Listen to the full interview here
Welcome to Coffee with a Coastie. We had the great pleasure of going into their Gosford studio to chat with the wonderful Maz and Matty from Central Coast’s Hit101.3 Breakfast Show.
Maz & Matty – Having known each other for 20yrs, What were your initial thoughts when you found out you’d be working together?
Maz – I’ve always wanted to do a brekky show with Matt. It may sound a bit weird, but we met in radio when we were cutting our teeth as junior producers with no idea how radio worked. And I remember 20 years ago we were like, we should do a breakfast radio show together.
Matty – That’s right shooting for the stars (laughter). When Maz called me, it was a no–brainer. She asked would I be interested and if I wanted to throw my hat in the ring? And I was like, Oh, just gimme a sec, Hell Yeah, absolutely. To come full circle and be in this environment with Maz doing brekky radio is great.
Matty – You’ve had an eclectic career from pastry chef to producing radio shows, TV presenting, to now being back in radio. When you were in high school would you have ever imagined you’d have such an impressive resume?
High school me would be absolutely pinching himself right now. I feel very blessed to have had the life that I have. I knew at high school that I wanted to be a performer of some sort, but I had no idea what it was. I tried to dance, and I couldn’t dance. I tried to do musicals and I couldn’t sing, tried to act, and I was an over actor. I used to listen to the radio a lot as a kid. In the morning with my dad, I’d listen to AM before he went off to work and then I’d switch it over to FM and listen to certain shows that I really enjoyed. But to know that I’m doing
radio now, 15 year old me would be losing his mind.
Maz – Having left radio what was it that drew you back?
After being fired from radio in 2015, it took me a while to get over it. I’d spent so much of my life and career working towards the pinnacle breakfast job in Sydney and then it just all blow up in my face. So I tapped out of radio, opened a gym and went on a whole fitness thing. I studied nutrition and did wellness coaching, quit drinking, wrote a book about it, and moved to the Central Coast. Then after Henry’s first birthday, Jase who was overseeing the Newcastle radio station rang me out of the blue and said he’d heard a rumour that I was living on the Central Coast, and I was like yes I am. He said, well I need someone to do a maternity leave contract for six months. Would I be interested? I said absolutely not. Then I thought about it for a week, and I had an epiphany. I can’t show my son how to grab life by the balls if I’m not going do it. How can I expect my child to say yes to things if I’m not going to? So purely for my son, I rang Jase back and said yes, I will come and do six months. Because I want to be able to say to my kid, Mummy did this thing that was scary, so you can be brave too. Cause I was so scared to come back and I’m still here two years later.
Matty – You regularly called into the Merrick and Rosso show and stalked Maz and the street team to get a job on Nova. What advice would you give to a young radio enthusiast who is trying to break into the industry today?
I think the stalking laws have changed dramatically in the last 20 years. So, you’d probably get arrested for that behaviour now. To think hitting up Maz and Brad on the streets all those years ago and then calling into the radio show and dropping off profiteroles to the station would end up with me getting a gig as a junior producer is just mind blowing. The landscape’s changed a lot from when we were junior producers 20 years ago. But it still comes back to visibility. If you want to be on the radio these days start recording, record stuff, do stuff, put it on socials, get on Instagram, get on TikTok. I got picked up to do Channel Seven’s Sydney Weekender from Instagram videos. So, it’s still visibility. Just get out there and put your work in people’s faces, and don’t be afraid of people saying no.
Maz – Out of all the roles you’ve had and all the people you’ve met, who was the one that took your breath away and why?
It’s really hard to pick one. But when I interviewed Pharrell Williams when I was doing the Dan and Maz show in 2014, which was a really critical year for me. As it was the year I realized that I was a functioning alcoholic and I needed to stop drinking. I did the interview with Pharrell and although I love him as an artist, I wasn’t really expecting it to be much more than here’s your new album and everyone loves your freaking song and blah, blah, blah. But we were having this chat and he said something along the lines of, well you know what it’s like to have a gift. And I don’t know, it just imprinted on me, and I started crying in this interview and he was like, I get it, I see it, and I thought, wow. I probably got all the validation I’d ever wanted in my life from this one person in this one moment who sat with me and held space for me, even though it was about him. So as much as I want to say it was at an MTV after party or whatever. I’ll never forget that moment because I felt seen, and I think everyone just wants to be seen and heard.
Matty – You come across as having been a confident, go–getter from a very early age. How do you instil that level of enthusiasm and boldness into your kids?
My parents were strict growing up. But I look back now and they just gave me every opportunity to do what I wanted to do.
My parents let me sing Christmas carols across the street to raise money for a charity. Knowing very well that I couldn’t sing, and I was in year six, going to high school the next year. When I turned up to the quadrangle in year seven, everyone was calling out, there’s Carol. So I’d probably try and think of another way. But my parents just went, let him go, let him fly and see where he lands. And I think that’s what I’m doing with my kids. Just let them fly and see how they go. Parenting is really tricky because there’s no rule books.
I don’t know what I’m doing to make them be the best they are, but I really hope it’s working, whatever I am doing. I heard a really great analogy of kids the other day. Some are dandelions and some are orchids and so there’s kids that are like dandelions and will grow in a crack, in full sun, not need water, and they will flourish. Then there’s orchids who need a bit more attention. They need to have the right conditions to grow and to flourish. They need to be watered on the right day and you need to look after them. They’re both as important as each other, but you’ve just gotta know how to manage the dandelion and how to manage the orchid.
Maz & Matty – The end of the year is normally a time to wind down but you guys are just starting to ramp up your new show together. What does the Maz and Matty show look like in 2023?
Matty – Hopefully a lot of the same for me personally. We love opening up the phones, having people call in and chat to us.
Maz – The thing that I love about this show and the feedback that Matt and I are getting, is that we are just a reflection of people’s lives and we are not trying to do anything, we’re just genuinely interested in each other, in each other’s family life, in our extracurricular activities and bringing it all to the safe space of radio and people seem to be really loving that magic. And we just wanna keep doing that.
This interview has had to be edited for readability and length. Listen to the full interview here