FIRST LISTEN: Harry Vanda Discusses 'Friday On My Mind', 'Love Is In The Air' On New Podcast, 'Devil Loose'

Harry Vanda is offering some new treats to fans of Australian rock and roll this month, with the first single to be released under his own name and a new podcast featuring exclusive interviews set to launch next week.

In an exclusive for The Music, Vanda – of The Easybeats, Vanda & Young, and Albert Productions fame – has shared teasers of two episodes of his podcast, Devil Loose: The Life and Music of Harry Vanda, where he explores the Easybeats hit, Friday On My Mind, and co-writing John Paul Young’s Love Is In The Air.

Devil Loose is also the name of Vanda’s new single, the first to be released under his own name, which will be released on the same day as the podcast’s first episode air date (Monday, 29 September).

The podcast is a three-part series featuring exclusive interviews with guest contributors, including John Paul Young, Phil Jamieson, Colin Hay, Tim Rogers, and others.

The release of the podcast also marks the first time that Vanda has talked about George Young since his passing in 2017. Meanwhile, Vanda is set to discuss the Vanda & Young studio project, Flash & The Pan.

Check out snippets of the podcast about Friday On My Mind and Love Is In The Air below.

For the podcast, Vanda candidly discusses his life and musical career with music journalist Bernard Zuel, who said of his interviewee: “Harry Vanda isn’t just part of Australian music, Harry Vanda is one big reason why we have Australian music.”

Of the forthcoming single, Devil Loose, Vanda explained, “I wrote Devil Loose a while ago while watching the state of world affairs. I had a feeling things are not what they should be, and Devil Loose became like a social commentary.

“Things haven’t changed much in the world, so it’s like I could have written it yesterday. I didn’t set out to write it that way, but the lyrics just came together. After the riff came, it seemed to just write itself.”

Zuel added, “Devil Loose isn’t afraid to look at the world critically. But what is fascinating is that the world Harry is describing in the song, the ‘madness verging on collapse’ nature of things, the world that looks so familiar to us all after a couple of years of Covid, was the world he was looking at before Covid. He knew it was coming people, old soothsayer Harry Vanda.”