Dami Im - MASKED SINGER - Singer / Song-writer

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week. They might welcome back guys to TV Reload. As you may know, my name is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast to get all the inside goss on the popular TV shows that you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our TV sets a major part of our home entertainment, and yet very little is known about how our favorite shows

I'm good? Thank you? How are you?

I'm very good. You know. I used to work in breakfast radio, so I think it was when Sony was looking after you. We used to do a lot of chats with you and I always had so much fun, Like you've just got aside to you that I don't think everyone in Australia always gets to see.

Oh thank you, that's so nice.

So congratulations on winning The Mast Singer season five. That is a huge achievement with the voices that we're in that competition.

Thank you.

Do you think that you won because you did the best job at disguising your voice as Snowfox?

No, definitely not. I didn't try to disguise my voice at all.

I just sang whatever I normally see, and we didn't know who.

Anyone else was. We could only guess.

And I didn't get to hear Darren Hayes or Conrad Zell sing their last performances, so you know, none of us really had an idea who was going to win.

We just sang our songs and that's all we could do.

They didn't allow us to even watch the others. Yeah, it was a nice surprise, so you never got.

To see Grim Reaper or Bounce the sing.

Only when we were doing our group songs, which is like a tiny snippet. So I did have an idea, like I guess, but no one ever confirmed or denied my guess was And we never got to sit next to each other like they wouldn't allow any contact with the other contestants.

So we found out on TV like everybody else.

That's crazy. But I mean, when you did those group performances, as soon as I heard Conrad Sell, as soon as I heard Darren Hayes's voice, I picked them straight away. So did you have a guess did you think it might have been those boys?

I knew Conrad's voice straight away because I've known him for a long time. I didn't guess starn Hayes until kind of the last couple of weeks I sort of went, oh, yeah, yeah.

I think that's who that might be.

I had to look him up, and I just knew he was very popular. That's because I couldn't hear him sing that much, but I heard the audience applaud loudly.

And for a long time, and I was like, Okay, that guy is good. He must be a singer. And that's as far as I knew.

So did you get the chance to talk to either of the boys after the show? So once you've taken your masks off and did you didn't even get a chance to swap notes?

Not at all.

So once our mask threw off, we were by ourselves and they played like loud music outside so nobody could hear each other or anything like that.

Who made the most ridiculous guests? Because I think you were the hardest person to guest this season. But you know you've got Chrissy, mail Abby and Hughesy and all of them guessed some very crazy things. Yeah, who were those judges? Did you think maybe the craziest guests?

My favorite, yes, was when Hughesy said, is Aretha Franklin alive?

He is not?

That was pretty awesome, you know, Jesse j I mean, can't complain. That's pretty cool. Yeah.

And then you know Tina Arena, she's awesome. Delta, you know, yeah, it's.

A good company to be in. Dewy, Yeah, I was.

Like, yeah, come on, throw out more amazing names please.

A really good question to ask you at this point is what was your favorite song? You know, some people come on the show and then they get to do one maybe two. You got to sing like a whole album worth of snow Fox songs. I want to yeah, which was your favorite?

My favorite was Joni Mitchell song Both Sides Now. I really enjoyed singing that song, and you know the arrangement that Dorian West put together, and you know, with Gary Pinto and I we worked on this and it just came out so beautifully and I just loved doing that song. So I might steal that for my next show.

Well, yeah, you've made comment about singing covers before, and you know, you do an amazing job at putting your own arrangements in with other people's songs. What are you thinking? Do you think that with your next album, you would be able to include some covers like that Joni Mitchell song or.

Yeah, so my last album that came out this year just before Mark Singer, we filmed it.

Actually it's called in Between.

It was all original, all about my experience, and you know, I wrote all the songs on that. But the next album I am actually releasing, funny enough on an album next week, and it's a Christmas album, so that is a lot of different covers and Christmas classic and includes an original song called Baby's First Christmas Day, which is you know, definitely about my experience with my new baby.

But you know, I actually have been.

Thinking about including maybe it could be a cover from this year onto the next album or an EP, and I thought it'd be nice to maybe not a full album of covers like the old days, but it could be you know, it could be nice to have like one cover in there, you know, just a nice touch to just I don't know, like an classic songs is always a classic for a reason, right, and it's a masterpiece that one. So I'm thinking about it.

You've been working with studios for so long now, has it changed the way in which we're making music? In two thousand and three to when you first started, Like, what are the biggest changes about being an artist and working with companies today?

A lot I've actually changed, for sure since I first started to record, and you know, when I was I suppose off X Factor, which was ten years ago, and the whole world has changed a lot, and it's evolving so quickly and so now, and through COVID as well, everyone's changed. A lot of people work remotely, and I'm really loving that because I can work with musicians and songwriters from all over the world. There's less restrictions around geography.

It's great that I can do that.

Yeah, isn't that strange as well? Like you don't even get to meet these people, like a lot of people you're collaborating with, and you're such a personal experience and to get music out, you know, is like a process. The facts in the room with them must feel strange at times, I guess.

Yeah, definitely, But you know it helps if you have worked with them in person before. You know, if you've never ever met them and you were trying to make a record with a stranger, I suppose that.

That could be.

I don't know if I could do that or get the same result out of that. But you know, with the Christmas record, I got to do the record with Rick Price and those musicians in Nashville, and I actually know them and we you know, we had a good laugh about it and talking about the memories we had last time free COVID and so doing it remotely with people that you actually trust to know and love. I think that's the key that there's still that personal connection.

A song, and I'll sing it.

You know.

The Sound of Silence is one of my favorite songs of all time. And I just want to tell you that after a couple of drinks, if there's a karaoke bar, that is my go to song. And I love that I cannot sing it. I cannot sing it, but I just love I can imagine what that song means to me. Like, I just think that's so powerful. It surprises me still to this day that you just didn't take out that whole Eurovision competition.

Thank you. I love that. I love that you're singing it at karaoke. It's yeah.

When I still sing it, everybody sings along, and it's.

Just it's something very beautiful and very magical about the lyrics and about the way in which that song is delivered. I feel like it's it's kind of like the John Farna and You're the Voice song. Like that's powerful, empowering songs, you know.

Yeah, And I think, yeah, that's a big power ballads always going to be a winner. In most situations, everyone just sings long and they just you know, have their phones up in the air, and yeah, so it's definitely as a singable.

Song, definitely, And you know, there's always so much consideration about who is going to go to Eurovision. You know, which Ozzie's going to go and represent us next. Do you have an idea as to who you think could go and represent Australia in the next Eurovision, To.

Be honest, no, I don't know either, Anna, and I'm always looking at you know, what's happening and trying to get the latest news update. But I think from what I know, it's very up in the air, and you know, whether Australia is going to be even competing next year, which would.

Be such a shame because it's I love that we're in it.

It's such a fun celebration and you know, culturally it's amazing, Like the Eurovision fans that I met through twenty sixteen, they're still like, I feel like I'm still part of that community, and so I hope that we continue to be a part of it next year.

I think community is so important, and I think you know, when you do tap into a community like that which then allows you that kind of access, especially like on a global platform, it's just so powerful. And I think music artists need those platforms, you know, I think it's vital.

Definitely being in Australia is awesome, but I think sometimes, you know, it's necessary to branch out and reach out globally, and Eurovision is definitely one of those platforms that I got to meet a lot of fans overseas and yeah, I really do you know, cherish those fans that are said on board and yeah, it's just so amazing to you know, have people that appreciate my music outside of this country.

Well, of course, you know, there's something about your voice at times that I'm sure people have said this to you before, but I hear nodes of Delta goudroom. There's really Yeah, does that because you've listened to a lot of Delta as is she an artist that you you know, admired. I wondered where that sound at times comes from, because all of a sudden, it'll just be like a particular note and you go, that sounds like Delta.

I do admire her hugely. She's incredible.

I did go to her twentieth anniversary show the other night I'm in Brisbane.

That was a you know, not.

Long ago, and she's just incredible for having such a long career and such loyal fans and the following, So I definitely do, you know, admire what she does. And you know, I'm not sure, you know, I didn't grow up necessarily listening to her because I you know, came from when I was a young age. Maybe I was like trying to get used to what's what's happening in Australia. So but I know she was such an you know, iconic artist from twenty years ago and she's still going so strong.

So yeah, that that's a big compliment.

You know, also as well, I was looking today because today is like a celebration of dummy IM day for me. I read about this this moment. Were you nearly walked away from music? What is your relationship with being an artist in twenty twenty three? Are you glad that you didn't walk away from singing?

Look, it's it's I love music.

Music is always something that's been around me and I've been surrounded with since I was a baby. You know, my mom has been in music, and you know, I could never live away from music.

But there were really difficult.

Times in my career when I was you know, signed to my previous label and you know that the whole there was a big story that came out a few years ago, and you know, I spoke probably only one of the very very few artists that spoke up about the issues that were happening in there.

And you know, those were really really tough years for me.

And yeah, for me to even think about quitting music, that's that's a huge deal because I don't ever want to do that, but it was even that difficult. I Yeah, at one point, I think I wasn't going to quit, but I said I'd rather go home and sing sing at my church for twenty people rather than recording albums that I didn't get to have a say or get pressured into doing things. You know, I just felt very

Because not everybody came through the other side.

You know, what about being a mom hasn't as being a mom now helped you feel more inspired about music.

I think being a parent definitely makes you appreciate your work a lot more. You have to maximize the time that you are allowed to you know, you can like every moment you spend on something like on your work is time that you could be spending with your baby. So I definitely try to make the most of it. And I know that it's worth it and it's good for me and my family and for Harrison as well,

You're like a superhuman, like you're a superhero that you have this other life. You know that is so powerful and so powerful the way that you can reach and touch people. Think think that that would be so impressive for him when he grows up to see how much you've made an impact on music here in Australia. I think that that's going to be really exciting to watch.

Yeah, definitely, and you know, as a person with you know, from a different background and immigrant, and you know, also as a woman, as a mother, I feel like I'm not just doing it for myself.

It gives me a bit of responsibility. I feel to just do my job well.

Because other women, other moms feel really encouraged by that, and other people from different backgrounds, Asian backgrounds that I hear a lot of people come up to me and tell me that that. You know, it's inspiring and gives them courage to continue to do their jobs and follow their dreams. So I feel like that's something that I'm proud of.

You should be, You should be, you know. I also read a comment today that this person had put on TV Tonight's website that you're the last true star to come out of a televised singing competition in Australia. Why, yeah, it's so you know, why do you think it's so hard to merged from under the pressure of winning a reality TV show to becoming a successful music artist.

You know, I have thought about that, and I mean, I'm really lucky because when I was on XCER, TV was a big thing, like everybody watched, everybody tuned in a lot of people tuned in back then, something like one third of the country. Watched the final and I had that platform, but it's not like that anymore that you know, there's a lot more again, it's a lot more fragmented.

That's yeah, that's the word fragmented.

And that's why, you know, I know that I'm like one of the last to be you know, emerging from a platform TV platform and like a household names you like and so I don't know like and and even so it's I think it was I wasn't expecting to, you know, have this kind of level of career when I.

Won that show.

I honestly thought I was going to be doing this for maybe two or three years and then I'd go back home and you know, do my local gigs and things like that.

Not at all pop. I mean, people love you, you know. I think it's amazing, like you're one of our biggest music artists in this country, like with people have really come on a journey with you, and I think that you're very beloved by people. And it's true when you read those comments about it, you think, well, who else is coming out from underneath these shows? When we've got two big singing shows in Australia at the moment with

Well, I think for me, you know, there's still so much great talent coming out of Australia, right like, I see it so much, but it's just a lot more fragmented in the way that they get found. So I guess these days it's finding your people. I think that's the most important thing, finding your fans, your community and just really focusing on that.

I think that's the way to go. And that's even for me.

That's what I try and do rather than you know, just I mean, I do big, fun, crazy national TV shows like this once in a while, but other times, for the rest of the time, I'm focusing.

On my fans, the Dami Army, and I'm making.

Music for them and putting on shows for my people rather than just everybody. Which, yeah, if you make music for everybody, it's kind of making it for nobody. You know, You've got to focus on your your market and your your family, your your fans.

So that's the most realistic advice from me.

Yeah, I think as well, like back in the day, people are like you have to have like a record company sign you, or you'd have to have an album

Yeah, Yeah, there's so many different ways, and I think in a way it's an exciting time for musicians because you can be found, you can find your fans through those different platforms and not have to wait for somebody to discover.

You somewhere exactly right. Yeah, I think it's definitely changed the landscape of that industry. Well, I just want to say thank you so much for being able to chat. And I'm so excited that you won this competition. I think it's great and you beat Darren Hayes, which you know that's an oh, well, that's an achievement girl in itself.

So Chrissy, you.

Know, we were on Master Chef together, and she's just such a lovely, funny person, right and I've known her winning X Factor, like, I've spoke, like seen her on radio back then, and so then you know we have this history and to see her but she her not seeing me obviously until right at the end was really crazy. And I I love hearing her voice and her guesses every week. She was very generous and lovely and just

Had you ever seen, I guess while making Master Chef though you wouldn't have been singing, So I guess Chrissy may not have ever seen you sing live before, though, had she No?

I don't think so.

Yeah, so yeah, she she got you know, she saw me singing on Master Chef, like, but not you know, while cooking while making a peacecap.

Quite different.

I do a lot of singing. I'll do a lot of my best kitchen singing, you know, while I'm cooking, So yeah, dummy. I just don't want to say thank you so much for your generosity with your time and talking to me to thank you.

Thanks, oh, your first feet.

I'm in the army, beautiful. Thanks.

He takes a lot. I