It’s easy to see why the Triple J faithful dig Zan Rowe. Unpretentious and full of beans, Rowe comes across as that happy-go-lucky friend always up for a chat. “I would hope the Zan I present on radio is pretty much the Zan
I am in real life,’’ she says. “Triple J listeners can call bullshit pretty easily on presenters when they’re putting on a voice or a personality.”
We’re sitting in the lounge room of Rowe’s childhood home in Essendon as she begins to tell her tale of the rise from obscurity to radio queen.
Rowe grew up wanting to be a journalist but had always loved music. She recalls fond memories of her dad taking the whole family to Midnight Oil and U2 tours in the late ’80s, her first concerts. Perhaps more telling is Rowe’s brush with a quiz segment on former radio comedy show Danger: Low Brow when she was 13.
“I listened to them religiously,’’ she says of the 3RRR show. “They thought I was really charming because I was very naive and I didn’t know what I was talking about,” she says.
The moment is tucked away in the treasure chest of childhood novelties but it did win her an album from an American indie band, called They Might Be Giants, that changed her life.
“It was probably right at the point that I started high school and that was the gate that opened into a whole other world.’’
Rowe completed her schooling at Strathmore High with flying colours and a year later began a bachelor of arts (radio and cinema) at RMIT University in Melbourne’s CBD.
It was there she stumbled into radio while watching a friend broadcast a show on SYN FM. Before long she was a guest on the show and then started doing her own thing.
“It was a complete accident. But I sort of think about the things I was passionate about and it makes sense. I’ve always loved communicating. I used to do drama when I was younger,” she says.
Rowe moved on to Melbourne’s 3RRR, starting with graveyard shifts and graduating to the Monday drive-time slot.
“I’d spend eight to 10 hours on Sunday planning out the whole thing, literally playing all the songs at home and seeing how they flowed from one song to the next, stupidly thinking that everyone listens to three hours like I do.”
Rowe’s world would forever change when Triple J came knocking in 2005. Today she recalls mulling over the job offer that left her “gobsmacked’’. “It was a hard decision,’’ she says. “Triple R and community radio had pretty much been my whole beginning point. It was like leaving a family.’’
Rowe started her full-time gig on radio working weekends and producing content for shows such as Home & Hosed. Her big break came when she was given the sought-after morning slot in 2007. These days Mornings with Zan from 9am-noon is a staple for thousands of listeners around the nation.
“It took a while to win their trust because people are a bit resistant to change and a new voice,’’ she says of her audience. “It took me a couple of years.
“When I got their trust, it was an amazing feeling. I had that family in Melbourne with Triple R and now I had this family all over the country of people who were as excited about what I was discovering
as I was and willing to go with me on the ride.’’
This is Rowe’s true passion: discovering new music. Since her mid-20s, her hunt has revolved around an annual pilgrimage to the South by Southwest festival in Texas. It has always proved fruitful, with Rowe reeling off interviews with the likes of Jack White, Bon Iver and Vampire Weekend.
“They have about 2000 bands that play many venues across five days and nights. It’s where bands go to be noticed, whether it’s established bands or new bands,’’ Rowe says. “From a music fan’s perspective, it’s a great way to see a whole bunch of music en masse and get a sense of what’s going to break in the next six to 12 months.”
Rowe predicts the next wave of music will centre around a throwback to the ’80s and slow dance music. “The sort of things we’re getting excited about now, commercial radio will be getting excited about in eight months,’’ she says.
Behind the mic, Rowe is cool as a cucumber, except when those Almost Famous moments bob up, like meeting Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne. “He’s an artist who I have idolised since I was a teenager. The first time I interviewed him I thought I was going to vomit when I saw him walking down the hallway.” Ditto with Tom Waits. “He was someone I fell in love with when I was 15. Tom Waits hadn’t toured Australia since 1978 so with him I spoke over Skype. I had his Skype name, which was weird, I’m Skyping Tom Waits. And I could hear him coming into the room after we’d connected. I could hear him sitting down and grumbling and stuff. I was sitting in this little booth looking at my friend who is a producer and just freaking out. I couldn’t believe he was there.”
Rowe says the trick to a good interview is just being yourself. “I always remind myself that they’re just human. If you ask people smart questions then they’re gonna give you good answers. If you blubber and talk to them about how amazing they are, then they’re gonna feel really awkward,’’ she says.
Rowe confesses to music consuming her life and laments finding little time for outside interests. “I wish I had more. I’ve done a couple of language courses because
I wanted to do other things. I’m really interested in politics and I’m a bit of a news junkie. The other things are really just what everyone else does, like travel or reading books. I love going away on weekends and going on adventures. But I don’t do taekwondo or anything like that. I probably should.’’
She has a few things to take her mind off her job – like the dodgeball team Dodger Federer, which she captained and which won a championship. Or the recent Bill Murray trivia night she hosted in Sydney. “They’d chewed up all the good ones like Breaking Bad trivia and The Wire so I thought I’d do Bill Murray. It was really fun and there’s a lot of trivia you can ask about his life. His life is so believable and unbelievable, as you could imagine. True or False was the funniest bit.’’
An example? “True or false, Bill Murray dated Sigourney Weaver? That was false. True or false, Bill Murray owns several small sporting teams? It’s true. He owns a number of minor league baseball teams. He also owns a golf-themed restaurant called Murray Bros Caddyshack Restaurant.’’
Back on music, Rowe says she still wakes up excited to go to work every day, and gets a huge buzz from being on air.
“We run on the smell of an oily rag at the ABC and they do some incredible things,’’ she says. “Right now it feels like everything just keeps going up and up a notch.’’
