Tony McMahon, Journalist

“I grew up in the ghetto where there were drugs, gangs and violence happening every day. I had to witness many things I wish I never saw."

“I really want to see The Beards, actually. I hope we’re not playing at the same time."

“I like a big band. I just enjoy the whole thing, you know, even though small bands are easy to take around on a tour. One reason I don’t play a lot is that it’s expensive to get a ten-piece band out on the road."

“Most bands don’t get to this point of being able to play something 35 or 38 years after they first made it. Playing these songs again, of course you end up thinking about why you did you do this stuff?"

“I’m definitely going to be seeing Metallica. You know, some cities you just fly in and fly out and you don’t get a chance to see anything. But as a guy who grew up in the ‘90s, seeing Metallica is something I have to do."

“What I’m really looking forward to is getting that response from the people there as soon as it happens. When you play live-to-air you don’t know if anyone’s listening, and this is going to be quite different."

"It would have felt really dishonest to just try and recreate that album because we’ve grown so much as a band and, you know, we just wanted to push ourselves to do something new and interesting."

“Maybe we’ll fly to some exotic island somewhere and set up a hut and drink cocktails and make a new record.”

“Before the technology existed that allowed me to do all this mixing with video, I was always using audio samples from movies in my audio mix: throwing in little quotes from Star Wars or Scarface or whatever."

Tony McMahon is predicting a big year ahead for Indigenous hip hop. For now, here's his 2012 picks.

“We still go whole hog, like we used to, but gone is a lot of the affectation, the fears, the deadly seriousness and all the self-importance of youth."

“I must admit my repertoire is somewhat limited by my abominable guitar playing. I play guitar like a drummer. Pretty much just bang my fists against the thing and hope for the best.”