The Sound returns for season three on Sunday with ‘less talk, more music’

Photo: Spacey Jane at Red Hill Auditorium for The Sound (Credit: Mushroom Studios)

There will be more Australian music on TV from this Sunday, with The Sound returning for round three.

The music TV program was the brainchild of the late Michael Gudinski as a way of giving a platform and performance outlet to local musicians and their crews who were locked down and limited in what they could do throughout the pandemic.

Previous hosts of the show have included Jane Gazzo, Zan Rowe and Bridget Hustwaite, but this time around The Sound will feature a rotating roster of guest hosts who speak to their artist friends.

Episode one will feature comedian, podcaster and radio and TV presenter Andy Lee speaking to Vance Joy. The episode will also feature Vera Blue, Spacey Jane and King Stingray.

As well as drawing some of the country’s biggest acts, the show also uses unique and iconic locations to film the stars’ performances. Joy was captured live at Barcelona’s La Paloma Dance Hall, while Spacey Jane was on set at Red Hill Auditorium, and Vera Blue was under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Vance Joy on set (Photo credit: Clara Orozco) 

The show has ditched its news segment, but has retained the ‘Tribute’ section. This time around, however, some of the country’s finest musical talents will be paying respect to living artists. In episode one, this will be Kasey Chambers via a special collaboration between Kevin Mitchell, Charlie Collins, Lisa Mitchell and Sam Teskey.

The show’s artist programmer, Susan Heymann (also the managing director of Chugg Entertainment), told The Music Network, the new format will make The Sound a faster-moving show.

“We’re just going to be focused on the performances and on the talent,” she said. “We haven’t got the news segment. We haven’t got the new music segment with that shorter duration. We just wanted to maximise the number of performances we could include in that 28-minute episode.”

The show’s original vision by Gudinski was to keep Australian music and musicians in the spotlight as the sector grappled with lockdowns, but Heymann said it still had its place as the country starts opening up again.

“I think this was really important for us during the peak of the pandemic last year, and it gave artists an opportunity to promote new music and to give work to their crews and have a connection with their fans,” she said.

“But I think now as things are opening up and borders are opening up and international artists are going to start coming back into Australia, it’s giving us an opportunity to keep celebrating Australian talent – and aligning that with Ausmusic Month and crossing over with ARIA Week, it just gives us a chance to keep focusing on home-grown talent.”

Spacey Jane’s Caleb Harper noted the importance of the platform offered by the show as the country started opening up.

“Especially because of COVID, there’s been a lot of artists who’ve had a lot of difficulty being able to be present and be seen. Touring’s been quite restricted, and a lot of the normal avenues for being an artist and connecting and engaging with fans have been pretty heavily stifled,” he told TMN.

“So something like The Sound is such an amazing opportunity to reach a huge audience and showcase not only beautiful parts of Australia, but also the things that bands have been working on and give them that avenue to express and engage still in spite of everything.”

And despite the lack of a live crowd, he said the energy on set was electric.

“I think [my favourite thing was] being out on that set at Red Hill in Perth. The sunset was so incredible. And we all just kept, everyone, the band, the crew, our audio crew, all just kept turning around going ‘Wow. That’s beautiful. We’re so lucky to be here’.

“And it was a super fun experience, and we were all quite amped up because of it.”

The show kicks off on ABC TV and iView at 5:30pm on Sunday, November 7.

You can read the full chat with Heymann, including how the show came together without Gudinski’s passion and momentum, here.