Forever Young: The Push

Youth music organisation The Push has provided young people with access to contemporary music programs and events for more than 30 years. Their work is guided by their purpose of giving every young person the opportunity to participate and thrive in Australian music. The not-for-profit organisation has engaged more than 4 million young people and program alumni include Courtney Barnett, Alex Lahey, Alice Ivy, and Angie McMahon.

Arts Centre Melbourne and The Push have worked together over a number of years on programming for young people, including Music Industry Masterclasses, and a monthly series of live music gigs, New Slang, which gave young people opportunities to create new works and develop transferable skills for sustainable careers.

Now, the Australian Music Vault and The Push have collaborated to release a new interview mini-series, Forever Young. This series reveals the positive impacts, and life-changing moments, enabled by access to all-ages live music, for musicians, artists, music practitioners and gig-goers throughout their careers, relationships and lives.

The 3-part mini-series features some recognisable faces from The Push’s past and present, including Paul Dempsey, Susan Forrester, Nathan Gunn, Lachie Brown and Elias Hodson (Good Sniff), Shane Wickens and Sara Glaidous. It shows the authentic effect that providing opportunity for young people to find their community, identity, passions and voice can have during the most formative years of their lives.

Episode 1: A Community

This episode features interviews with Paul Dempsey (Something For Kate) and Elias Hodson and Lachie Brown (Good Sniff), who reflect on their first underage gigs with The Push, and the friendships that came from those experiences, the sense of community that comes with playing to all-ages crowds, and the impact of providing performance opportunities to young bands.

Episode 2: A Voice

This episode features interviews with Susan Forrester (Artistic Director, 1995 – 2001) and Nathan Gunn (Communications Officer, 2020 – 2021). They discuss the role that The Push played in their lives, and the importance of being able to find community and follow passions at a young age.

Episode 3: A Start

This episode features interviews with Sara Glaidous, (Chairperson, Youth Advisory Committee, 2017 – 2018) and Shane Wickens (Artistic Director, 2003 – 2015). This episode reflects on the skills and professional experiences gained while working with The Push and the impact it can have on your life, opening up career pathways in the music industry.