and while I was there I sat down with Sono’s director of platform strategies, Michael Papish, who, in his own words, “works…

Hitting cinemas this Thursday is the sequel to the surprise Australian hit comedy A Few Best Men, A Few Less Men. Ahead of the film’s release, we caught up with star Xavier Samuel to talk about this film, its non-existent David Lynch version, filming in WA and whether or not he has any beef with…

SXSW kicks off on Friday, and among the pile of events that are set to pop-up in Austin during the festival will be a special venue set up by Amazon Prime Video, who will theme the Market & Tap (319 Colorado Street) in Downtown Austin after a number of their series – including their most…

The annual SXSW Film, Interactive and Music festival kicks off in Austin, Texas this Friday, and with it are a pile of must-attend once-in-a-lifetime events. The US film studio Lionsgate will be putting on one of these events in the form of the Lionsgate Lounge, which will be operating in Austin from the 11th to…

Russian band Tesla Boy premiered their single for “Circles” last year to much acclaim, and now its music video is being featured amongst a special selection of clips from around the world at the 2017 SXSW Film & Music Festival in Austin, Texas, for their annual Music Video Competition. In advance of the festival screenings,…

Since its first ever episode in 1975 featured a live performance from Billy Preston & Janis Ian, the iconic US sketch show Saturday Night Live has featured an established or emerging musical guest every episode. For as long as I can remember, the show has featured two performances per episode – and tonight it was…

Angourie Rice & Aaron McGrath, the stars of Jasper Jones (in cinemas now) sat down with The Iris’ Larry Heath to talk briefly about their upcoming film projects: Spider-Man Homecoming, which enters Angourie into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Beguilded, directed by Sofia Coppola & the new ABC series of Glitch. Jasper Jones is in…

Netflix is getting a new series based on Jay Asher’s best selling young adult novel 13 Reasons Why on Friday, March 31st. There’s a bit of an all star team behind this one – some episodes are directed by Academy Award winner Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), the film is executive produced by Selena Gomez (yes, THE…

Ahead of its premiere on Friday at SXSW in Austin, Texas, we caught up with Australian born, US based director Matthew Salleh to talk about his new documentary feature, Barbecue. The film takes us to 12 countries, from Shisanyama in South Africa, to Engangsgrill in Sweden and everywhere in between to talk about meat: how…

Though Qantas have just introduced a new Premium Economy seat and service to much excitement, Virgin Australia have been offering one of the best Premium Economy tickets in the market since last year. Taking up an intimate cabin of only 3 rows and 24 seats, the cabin heralds back to the “Business Class” of the…

Set to hit the Adelaide Fringe Festival later this week is foals [art exhibition], which features work exclusively created by kids between the ages of 3 to 16 from around the world. Ahead of the event, we caught up with the exhibition’s curator Sofie Kim to learn more about it.  Can you tell us a…

It’s hard to believe it’s already March, but as we continue to steamroll our way through the year, the arts offerings around the country are only getting better. Here’s just seven of the events we think you can’t miss – from an entire month dedicated to art in Sydney, to theatre, exhibition openings and comedy…

While it was reported this week that the election of Donald Trump has already seen the United States tourism industry lose some $185m in revenue, on the other side of the proverbial wall, things have never looked better. Yes, America’s Southern border buddy Mexico is reporting that in the calendar year of 2016, the country…