“Do I make you horny, baby?” Austin Powers asked in Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery.

On a new podcast, Meg Washington and Ben Lee have asked: Where have all the horny Aussie artists gone?

“The other night, you said to me no one is horny in Australian music,” Ben Lee opened his conversation with Meg Washington on the Weirder Together podcast, which he shares with his wife Ione Skye.

“There is a distinct lack of sexual energy,” Washington replied.

Why? Well, Washington believes it’s due to “the monopoly which triple j, as a youth radio station, sort of held for such a long time; I think there was like an unconscious juvenilisation of the culture.

“Everybody sort of wanted to appear as youthful as possible, and somehow, like, horniness feels mature,” she adds. “Pleasure is like a measure of freedom, you’re not really free unless you’re enjoying yourself.” 

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In a revealing chat, the two Aussie artists also addressed the ARIA Awards and Ben Lee’s recent call for triple j’s Hottest 100 to be all-Australian.

“We were chatting about the ARIA Awards,” Ben Lee noted, “and about the collapsing of the Best Female and Best Male [awards] into just, what is it, Best Artist … How do you see that working?”

Washington explained that “in the four years since it’s been changed … it’s been won by a dude four times”.

The Kid LAROI won in 2021, followed by Baker Boy, and Troye Sivan who has taken the title in the past two years.

“That just doesn’t seem like progress to me,” Washington continued.

“It’s an institutional problem with how many female artists are getting radio play,” Lee believes. “It’s the same with the triple j Hottest 100 conversation: Are there enough Australian artists? Well, obviously no, but that’s reflective of the amount of Australian artists that radio’s getting behind anyway.”

Washington – who has just released her fifth studio album, GEM – spoke about radio in France. “They’re very intense about the radio quota because they know that if you don’t play French artists to French people, they’ll listen to other artists and the culture will suffer.

“It’s just time for a big old shake-up,” she argued.

Lee asked his guest: “What do you think about my idea that triple j should just play Australian music?”

“I loved that idea! I also had the idea that they should invert Double J and triple j; put Double J on the radio, and triple j be a digital station for all the young people on the internet, and let Double J be a radio station, because they mostly play Australian acts.”

Lee also called for a shake-up in how triple j and other radio stations are programmed, saying they should be more like community radio, where the announcers have the power. 

“I also think a culture of DJs actually being empowered to play music they like … DJs that have skin in the game and have the freedom to platform artists that they care about,” he explained.

Washington concluded: “That’s what feels like someone’s in the room with you, like your big brother showing you cool music.”

The Washington-Lee chat inspired a rush of comments. 

Melbourne-based artist Merpire, who recently released her second album MILK POOL, agreed with the Double J love, saying: “Yess!! @doublejradio championed my ‘horniest songs yet’ on my recent album.”

Rob Mills posted: “Give the DJs the power.”

And Melbourne soul queen Kylie Auldist added, “The easy answer is to listen to community radio. They are all the cool older and younger siblings showing you what they love.”