Biography
The Bedroom Philosopher is an Australian song & dance man whose last album Songs From The 86 Tram, spawned the hipster Khe Sanh ‘Northcote (So Hungover).’ The sharehousehold name (Born in Tasmania, raised in captivity), has been described by Mess & Noise as “The Gen-Y commentator it’s okay to like.” The BP is famed for his mad-cap, gut-busting live shows, described by a press release as “a life-changingly memorable experience and cause for major concern.”
The Bedroom Philosopher has released three records including the multi award-winning Songs From The 86 Tram. This concept album showcased The BP’s ability to impersonate a huge range of suburban characters with depth and empathy, backing them with lively, genre-hopping soundtracks – Chris Lilley meets Beck. It was based on the live show which earned two awards including Director’s Choice at Melbourne Comedy Festival and the Green Room award for Best Production.
The iconic music video for ‘Northcote (So Hungover)’ was a cross-over hit, scoring high rotation on JJJ and 350K YouTube views. Featuring cameos by rock royalty Tim Rogers, Kram and Angie Hart, and directed by Craig Melville, it earned several awards for best music video including the Australian Director Guild and Australian Cinematographers Society. ‘Northcote’ was video of the week on Rage and Channel V and has won two US film festival awards.
The Bedroom Philosopher has appeared on Spicks & Specks, Gordon St Tonight, Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala & most importantly, Rage. He’s performed weird side-stages at the Big Day Out, Falls Festival, Woodford & Queenscliffe. He has supported The Dresden Dolls, Dan Kelly, Tripod, Tim Minchin, Flacco, The DC3 & Peter Combe. He performs with his hipster-slaying backing band The Awkwardstra.
As Justin Heazlewood, he was a senior writer for Frankie for five years. He has also written for The Big Issue, Mess & Noise & Zoo Weekly (Melbourne Zoo’s bi-annual gazette). As a wordsmith, Justin has a reputation for mixing psychedelic wit with bittersweet pathos. In his time at Frankie he tackled everything from male virginity to mental illness. Being a precocious only-child, he is inspired by Dave Eggers ‘Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius’ and prescribes to the “more is more is more” school of cathartic writing.
In 2012 he released his first book, The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries through Affirm. earning praise from Neil Gaiman, saying “It was what all the great rock and roll touring books would have been like, if the people who wrote them had been honest to the point of embarrassment.” In 2009 he created Triple R’s sketch comedy show Lime Champions and played a young John Safran on Race Relations.
The Bedroom Philosopher is currently working on his fourth album, produced by SPOD and writing a book about being an artist in Australia.
Find him on Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud, Wikipedia & The Advocate.
For bookings go to the Contact page.
“He is so hip, he’s absolutely not hip at all.” Amanda Palmer.
“The Bedroom Philosopher’s band show was one of the best things I saw at Port Fairy 2013. My colleague had tears streaming down her face and I honked like a seal with an airless laugh-gasp that neither of us could conceal. The performance was equally as funny as it was clever, and with the addition of his excellent band compadres, showed Heazlewood’s ever-evolving maturity as an artist and musician.”
Mandi McIntyre, Program Manager – Woodford Folk Festival.
“One of the few artists making a genuine attempt to explore the oddness of our age.”
Helen Razer, The Age.
“I’m impressed that this guy’s still around and relevant. I met him at a show a few years ago and we traded CDs, nice guy, sort of a genius.”
Art Rush, on Facebook.
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