Hi friends, Andy here – née Aural Fixation, currently wittering away on Tracks of Our Queers. In case you're still not subscribed to the Tracks of Our Queers feed, I'm sharing one of my favourite recent episodes right here. Margaret Cho requires zero introduction. She is nothing less than a living, breathing queero, and it was an honour to chat to her about the music that has soundtracked her queer life. Subscribe to Tracks of Our Queers right here , and follow me at @tracksofourqueers. Jonesing...
May 06, 2025•45 min
Andy here – as I'm putting the finishing touches on Tracks of Our Queers ' second season, I thought I'd share some previews from my favourite episodes so far. Here's the first 10 minutes of my conversation with Bonzai Bonner, a DJ, nightlife promoter and activist based in Glasgow. You can find and subscribe to Tracks of Our Queers wherever you get your podcasts.
May 18, 2023•11 min
Andy here – as I'm putting the finishing touches on Tracks of Our Queers ' second season, I thought I'd share some previews from my favourite episodes so far. Here's the first 15 minutes of my conversation with Jonny Seymour, a producer, activist, and community elder based in Sydney. You can find and subscribe to Tracks of Our Queers wherever you getyour podcasts.
May 12, 2023•18 min
Andy here – as I'm putting the finishing touches on Tracks of Our Queers ' second season, I thought I'd share some previews from my favourite episodes so far. Here's the first 15 minutes of my debut episode, with Abdi Nazemian , an Iranian-American author, screenwriter and producer based in Los Angeles. You can find and subscribe to Tracks of Our Queers wherever you get your podcasts.
May 05, 2023•16 min
A note from Andy... Hello! Tracks of Our Queers is my new podcast, in which I interview a fascinating person on the music that has soundtracked their queer journey through one song, one album, and one artist. Tracks of Our Queers is available to listen to right now, wherever you find your podcasts. Head on over to subscribe – I cannot wait for you to hear the tales my guests have lived to tell....
Jan 11, 2023•2 min
The boys are back from their UK adventures and ready for Mardi Gras weekend in Sydney, shooting the shit on Shrove Tuesday, corporate queers and biodegradable glitter. We also aboard a round-the-world Pride tour from Cardiff and Manchester to Quito and Orlando, soundtracked by Andy and Drew’s favourite Mardi Gras musical classics. Visit our online home at auralfixationpodcast.com, follow us on Instagram and Twitter , or go old school and email us at auralfixationpodcast@gmail.com. You can follow...
Mar 03, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 8Ep. 9
We're coming up so you better get this party started! Aural Fixation's eighth cycle wraps up with a good old fashioned Drew and Andy romp, and this time, it's Missundaztood by the one and only P!nk. Some of the queer topics we cover around and amongst Alecia Moore's iconic sophomore outing include Shirley Bassey's Marks & Spencer adverts, "Get the Party Started" being about completely nothing, and rifling through Billy B's phone book. We also muse on Liv Tyler's paternal parentage, shout out...
Jan 13, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 8Ep. 8
It's New Queer's Eve and we're wrapping up an oddity of a year by delving into the magic and mayhem of Pete Burns, frontman of Dead or Alive and bonafide pio-queer. No one knows Pete better than our old friend and host of various incredible podcasts ( The Record Doctor, This Is Disco and the brand new You Can't Mistake Their Anthology to name three), Adem Eve. Adem takes us through possibly the most chaotic album we've covered yet on Aural Fixation, iconically a global flop everywhere apart from...
Dec 30, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Season 8Ep. 7
On May 31 1998, Geri Halliwell shook the globe by announcing that she was leaving the Spice Girls, effective immediately. Caught in the tumult of one of the biggest scandals in pop history, Geri she did what any gay icon would – she packed a bag and headed straight for George Michael's gaff. It was there that she decided what the hell she was going to do next. The result was Schizophonic. Lauded as a parallel universe third Spice Girls album, Geri's debut is a cacophony of frenetic but catchy bo...
Dec 15, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Season 8Ep. 6
How are you? What's your take on Cassavettes? Who took the bomp from the bomp-a-lomp-a-lomp? And who the HELL took the ram from the rama-lama-ding-dong? All these questions and more are answered in this ep dedicated to dancepunk trio Le Tigre. We tackle the band's debut self-titled album, the brainchild of Kathleen Hanna, Johanna Fateman and Sadie Benning, which sits at the precipice of '60s surfer bops, 80's new wave and 90's queercore New York... with a healthy splash of third-wave feminism. S...
Dec 01, 2021•49 min•Season 8Ep. 5
Judy Garland's concert appearance at New York's Carnegie Hall is often described as the greatest night in show business history. After ongoing battles with a variety of substances for most of the 1950s, many had come to judge Judy. Her 1961 return to the stage, however, was a roaring success devoured by a crowd made up almost entirely of screaming queens. Discussion on the original gay icon must be taken seriously, and Andy and Drew recruited Judy super-stan Alexander Andrews for a conversation ...
Nov 17, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Season 8Ep. 4
What do the forces of Nicki Minaj, Ronan Keating, and those who imprint queerness on successful figures in pop culture all have in common? They all want a piece of Tracy Chapman, ladies, and count us in. One of the best-selling albums of all time by anyone, anywhere, 1988's Tracy Chapman took the singer-songwriter traditions of the 70s and brought them into a new musical landscape and sparking another decade of heartfelt guitar confessionals – but there's so much more than meets the eye in the T...
Nov 03, 2021•54 min•Season 8Ep. 3
The boys are joined by artist, photographer, DJ, and Andy's mate from uni, Matthew Arthur Williams, to discuss the legendary Joni Mitchell and her 1975 album, The Hissing of Summer Lawns . An unrivalled figure in pop culture, Joni loves the queers and the queers love Joni but her icon status isn't as obvious or surface level as most of our usual Aural Fixation subjects. Matthew takes us on a memory lane trip back to the mid-00s, when Joni was the soundtrack of his blossoming queerhood. You can f...
Oct 20, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Season 8Ep. 2
Christina Aguilera's masterpiece Stripped has been cited as inspiration by countless pop sensations including Rihanna, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande. From self love, to feminism, to sex positivity, the music gave gals, gays and theys permission to roar when it hit the shelves in 2002. Nearly two decades later, Stripped still gets our temperatures up. What better way to kick off our eighth cycle than with a full strip-search of the album that made us fighters and taught us to trust t...
Oct 06, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 8Ep. 1
After over seventy episodes and several many bottles of chilled Semillon (send me home), we've reached our Cycle 7 finale! As is tradition (of which there are many!) this ep sees us tackling a subject that's a little... left of the usual format. Second only to Madonna (welcome to her fempire), RuPaul's Drag Race is the cultural touchstone of Aural Fixation. We're hard-pressed to find an episode of the podcast that doesn't in some way reference the show (Tamar, have you ever watched the show?) or...
Sep 22, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 7Ep. 9
We're in for a treat this fortnight with our first of two very special Drag Race episodes. First up, superstar of RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under, Maxi Shield, regales us with her long and very personal history with... Madonna. Yes, we know, every Aural Fixation episode is essentially about Madonna, but this topic was Maxi's choice and for good reason. Our album of focus is the incomparable Immaculate Collection , but it was her brush with a diamanté banana on the Rebel Heart Tour that will prick ...
Sep 08, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Season 7Ep. 8
April 2020 was a rough time to release new music, but that didn't stop Rina Sawayama from having one of the strongest pop albums of last year. The eponymous Sawayama was an eclectic mash-up of Y2K nostalgia, paying homage to early 2000's manufactured pop, nu-metal and R&B. The album went on to feature on several best of lists, and Sawayama herself made history after criticising major British music awards such as the Mercury Prize and the BRITs who deemed her illegible to be nominated as a Br...
Aug 25, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 7Ep. 7
A mere 18 years old and mother of a three week old baby when her debut album, The Lion and the Cobra , was released, Sinéad O’Connor shot to stratospheric success off of her haunting vocals, powerful songwriting and give-no-fucks visuals. In this episode, we use Sinéad's blistering debut as a starting point for an exploration of her distilled queerness, her massive appeal to queer listeners, and exactly why is she so... very... O'Conic? We also touch on the Prince Thing, the Pope Thing, and the ...
Aug 11, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 7Ep. 6
When it comes to sweeping romance, earnest lyrics and – let's face it, songs that last six minutes MINIMUM – there really is no topping Ms. Céline Marie Claudette Dion. From humble beginnings in Charlemagne, Quebec (which is queer) to becoming the best-selling Canadian recording artist in history, Queen Céline has dominated the music industry for over three decades. In 1996, her star was in full ascendence when she unleashed Falling Into You on the unsuspecting masses. Playing host to career-def...
Jul 28, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Season 7Ep. 5
This fortnight, we're joined by Jared Richards, a cultural critic living on Gadigal land, and writer for NME , The Guardian , The Big Issue , Sissy Screens and more. Last year, Jared wrote a beautiful article on the evolution of Sufjan Stevens that caught our queer eye, so we welcomed him into the studio (pre-second Sydney lockdown) to unpack the mystery and intrigue surrounding a long-awaited Aural Fixation topic. We talk grief and catharsis (or lack there of), Lady Gaga's aunt, and the romance...
Jul 15, 2021•59 min•Season 7Ep. 4
It's a Bad Queers double dip as we welcome on Kris Chesson, the podcasting partner of Shana Sumers from our Beyonce episode , to explore why her queer icon is... Drake. Just hold on, we're going homo. In this episode we use Drake's 2011 album Take Care to centre a discussion on the dos and don'ts of 'dirty macking', what it means to be a stud, and why his disdain for toxic masculinity is just one of the things that make Drake queer. We also close off Pride Month with a deep dive into the minefie...
Jun 30, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Start spreading the news because this is one for the ages, Mein Herr. In an ep that might as well be titled "Legends on Legends" we welcome Australian stage actor and drag superstar Trevor Ashley to tackle Liza Minnelli's groundbreaking Live from Radio City Music Hall album. The show was directed for television in 1992, around the time of Liza's third divorce, and features a concoction of her hits and jukebox standards, as well as original compositions by long-term collaborators Kander and Ebb. ...
Jun 16, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 7Ep. 2
No matter what hemisphere you’re in, a solstice is upon us. And what better way to ring it in than with a heart-to-rabbit heart on British pop music’s sacred moon child, Florence Welch (and, of course, her Machine). In Cycle 7’s premiere episode, Andy and Drew are accompanied by Sydney drag monarch Peach Fuzz (aka Anthony Severino) to tackle the band’s debut offering Lungs . From the celestial rapture of "Cosmic Love" to the vigorous uproar of "Kiss With a Fist", the trio share their elemental e...
Jun 02, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Icons are a dime a dozen here at Aural Fixation (that's what we do... it's what we live for) but heroes are a different kettle of sea-witch – and they don't get more queer-oic than Howard Ashman. For better and for worse, the animated motion pictures produced by the Walt Disney Animation Studios have profoundly shaped the media consumed by children since 1928. Like any entertainment behemoth, quality and fortune has ebbed and flowed, but it was the sheer and singular talent of one queer man that...
May 20, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Season 6Ep. 9
Over the past six cycles of Aural Fixation, we have discussed many artists who have either eluded to their queerness without directly acknowledging it, or generated a vast queer fanbase without actually being qard qarrrying queers themselves. However sometimes there are artists that we deeply revere who just so happen to be out and proud, which makes our hearts burst because it means that we can fast track them straight to the front of the queue. Enter stage left, Kelela whose debut album Take M...
May 05, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 6Ep. 8
There's a lot to cover off when it comes to Tori Amos when it's just Tori Amos – but when your guest star is a former TV producer, current radio DJ and the singular driving force behind the bid to save Sydney's nightlife scene, we somehow filled 90 minutes of your precious time! Fear not, we've made it worth your while. Tyson Koh joins the Aural Fixation-ers to discuss the myriad of mysteries and treats on Tori's 1996 critical masterpiece Boys for Pele, including Courtney Love, Janice Dickinson ...
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Season 6Ep. 7
Perfume Genius has long been synonymous with gay angst but in his fifth and most recent album Set My Heart On Fire IMMEDIATELY , he takes steps towards acceptance. The album's opener "Whole Life" speaks to a reckoning of self that seems to have taken half a lifetime and sets the stage for the personal examination of a gay man approaching middle age. Recorded and released just before the onslaught of the pandemic, PG followed up SMHOFI with companion album IMMEDIATELY Remixes in March 2021 – argu...
Apr 07, 2021•59 min•Season 6Ep. 6
Techno-instrument inventor, West End composer and globally-renowned baby soother Imogen Heap has come a long way since her groundbreaking 2005 release Speak for Yourself , but we reckon it remains her queerest piece of work and we're about to tell you why. Tales of Ariana Grande's latent veganism, keeping TERFs out of Hogwarts and the most airtime Jason Derulo will ever get on Aural Fixation are just some of the delights that await you in this queersploration. Where are we, and what the hell is ...
Mar 24, 2021•57 min•Season 6Ep. 5
"Forget being cool, I'm going to be honest," states a defiant Beyoncé in her 2013 documentary Life is But a Dream . "I'm going to be sad, I'm going to be passionate, I'm going to be vulnerable. And I'm going to sing from my heart." It was with this mindset that Bey embarked on her fourth solo album, 4 . Fresh from a pretty public separation from her father's management, Bey was determined to prove that she could run things in accordance with her own agenda. The outcome was a reflective and trium...
Mar 10, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Lesbian Jesus has been done arisen, and sign us up for her flock – this fortnight’s episode of Aural Fixation explores the 2018 debut album Expectations , by Hayley Kiyoko. Nickelodeon child star to empowered music video director, Hayley knows who is she and serves as a beacon for queer, but especially, female young fans. Does the material live up to our Expectations, and is Hayley more k.d. or Katy? Visit our online home at auralfixationpodcast.com , follow us on Instagram and Twitter , or go o...
Feb 24, 2021•56 min•Season 6Ep. 3
