Boundary Bonds With...

We hear you have your fingers in a lot of musical pies. Tell us a bit about what you do? The Filth is my BABY! Its home is The Beachroad weekly...We have a lot planned over the next few months leading up to summer. We tested a few shows at different venues in the winter that didn't cut the mustard but the lessons learnt were invaluable. You got to take these risks to see how strong your product is. So from here we are looking at doing monthlies: Transit Bar Canberra launches Aug 30th; Sonar re-launches Sept 27th along with 2 others that we are currently teeing up; a mini Festival at the Annandale Hotel on Oct 25th that's called My Filthy Riot which has 20 bands in one day across 2 stages. All these shows support the new acts that are out there and their live performances are what we try to focus on. These shoe gazing hair bands can piss off. We want non-contrived solid live shows.......that is The Filth.

What's been a highlight in your career so far? There are so many but I would have to say finally getting The Filth up and running after so many people told me it would not work. Those who believed in me back then are now people I work very close with.

If I wasn't the man behind The Filth I would be.....a bloody good chef!!

You're a graphic designer. How did you become involved in designing for the music industry? I don't remember exactly how it happened. I was going to a lot of shows; I met a few people and convinced them that I could design things for their bands. The hard part came when I had to actually design these things, I didn't have any idea what I was doing, but it all worked out okay. Now I'm really good. I promise.

Tell us about some of your favourite work. It's all gold. If the client is really happy with the end product, then I am too. Also when my mum has heard of a band I'm working with, that's pretty cool.

What's behind your name "Robot Academy"? I was the founding member of Daft Punk. We were originally called Robot Academy. I invented the whole robot suit thing. I thought of that pyramid thing too. I wrote and performed the hook for their hit One More Time; they stole it from me, kicked me out, changed their name to Daft Punk and credited some other guy. All I had left was the name Robot Academy.

If I wasn't a graphic designer I'd be a.....Hungry Hungry Hippo (tm)

You're a DJ... And a great one at that. What made you decide to be a DJ? I needed to justify the amount of money I spent on music, going out and boozing on. A DJ is basically a junkie with an ABN.

Tell us a bit about your style... Bend down and touch your toes and you will hear it.

Most memorable DJing experience? DJing on a British Airways Concord flight from London to Milan back in '86. The line up for the toilet was a constant conga line.

How'd you come up with your name? Johnny Rad is a club owner/rocker in the Bones Brigade's 1987's skate movie - The Search for Animal Chin. His club is in Las Vegas and its set up as a skate park - fuckn dope. The movie features Tony Hawk and Steve Caballero in their teen hand-planting finest!

Where can people see you play? Floorspace of course!!

If I wasn't a DJ I'd be a... A Bum. And a great one at that.

What does a software developer do?
Depends usually on the size of the company to how much input you have in the entire development process, but where I work, my job is to visit clients after we have attained the tender, workout requirements (what they want the system to do), then set about designing and developing a solution. After the system/application is complete, I am involved in testing and maintaining the application and any subsequent versions.

How does one become a software developer?
One has to like computers, this goes without saying, and have the ability to think logically. A usual path is through university, computer science or software development, but if a person perseveres, they can enter through other means, such as working for a company whose business is in software.

What do you like about it?
Working from home is a benefit, the people in the company are awesome and the work is rewarding. A major plus, is that if you get the shits with what you're doing, you can stop it with a flick of a switch, or throw it from the top of a tall building.

We hear you make music... tell us about that?
Having played music for over 20 years and playing daily for pleasure, i have composed for many years, both acoustic and electronic. I play a lot of jazz/blues and enjoy nothing more than jamming on the very few occasions it time allows it to happen. It does surprise me sometimes when i'm out somewhere and hear some of the simplistic rubbish that makes it on the scene. Guess if you flood the market with crap, sooner or later some of it makes it through.

Fact or Fiction: All software developers are nerds.
Fiction. Most of the developers i know are deviates. Burn the candle at both ends and still manage to write code that works.

If wasn't a software developer I'd be a....nuisance.