Hammocks in a scooter repair shop

Josh: The Daily Talk Show, everyone, episode 74. Tommy Jackett, can you pick up your microphone?

Tommy: Yeah, sorry mate, sorry. This— fuck, this is an interesting app. This is our, um, we're out of our normal studio, which is usually Josh's house. Yeah, we're sitting in hammocks. We're lying in hammocks.

Josh: I feel like you tend to yell when you're in a hammock.

Tommy: Am I yelling?

Josh: You're yelling.

Tommy: We're in a hammock. So where we are is, um, a friend of mine who has an office It's not really an office. I've got an office on a street in Collingwood, and so does Derek. Derek, what's up, Derek?

Josh: Say hello.

Derek: G'day, how you going, guys?

Josh: Yeah, we're good, we're really good.

Tommy: So Derek's got like a workshop.

Josh: I'm gonna turn your mic down because you're fucking yelling. It's fine.

Tommy: So Derek's got a workshop, um, which is, uh, like vintage scooters, scooter repairs. Basically, he— if you break something that's mechanical, he could probably fix it. And he's got this awesome— when I came in here, it's like an old school— I don't know, he's had it for a long time. How many years have you had this scooter workshop for?

Derek: I've been in here for about 20 years, actively in scooters for about 15.

Tommy: Okay, okay.

Josh: So we're in Collingwood.

Tommy: It is— when you walk in, it's like it's a traditional fucking mechanics workshop, you know, shit everywhere, but it looks like it's in order. And there's like vintage scooters and there's a room, if you dig a little deeper, that he's converted into a podcast studio. So, I've been telling you, Josh, that we need to do a podcast from here.

Josh: Yeah. And the funny thing is that the normally factories, garages, anything like this, I would feel a little bit out of my comfort zone because—

Tommy: You don't know how to work a hammer.

Josh: Yeah, I don't know how to work a hammer. It's— I'm not the most— the blokeiest bloke. If anything ever happens, anything happens to my car, I tend to have to contact RACV rather than doing anything.

Tommy: Or your girlfriend.

Josh: Exactly. She'll be able to do it. But no, what the thing that's amazing about this, Derek, is you've built a podcast studio in your— you could— closing the door. Feel free to close the door.

Tommy: Go for it. Go for it.

Josh: And so, Derek, tell us. Why— oh, that's amazing, isn't it? Just like shuts out the audio. Tell us how you ended up with a podcast studio, uh, in your, um, in your factory.

Derek: Well, it all, it all started with a very special room that I built to be sort of mostly soundproof, and this room was built to host a dynamometer. Now, for those who don't know, That is a sort of a chassis, a machine you roll a motorcycle onto, has a massive metal wheel that the power of the motorbike turns and the computer sort of measures off the power and diagnostic machine really. Anyway, that thing is so heavy that you can't move it. And so the room was kind of committed to that. And I thought, what could I do? There's a computer in there. It's a soundproof room. I know, I've always wanted to do a podcast.

Josh: Yeah.

Derek: But in a stinky factory like this one, there's just never been a possibility. So that was it.

Josh: I wonder if there's more fumes in here when I'm talking or when there's a car on full rev. Good joke, Josh. Thank you. It's a bit of a dyno joke. First dyno joke of the day.

Tommy: Josh, did you know what a dyno was before Derek told you?

Josh: So I worked on a show Derek called Rodders Life. It was a car show, Channel 31. Wolf Wolf, have you ever heard of Rodder's Life? Probably not.

Derek: No, but that's fine. Sounds great. You have now.

Tommy: Rodder's Life.

Josh: And, uh, no, we— I remember doing some filming. I don't know if it's still around, but in Port Melbourne there was this, uh, I don't know, like arcade type thing. They were trying racing on dynos. Do you know about this?

Tommy: No.

Josh: Where people would bring their cars and the software that's spat out was actually like you would see a screen and all that sort of thing.

Tommy: Oh, that's sick.

Josh: But it's basically because I think the drag racing scene in Australia is a bit fucked, or in Melbourne anyway, right? So they, but they try and get people off the streets, and what they were trying to do is this whole put your car on a dyno and drag race.

Derek: Oh yeah, it's all, look, massively testosterone-driven, right? All motor vehicle stuff.

Tommy: Yeah, how big's your fucking engine?

Derek: I didn't— when I first got this dyno, I did an experiment and I got on the Facebook Yeah. And just wrote— and people had already known in the scene, people knew that I had the dyno and I was dynoing things and how your maximum horsepower was a thing. And I just wrote a post that just said 17, the number 1 and 7. Yeah. And just put it up and left it. And, uh, one guy— I got a bit of response from that going, how'd you get that? And I had one guy ring me up whose scooter I was working on at the time, and he said, um, am I gonna— is that me? Am I gonna get 17? I said, no, no, no, you didn't, man. You didn't go for the optional extras. Yeah, you're probably going to get about 14.

Josh: We didn't even say that's what it was for. You said that's— you should have said, mate, that's how many doughnuts I had today.

Derek: Exactly. That was the experiment.

Tommy: Uh, so the dyno, just— I mean, away from scooters, we put my electric skateboard on it. Remember that, Derek?

Derek: Oh yes, I forgot about that.

Tommy: This is the street that gets the littlest work done in Australia. Derek and I just in the studio. And so we're— I'm actually swinging in a hammock right now. Tell us what happened with these hammocks, like how they came about.

Derek: Wow, look, it's a lifestyle thing. I pretty much always— 20 years I've been in this factory, and you know, there's obviously going to be more than 3 occasions when I've been chronically hungover in this building, or, you know, with the flu, or whatever you want to call it. And you just got nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. It's just all been gritty and, you know, grease on the floor. And you can put your head on the desk and then, you know, the doorbell will ring. So it just dawned on me a few months ago that this room was clean and had beams at either end. I went, oh Oh my God, I can get a hammock. Went to Bunnings, $25.

Tommy: Is that all these things cost?

Josh: Get out of here.

Tommy: Fuck yeah. So they're bright orange. It looks like prisoner's outfit.

Derek: Yeah.

Tommy: And it's a traditional hammock, but just bright orange.

Josh: And the thing that I think is amazing about this space is it's soundproofed, but it's soundproofed the opposite way in the sense of you're trying to stop us getting out, our sound getting out.

Derek: Exactly. Well, yeah, I didn't think too much about acoustic treatment when I was building it, uh, because who cares? You're in a room with a screaming two-stroke engine. It doesn't really matter if it's sort of reverbing a bit. You've already got your, you know, your earmuffs on. Yeah, but now I've been trying a little bit at a time to treat it a little.

Josh: It sounds great in here. It sounds like really— like you wouldn't, you wouldn't know that you're in a bloody Factory, that's for sure.

Tommy: It's by far our best location for, for acoustics at the moment.

Josh: So the, the scooter stuff, why do, why do you actually need a dyno other than just testing how fast it goes?

Tommy: It doesn't test how fast it goes.

Josh: It does, doesn't it?

Tommy: Well, it does, but it's not the main reason of a dyno.

Josh: Yeah, so the dyno is just, uh, is it— Derek, help us please. You're just letting Tommy and I have this debate on a dyno, and fucking Tommy knows Fuck all too.

Tommy: I know, I know about it, man. I know about dynos. Campton and I used to be obsessed with fucking dynos, and he's got a GTR, Nissan Skyline R34 GTR. Did you know that? He's got an epically fast car.

Derek: Wow.

Tommy: And so he's used to get it on the dyno all the time to cheque the how many kilowatts it had.

Josh: So kilowatts is different to speed, horsepower, all these things?

Derek: Kilowatts is horsepower. Okay, it's a different kilograms, pounds. It's metric versus imperial. Okay, so horsepower sounds cooler. Yeah, yeah, but you get less, I think.

Josh: And so, and so what's, what's the traditional use? What, we're using a dyno every day?

Derek: No, no. Okay, so it's, it's technically for tuning. So you, you can— my idea would save me from screaming up and down Easy Street to test bikes. But, um, I just kept doing that anyway.

Tommy: And he still does. I can actually vouch for that. Oh, there's Derek again.

Josh: What I like about this stuff though too, like, because it's quite specialised equipment, where do you get a dyno from? Like, what's the ballpark figure on the cost of a dyno? How do you— like, from a business point of view, is it a practical thing for people to get, or is this a luxurious purchase where you're like, ah, fuck it?

Tommy: Is his wife listening, or is she not listening?

Derek: I don't mind her knowing I've got a dyno, but I do mind her knowing I've just sold it.

Tommy: She doesn't know? No. Okay, I mean, the Daily Talk Show is huge, but I don't know if it's—

Josh: It's spreading quickly. I think you're probably safe.

Derek: She hasn't— she probably hasn't seen my Instagram. Yeah, she's not one of the, you know, followers.

Josh: Going to your Instagram, The Aussie Vinyl Show. So how did you get from having a fucking dyno in the factory to having fucking turntables and a podcast and records everywhere.

Tommy: It's sick.

Derek: Well, I probably got a bit of tech addiction building the studio, and I kind of was thoroughly enjoying it.

Josh: It's better than a coke addiction on addiction level.

Derek: It's very good at first.

Tommy: It's more sustainable, I reckon, than a coke addiction.

Derek: You end up with a bit more stuff.

Josh: You still have to do the same shit meeting people from Gumtree all the time.

Derek: It's true.

Josh: Yeah, so tell us about it.

Derek: Right, so yeah, I was like, I could sort of put the studio together with this idea I'd have a podcast studio. And I didn't actually consider doing it myself though. I'd probably still say it. The whole point is to build this studio that people can use. And it was kind of more of an idealistic do-gooder kind of vibe. I was like, oh, let's make this studio that people with that, you know, that have got no other voice can come in and groups and stuff like that.

Josh: It's like the new community radio. Well, that was it.

Derek: Well, when I first came up with the idea, before I had this room, about 2 or 3 years ago, I'd like to have a podcast studio. Um, then it was actually community radio that put the blankets on it because I looked up, you know, alternative places you can hire to do a podcast. And 3CR was doing it for cheap in a fancy pants studio. So I kind of went, oh, forget it.

Tommy: Yeah.

Derek: And then it sort of— the idea popped up and then I went, oh, it doesn't really matter because now I want to, you know, I'm not trying to make money out of it because it's in a pre-existing room.

Josh: And so the show and the content, vinyls, like, what is it? What does it all mean to you? How have you gotten here? What's your background that sort of sparked that interest?

Derek: All the, you know, the, the, uh, the the great oracle mentor out there, i.e., YouTube search, um, came up with, you know, a lot of things like stop hating your own voice and, you know, all those kind of things you, you learn when you go, oh, how do I do this?

Tommy: Yeah.

Derek: And, uh, one of them was like, do what you know, do what you're good at. And everyone's going, do a scooter podcast, do a scooter podcast. I'm kind of— this is meant to be escapism, not sort of laying down more scooter shit in my spare time.

Tommy: You talked about before we got on this, you mentioned that you're like, oh, when, when it starts recording, I get nervous. You don't come across as nervous. And it's interesting because I see you, like, you look at your, your Instagram page, you've put— how many videos have you put up? Probably 140 or something like that, which, I mean, you can only do if you're actually genuinely passionate about what you're talking about. And so how do you battle the nerves? I mean, it's not like you're doing it on a stage in front of thousands and thousands of people, but everyone feels nervous. I know first podcast we did, there was a bit of nerves. What's— how do you deal with that?

Derek: Well, I don't really. I just kind of push on and go, well, it's going to happen. I see it as kind of like they say you've got to have this operation. Well, you do, don't you? You go. Yeah, you don't wag it. Yeah, you go to your operation and then you go, it's ages away. And then, you know, they can't— I haven't had an operation, but I imagine it's like this. And then, and then they wheel you in and then they give you a needle and you go, oh shit, it's close now. It doesn't matter how scared you are, it's happening, you know what I mean? And then you wake up and everything's cool, if you're lucky. So I see it like that. I'm just, you know, someone— two times I've been best man in the, you know, in my life, you know, from the day they say 'Can you be my best man?' My whole life has got another layer of gelatinous film around it of nerves until the second I sit down, and then I feel every bit of grog I've drank that night so far hit me like a brick. So it's like that. And so we can do it.

Josh: Were you listening to podcasts? Like, how does— what I'm really curious about is, so what was day to day? What's day to day been like for you for the last 20, 15 years or whatever? And how has the— how is podcasting slowly sort of come into your vision?

Derek: It's another guilty confession because I discovered, you know, the after-show podcasts.

Josh: Oh, like I was really into something, let's say like a reality show, like a—

Derek: no, no, you know, if they have a show like, uh, The Walking Dead.

Josh: Oh yeah, sure.

Derek: And people come and then there's a And if you really like that show, and then I'm at work working by myself every day, and you put one of those on, then you've got these— a couple of Americans sitting there going on and on about the show that you've watched last night. They spend an hour talking about a 40-minute show sort of thing. And that's, uh, and I thought that was kind of— that's— that was how I— that was the only podcasts I knew for a couple of years, and they were, um and they were good. And I like the way that they saw things that I didn't. I just watched a TV show and went to bed.

Josh: Yeah.

Derek: But these guys going, have you noticed that there's a code to the colours of t-shirts the dude wears in Breaking Bad and all this information? And that's really all podcasts I've listened to. It's just they can go deeper.

Josh: And so for the scooter business, how did that come about? How did you start on your career path? What was it? You know, the, the entry into it?

Derek: Totally by mistake. I just, um, just— I've just always operated with no ambition. Um, so I just got into scooters. My mate said, I'm gonna get a Vespa, years and years ago. And I went, oh yeah, what's that?

Josh: I want one.

Derek: And I, you know, I got a, an older one than him. And then I just, you know, while he was just riding to work every day, I was going deep into it until a whole, you know, 50% of my workspace— this was a wrought iron factory. I was fabricating wrought iron furniture and architectural stuff in here for many years before that.

Tommy: So you've always worked with your hands?

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: And you, uh, yeah, you know how to fix mechanical things. And so what, did you just start tinkering around with it?

Derek: Yeah, just, just tuning and pulling them apart, carry on. And then the— there was a drought here, I think you remember, and this— there was a big boom in modern scooters, the automatic ones, or Tupperware scooters. But, uh, that's just being bitchy.

Tommy: But, um, scooter talk, that's what you get. You get a lot of bitchy scooter talk on Derek's Scooter Podcast if you made one.

Derek: If I did, I'd probably lose a lot of business.

Josh: Well, the thing with this, with scooters, and this is something that's just, um I feel like my perception of scooters has only changed over the last couple of years. Is like, I used to think that scooters was this real femme thing, right? And then I started meeting people who, like, I think you're a pretty blokey bloke. Where does that sort of femme vibe of scooters come from? Is it a certain scene within, like, the metrosexual type of thing?

Tommy: The metrosexual Italian.

Derek: Yeah.

Tommy: You've been to Italy, Josh, haven't you? No, I'm about to go, remember?

Josh: Oh, fuck, man.

Tommy: Man, wait till you see the dudes on those scooters over there.

Josh: Is that where it comes from?

Tommy: Well-dressed motherfuckers.

Derek: It got like— I, I put it down, I think it's just one of those Australian things.

Josh: Yeah.

Derek: Uh, where, you know, we kind of a little bit isolated and it's— we miss out on a few interesting points in history.

Josh: Yeah.

Derek: Um, I've, you know, with the review I've just done this morning before you guys came in was a band called Marching Orders, which is an oi skinhead band. And 4 of those, 4 of the members of that band— that's not true, 2 of the members of that band and the photographer from the COVID all ride scooters. They're all covered in tats and they're all genuinely tough.

Josh: Wow.

Tommy: So scooter, this— how niche, like how the subculture of scootering, is it like, is it— there's obviously something out there.

Derek: Yeah, well, it mostly comes from the UK. It's a UK thing. So all the, you know, that you— the mods is kind of the most mostly known part of it.

Josh: The mods as in just modifying the—

Derek: no, mods as in, you know, uh, The Who dudes in suits riding around on scooters. You don't know? Okay, I don't know.

Josh: I don't fucking know anything. I know who The Who are, right? There are— is that what you're referring to, the, the group?

Derek: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there was a subculture that kicked off in the, you know, the British subcultures have always come from basically poor kids with nothing else to do and they build a subculture, you know, punks, rude boys.

Josh: Yeah, I know, fuck, I don't remember. I don't fucking watch film, I don't know anything. So my cultural sort of— this is what's going to be fascinating. Josh was born in '90, 1990. I'm fucking like, yeah, I know it's outrageous, so I know nothing. So preface anything that you're saying with, Josh has no fucking idea, but I'm so interested.

Tommy: Josh was just uploaded onto the Matrix. He hasn't seen that, but you'll know what I'm talking about, Derek. So he's fresh. Just feed him a new system.

Derek: So, so yeah, there's all these, um, yeah, so there's a succession of subcultures that come from poor kids in Britain.

Josh: Yeah.

Derek: And there were ones called Teddy Boys, which I think are very funny, but my father was a Teddy Boy. Yeah, um, but the mods, they, they— it's very interesting. They just went, all right, they think, you know, we're scumbag kids in from the poor areas and we haven't got work and all that. So they obsessed and wore Italian tailored suits. I mean, it started in— it's before it hit the poor kids, it started as a movement, they say, by a couple of Jewish lads in London. Yeah, um, who just went, let's go let's look fucking sharp. And that was— and that was it. Let's look super duper sharp. And that evolved into using the Italian scooters because they were neat. There was no dirty oil or anything anywhere, you know, they were all self-contained. And it moved into that, and then it took off and it was huge. And they used to go and have big brawls with the Rockers.

Josh: And because we're— we're in Collingwood, and so did you grow up in Collingwood, or where'd you grow up?

Derek: No, Murielbark.

Josh: Moorebark. Okay. So, how long, like, do you live close by here?

Tommy: Do you— What's your address?

Josh: No, I'm curious. I'm curious as to, you know, did Australia see that? Like, have you— Did we then sort of take that subculture? And because I think I could— I can't really imagine because Collingwood, for our international listeners, how would you describe it? It's a pretty— It used to be pretty fucking rough, didn't it?

Derek: Yeah, yeah, this was a rough inner city suburb that would have housed people working in inner city factories.

Tommy: And you told me the storey about this street 20 years ago to what it is today. What's the comparison?

Derek: You—

Tommy: something stuck out from what you told me about it.

Derek: 20 years ago, there was— well, you know, you're in a height, you know, you're somewhere working down there, right? And there's basically a billion more people sitting there doing work compared to 20 years ago. The building over the road was one huge— it was the last kind of freestanding red brick inner-city factory you could ever see from a distance. There's a few Fitzroy ones where they've put balconies on for apartments. It was only reasonably recently that they tore the facade off and made it look like the Crown Casino dunnies.

Josh: Good heckle, good heckle.

Tommy: And what was the factory? What did they actually do in the factory?

Derek: Well, they— when I— most of the time when I was here, it was a sign-making factory, but it was all about shoes. The whole street was about shoes, really. Uh, although just after World War II, I think from here down in— from my building down to your building was owned by one company and they made board games.

Josh: Wow.

Derek: Yeah.

Tommy: Do you know what, what board game?

Derek: I did know it's something to do with war. I did know, I haven't got it handy.

Josh: It's gonna make sense.

Tommy: Obviously didn't do well. No, they closed down. Derek couldn't give a fuck about them. What we are in it, you're in an industry that, um, seems unique Has it— how have you seen from, you know, the global financial crisis, like, what's the ride in business for you? How are you seeing it?

Derek: It really doesn't affect me at all because it's so small, and I'm kind of— there's probably one other guy that does it who's an old Italian guy down by the seaside.

Tommy: He rips you off, it makes— gives you rusty, rusty, uh, tools.

Derek: No, let's not come into that. But, uh, the— yeah, probably business-wise, I, I don't handle— like, because I've— when I was doing the wrought iron, it was unique and it was my, my designs kind of thing, like creative, creatively. And with the scooters, there's no one else doing it, so I've kind of become super sensitive to competition. If someone goes, oh yeah, I'll fix that, oh, you know, he— my mate fixed it for me, I was like, oh.

Josh: Who's the fucking mate?

Derek: Who's this? What? You know, so I don't have— yeah, I'm not in a competitive business, so I just, I've forgotten what it's like.

Josh: What sort of content do you consume to like— have you gone down the YouTube rabbit hole of scootering or is it just not a thing?

Tommy: What does that mean? You mean creating content?

Josh: No, I said no, just watching content. Like, are there vloggers who are in the scooter scene?

Derek: No, look, not really.

Tommy: Hey, it's Romeo, it's fixing a scooter today. This one's a new one.

Derek: Not really. It's— look, it is an opening, and I do— every day I probably go, well, maybe I should, maybe I should.

Josh: Yeah.

Derek: But I'd like— like I said, I don't handle criticism very well. So, you know, YouTube's not where you want to be. The comments would be like, yeah, oh, you used a wavy washer in that one in 1964. That was supposed to be a you know, uh, you know, twice as many waves in the washer shape, you know.

Tommy: Like, is that how finicky they are?

Derek: Yeah, it gets a bit— gets a bit intense.

Tommy: Yeah.

Josh: And so do you— are there expos, conferences? Where the fuck do you like find out this information?

Derek: On—

Josh: on online? Oh yeah, I suppose you go like swap meet type of shit and find like old manuals.

Derek: Not here. This happens in Italy and England and stuff, but no. The only swap meets there have been have been kind of in this building. So do you do that too much?

Josh: Do you feel the need to go out and explore overseas to see what's going on, or is it all very self-contained?

Derek: It's just, it's just someone brings in their broken scooter and I fix it. Yeah, there's not much to learn. Like, if when someone does turn up who can do what I do, and it has happened then suddenly you just kind of perk up and go, oh shit, I better get, you know, learn some more stuff or be on the cutting edge. But I usually learn about what new products are available from my customers. Yeah, they ring up and they go, oh, what do you think about this new 218cc, you know, aluminium kit for the blah blah? And I'll just go, let me just cheque on that and I'll, uh, I'll get back to you.

Josh: Yeah.

Derek: 'What the fuck is that?' Fake tea market.

Josh: And you were talking to us before about the, um, the fact that you're a bit of a name dropper. Who's the most famous, uh, customer that you've ever had in your shop?

Derek: Oh my God, I know I've got, I've got the daily talk shows in here right now, which is pretty exciting, but not customers.

Tommy: Um, what about, um, is that the answer to the question?

Derek: No, Dan Henshall.

Tommy: You won't know their name anyway, Josh.

Josh: Yeah, I know, but then fucking Derek's about to— Dan Henshall I've heard of. Yeah, go on.

Derek: Well, he, um— that's a slab, isn't it?

Tommy: What happened?

Derek: My phone rings.

Josh: Well, yeah, this isn't, um, this isn't, uh, film, film production rules here. You're fine.

Derek: I had a guy come in who said— and I told this storey this morning after I met another guy who I plan to name drop. But, um, he came in with this like a nice tatty old scooter which is obviously emotionally connected to. Yeah, there has to be a reason why you'd keep it. And he was, um, what a sting. All this thing is, my emotions more important than, uh, you know, prestige.

Josh: You must have some fucking real deep-seated need to keep this piece of shit.

Derek: I've copped that all my life with all my cars. So in your face. So the, um, he's coming and he said, look, I'm sick of it every year. What can I do? Every year my battery goes flat. I'm going, well, why do you use it? He goes, no, because I go and work in America for sort of half the year. I'm going, oh, what do you do? He said, I'm an actor. I said, fuck, that's grouse. I'm a name dropper. Give me something. I said, come on. And I thought he's gonna say, you know, I don't know, it's like, oh, I'm an extra or something like that. Yeah. And I said, he goes, oh, I'm doing this show. And, um, I said, well, give me the biggest thing you've ever done, quick, quick, quick. Yeah. And he said, oh, Snowtown. Yeah, have you seen it? I said, no, no, I haven't seen it, but I'm gonna.

Josh: Is it the Snowtown, the Adelaide one about the murderers and stuff? Yeah, great.

Derek: Yeah, Bodies in the Barrel. Yeah, kind of thing. So I said, oh yeah, when I watch it, what part? He goes, you'll know. I'm the fat sicko with the beard who, you know, kills people. Yeah, right. Okay, what else? And he's doing a show called Turn: Washington Spies, which I've watched every one of.

Tommy: They're good.

Derek: Love it.

Tommy: Yeah, what is it?

Derek: Historical, about the, um, some kind of revolution in America. Not the Civil War, but something else before.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah.

Josh: Talking, uh, murders, Easy Street.

Tommy: Oh yes. That's the famous Easy Street murder.

Josh: Yeah. So how long have you been in on Easy Street?

Tommy: Oh, and I've got a connection to it. I've got a connection to it.

Josh: It's not about you right now.

Tommy: No, no, no, this is a fucking good connection. But you tell Derek.

Josh: Derek, I want to get—

Derek: No, no, wait, wait. Well, the way I roll with this topic—

Josh: Yeah.

Derek: You guys actually don't know this, but I have a specific way of dealing with this topic.

Josh: Okay, great.

Derek: And that's just letting people tell me their information first.

Tommy: Okay.

Derek: You want that? Yeah.

Josh: Sounds like something a murderer would say, but we'll go with it. Just in case he's on the Yeah. What does he know?

Tommy: So, in short, there was a murder on Easy Street and there was a woman killed and a baby that was in its cot just crawling around. The woman was found 3 days later after the murder and the baby was alive.

Josh: When was this? What year are we talking?

Tommy: I couldn't tell you. It'd be '60s. No, no, no. Sorry. No, it wasn't that late. Okay. I can work this out. Because my brother knows the baby.

Josh: Really? That is interesting. Wait, so the baby's obviously grown up to be an adult?

Tommy: Yeah, survived. And so the police must have gone in and found this fucking poor little baby in a cot, just hungry and screaming. And, and so I think it was my brother went to school with the guy. Yeah, or partied with the guy, one of those things. But either way, my bro has met the baby that was in the house.

Josh: And is he doing okay?

Tommy: He's fine. He's an adult now.

Josh: Yeah. Well, I know he's an adult now.

Tommy: He didn't see the murder.

Josh: Yeah, I know. But I still think if your mum was murdered when you were a baby, it would almost become surreal.

Tommy: I think, I feel like if it happened before you were born, you would be, it would be seen as like a story. You'd almost feel like it's a movie you're reflecting on that's got bad bits in it. Really bad bits.

Josh: But it's a storey that's attached to you. So I wonder, I feel like you'd be fine. It's—

Tommy: I think it'd be a hardened scab.

Derek: No one lets you forget, that's what it is.

Tommy: Exactly.

Derek: One of my memories of— basically what I was saying before was alluding to the fact that 20 years of here, when before they had all— before they set up all those cheap sneaker shops up the road, you know, locals would cruise past all the time. I made my whole living out of just selling things to them. Yeah, furniture.

Tommy: Yeah, depends on what time of day. Yeah, or if you use the code name.

Derek: So, um, so I, I sort of grabbed the— from the last of the oldies that used to be around here before they sold up for millions and took off or passed on or whatever. But they used to tell me little tidbits here and there because it was their, their patch and all that. Yeah, but, um, which I've forgotten most of, but I do remember that the Herald Sun Sun. Don't like mentioning the name of that paper too often, but the Herald Sun. I remember the headline, and I was here, so it was no longer than '98. It was not before 1998. And it— the headline said, 'I do not hate my mother's killer.' And it was—

Josh: 'I do not hate my mother's killer.' Yeah.

Derek: And it was— they got a quote off the baby, the baby, and it was his 21st birthday. So they'd gone and hunted him down hit him up for a quote on his 21st birthday. Yeah.

Josh: Fuck.

Tommy: That's gross, isn't it? Imagine having to do that, chasing up someone.

Josh: So, 1998 was 21 years— it was 21 years before that, are you saying?

Tommy: No. Well, the guy would be around 30. It'd be between 36 and about 40.

Josh: So, what's an average? What's the rough— what's the rough time that he— that this all went down? I'm just trying to get context. Tommy said the '60s. Is he way off?

Tommy: No, I was way off. I just told you it would have been— Because my brother's 36. Okay, sure. And so he would be around the same age.

Josh: Of course.

Tommy: Late '70s. So that's how— yeah, so it'd be late '70s.

Josh: So late '70s. Okay.

Derek: And so I was here from '98, so it could have been after that. Yeah. When the Herald Sun thing came out.

Josh: Yeah, sure.

Derek: But it's— so it's after mid-'70s.

Tommy: Fuck, I tell you what, we're all a bunch of detectives here working it all out.

Josh: It's like when you watch Air Crash Investigations and you become an aviation expert. You're like, oh, you can't be fucking running an A380 at that sort of weight.

Tommy: So what happened is people are walking past. True crime podcast. You found out about this headline and what does that make you think?

Derek: Well, it just made me just hate the Herald Sun even more than I ever have.

Josh: Well, you were obviously entering into Easy Street, would have known the history of like of that.

Derek: Well, everyone told you, people just went, oh, Easy Street, Easy Street. Like it's 20 years on.

Josh: Why was that the street?

Derek: It was still a little fresher.

Josh: Yeah.

Derek: People still do it, but people that are older. So. As obviously as people get older.

Josh: Yeah.

Derek: There's—

Josh: That's their rep. They understand that reference.

Derek: There's less and less people that like you guys go, oh, I just found out about Easy Street.

Josh: Yeah.

Derek: Right. But so there's less and less people knocking around this area that just the first thing they say is, oh, Easy Street. Like when I, if I order some steel from a Dandenong factory or something like that.

Tommy: They reference the murders.

Derek: The lady on the phone will go, oh, Easy Street. Oh yeah.

Tommy: Oh wow.

Josh: Well, that's how I knew about it was because I remember speaking to my mum on the phone. I'm like, I'm going to just going to Easy Street where Tommy's office is. And she's like, oh, he's straight. It's a thing. And she lives in Roval, not far from Dandenong. So it must be a southeast thing.

Tommy: And so do you know any more details about like what have you collected along that you can tell us?

Derek: I started collecting this.

Tommy: And make the fucking shit up because it's a good storey anyway.

Derek: There were— I mean, there were— there was a TV show, someone I knew produced it, and it was one of those using a psychic or something. There's a local-made TV show about it, and they made a big deal about some things that they never revealed about the crime scene. There were actually two women murdered.

Tommy: Oh really?

Derek: Yeah, yeah. And, um, so that's why the rumours that the old people used to say, you know, little things. I can't remember all the details, but there were things like, you know, there were bits of— there were body parts found in letterboxes. And I know, but these would have been Chinese whispers. And yeah, you can't say that anymore. These would have been storeys that had adapted after each person told them on.

Josh: Yeah, um, it's very interesting. I wonder what it does to a, uh, a street or an area, right? Like, I remember just being a kid and having like, you know, stuff go down, you know, SWAT teams called or like people killing people. And it's just like, yeah, you really paint a picture as a kid. You remember that.

Tommy: What about owning that house? It's obviously still there.

Josh: Well, it was on the street. Was it at a house or what was it?

Derek: Yeah, it's a house down there. It was always, I mean, A while back it was always kind of like, oh, who's going to live in there kind of thing. Yeah, but, uh, and someone has. As time goes on.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: Would you live in it?

Derek: Yeah, yeah, of course.

Tommy: It'd be worth fucking $1.8 million.

Derek: I was allowed. I have to live in Preston now.

Josh: Thank you very much.

Derek: To answer your earlier question.

Josh: Yeah, yeah. And so, um, uh, we've— we're nearly at 40 minutes, so we better wrap it up, but I want to know more about this podcast stuff. So, how much time are you spending on all of this now? Is it— do you find it's a good sort of distraction from your normal work? Are you going to, just like you went from furniture to scooters, is this the next iteration of Derek?

Derek: Definitely not.

Josh: He's currently nodding his head, which I think is signaling—

Tommy: I was bringing up before, yesterday we, Josh and I, went pretty deep Um, did you listen to yesterday's podcast?

Derek: What was it called?

Tommy: Bad Pork Roll.

Derek: Yeah, halfway through.

Tommy: And so we were kind of talking about— I mean, I can't really fucking remember what we talked about, but we talk a lot about deciding on where you want to go versus where you fucking think that you'll be able to go. It's like, I see you with this space and you're thinking it might be, it might be almost tarnished by those thoughts about what you could actually do with it. So what do you want to do with this stuff? Like, blue skies, total, right?

Derek: Okay, the dream is to get to build, uh, get a curriculum writer to write a, um, roving podcast studio lesson into primary school curriculum and have this as the base. Basically, this room simply provides some kind of credibility. Yeah, to the whole thing. And it goes around and, listen, here's my business idea. No one's going to hear this, are they?

Josh: Yeah, we don't have any listeners, so you're okay.

Derek: And we go, just basically go, I've had advice from someone. I said, oh, this is what I'd love to do, and they say, get it written into the curriculum and then you'll be cool. And, and actually have it go around to so that kids—

Josh: because it just comes— that's a great idea.

Derek: Talents. Every kid with a talent. You know when you go to a school play and it's it might be about, uh, you know, some people walking through the desert, but there'll still be someone with a band playing banjo because that's his skill. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, this covers everybody's skill in old school. So that's my— that's one of the dreams. Um, I've actually decided to do my own podcast.

Josh: So how can people find— like, if people want to listen, so you're going to be talking vinyls? Tell us about it.

Tommy: I decided to go the Bitchy Podcast about scooters.

Josh: The Bitchy Scooter Podcast.

Derek: That'll be the— that'll be on my last day before I retire from This is what I think about you. Fuck this guy, fuck that person.

Josh: My brother's a shit. Exterior of the fucking Crown toilets. Yeah, no. So what? Yeah. How are people going to be able to follow along if we're able to link it up? You know? Yeah. What is the next little bit for you?

Derek: So I've made a website called Castaway Studios, and that's kind of my working title for this room.

Tommy: Makes sense with the hammocks.

Derek: Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, that just was—

Josh: I feel like it makes me need to pee. You know how I've been drinking lots of water in the morning? I feel like it really makes me need to piss as well. I don't know if that's a— I don't care.

Tommy: Derek just wanted to do a cup.

Josh: I thought first for water, but it's empty. Yeah. So, go on. So, tell us. So, Castaway.

Derek: Castaway. So, that's the idea is to— if someone wants to do a podcast, they've always dreamt of it, or they just want to put on their bucket list. Technically, I'd like to just produce for them, basically. All right, come in, sit down, this is a spreadsheet that'll help you work out what the fuck you're going to do. Yeah, because that's interesting, isn't it? You go, all right, I mean, you guys have always got a handle on just sitting there having a yap. We've got no recording before together, so you're going, why don't we just record this yap? Yeah, and that's the thing.

Josh: But yeah, structure is great, like having that, and that's— I think that that's the A lot of people at the beginning, you need to synthesise your thoughts. You need to know, okay, you can talk about anything, what are you going to talk about?

Derek: Yeah.

Josh: And so I think that sounds like a great idea.

Derek: Yeah, to try that out, the equipment. I did a, um, a podcast called News in Briefs, right? And it was a joke, one never to be— it was to test out whether I could produce something, put it up, put it on Blubrry, uh, all the other ones, iTunes. And I did that, it worked. From my website, I used the the podcast WordPress theme.

Josh: Yeah, great.

Derek: And it all worked.

Josh: Yeah.

Derek: And then I got carried away. I probably did about 18 or so, and all I did was look at the ABC News in my— that came into my iPhone in the morning and just read the news because I just had to say something.

Tommy: It didn't matter.

Josh: So good.

Derek: It wasn't for anyone to hear. I never told anyone where it was. And but then I thought— but I found myself kind of, kind of, oh, fuck, you know, just carrying on and swearing because I thought, well, it'll at least be something, you know, for my education You know, I might be able to use it, but then I can't because I automatically started swearing my head off.

Josh: That's our biggest problem. We're gonna limit our audience from the amount of times we say 'can't.' So if that's okay.

Tommy: I love it. I was just thinking like, this is— and they're becoming more popular— podcast studios. Yeah, they're like the modern-day man cave. The old man cave was have a fucking stripper pole and a bar. Like, that's— I've literally seen some disgusting man caves.

Josh: I don't know who you're friends with.

Tommy: No. No, no, no. I saw, I just quickly, I did a show in Shepparton and we did this thing, it was like, um, the, our radio show on tour and we put it out there of, can we do a podcast from your house? And this one guy, I felt so sorry for him. I got to his house at 5:00 AM. He had the fire going and he had a Jim Beam can in his hand and he'd been drinking. He's obviously an alcoholic and he had a stripper pole and he had like these old Jim Beam g-strings hanging up. And my point is, like, that's, that's the old style. I'm sure you've seen them. Derek's probably got one at his house. No, I'm joking. But this is like the, this is like the new man cave.

Josh: Yeah.

Tommy: And I know that people want, like, Craig Harper's got one at his house. Joe Rogan's got the dream man cave.

Josh: I think it's, you know, and it extends to anyone, right? I think anyone could. The amazing thing is anyone who's got something to say can create a podcast now and create a space.

Tommy: Communication and communicating with people is almost becoming real cool. Yeah, and it's fucking awesome.

Josh: Thanks for having us, uh, in your space, Derek. We're gonna have you back on, and also once you've fucking gone fully live with the, uh, with the Aussie Vinyl Show.

Tommy: Is that, is that the name of what your podcast is going to be?

Derek: Yeah, there's gonna— it's gonna be an in-depth— gonna pick one song, one piece of Aussie history, and just go deep into it because that's obviously where podcasts shine. Yeah, they come to you.

Josh: It's fucking great. It's The Daily Talk Show, everyone. If you haven't yet, leave us a fucking podcast review.

Tommy: Yeah, Derek, leave us one.

Josh: Promise. And it's— You can send us emails to hi@thedailytalkshow.com. We'll see you tomorrow.

Tommy: Thanks, Derek.

Josh: We'll see you on Monday.

Tommy: See you Monday.

Josh: Bye. Thanks, Derek.