Justin Heazlewood

The Bedroom Philosopher began in 2002, Heazlewood submitted a three-minute radio piece for the ABC Heywire competition about his passion for folk music, which led to him becoming a regular guest on Triple J's The Morning Show.[2][3] He also filmed two pilot episodes of The Bedroom Philosopher Show for ABC Fly TV, a now defunct digital youth television station.[4] He also secured his first major musical gig, playing support for Bodyjar and The Bumblebeez at Triple J's Unearthed concert later that year.

The Bedroom Philosopher has performed in past years at the Big Day Out,[5] Falls Festival,[6] Melbourne Fringe Festival,[7] Adelaide Fringe Festival,[8] National Folk Festival, Perth International Arts Festival[9] and Melbourne International Comedy Festival. His first three Melbourne Comedy Festival Shows included Living on the Edge of My Bed (2003),[10] In Bed with My Doona (2004), and Pyjamarama (2005). In 2006 he teamed up with Josh Earl to form The Renegades of Folk, performing a Melbourne Comedy Festival show of the same name.[11]

The Bedroom Philosopher's first album, Living on the Edge of My Bed featured tracks which had earlier been played on The Morning Show, and was released in 2003. This unmastered collection was only sold at live shows until it was released digitally in 2022.

In 2005 the Bedroom Philosopher released his first retail and studio album, In Bed with My Doona,[12] produced by his uncle Ken Heazlewood. This release was taken to strongly by Triple J's audience, with the first single "I'm So Post Modern" becoming a high-rotation hit, reaching number 72 in the Hottest 100.[13] The Bedroom Philosopher was the only unsigned artist to make the list in 2005.[14] His self-produced film clip of "I'm So Post Modern" (by Dan Ilic) also featured on the Hottest 100 DVD.[15]

2007 saw the introduction of 'The Awkwardstra', composed of Andy Hazel on bass and Hugh Rabinovici on drums. Late 2008 saw the addition of Jamie Power on percussion and Gordon Blake on sitar.[16] This coincided with the release of second single "Wow Wow's Song (La La La)" which quickly became a YouTube hit,[17] and featured popular comedy trio Tripod featuring as backing vocalists. This was released as a precursor to his second album Brown and Orange.

After performing at Perth International Arts Festival The Bedroom Philosopher completed his second album Brown and Orange with producers Chris Scallan and Martin "Moose" Lubran, released in February 2009.[16] The first single from this was "The Happiest Boy", released in October 2007.[18] The video clip of "The Happiest Boy" was made by David Blumenstein at Nakedfella Productions.[19]

The album was promoted with a national tour.

April 2009 saw The Bedroom Philosopher debuting his show Songs from the 86 Tram in the Melbourne Comedy Festival.[20] He won the Director's Choice award for outstanding show and reprised it in the 2009 Melbourne Fringe Festival. Songs from this show comprise his third album Songs from the 86 Tram, recorded in August and September 2009. The show was nominated for three 2009 Green Room Awards winning for best cabaret production.[21] The show was revised for a sold-out run at the 2010 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Heazlewood appeared as "Re-enactment John" in the ABCTV series John Safran's Race Relations in late 2009.[22]

Songs from the 86 Tram album was presaged by the single "Northcote", released to radio in February 2010. The single peaked at number 12 in the Australian Independent Singles charts and received high rotation on Triple J. The album was released 16 April 2010.

An accompanying Australian national tour to promote the album ran from 12 August until 5 September 2010.

On 28 September 2010 the album was nominated for an ARIA Award for Best Comedy Release.[23]

The music video for song "Northcote (So Hungover)" was created by director Craig Melville and produced by David Curry. The video satirises hipster culture which is currently popular in inner-city Melbourne, with humorous stereotypes and pretension thought to be present in neo-hipsterism. The Bedroom Philosopher has since recorded a version of the song composed entirely of comments made on the film clip's YouTube page.

On 23 September 2010 the clip won the Australian Director Guild award in the music video category.[24] On 20 November 2010 it won a silver Australian Cinematographers Society music video award,[25] Best Independent Production Award at the St Kilda Film Festival[26] and Best Music Video Award at the 15 Minutes of Fame Festival in Florida.[27] The filmclip was also voted in Rage's Top 50 film clips of 2010,[28] and the song in the Triple J Hottest 100 in 2011.[29]

2011 saw the release of the songs "Leaving My Hairdresser" and "Tram Inspector", the film clip for the latter charting at 19 in Rage's Top 100 Filmclips of 2011. The Bedroom Philosopher embarked on several solo tours, including opening for The Dresden Dolls on their national tour and performed his show Wit Bix at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. The A Very Beddy Christmas EP was released in November, with a modern adaptation of the Christmas carol "Twelve Days of Christmas" released as a radio single.

Heazlewood spent 2013 and much of 2014 working on his non-fiction book Funemployed, about the challenges faced by people in the Australian creative industries was published in May 2014. The book was adapted into a radio series broadcast on ABC Radio National and accompanied by an album of the same name. A single "I Don't Know What I'm Doing With My Life" was released under his own name from an EP accompanying the book. The "Funemployed LP" album (later released as The Bedroom Philosopher) features spoken word pieces from interview subjects Brian Ritchie, Tim Rogers and Sam Simmons.[38]

From 2015 Heazlewood went into hiatus to work on his childhood memoir Get Up Mum. This was a deeply personal work about the experience of growing up as a child carer for a parent with schizophrenia. It is set in his hometown of Burnie, Tasmania and spans one year in his life from 1992 to 1993. To write in the voice of his 12-year-old self he drew from a collection of diaries and cassette recordings made of himself and his family. Get Up Mum was published in May 2018 with launches at Melbourne Writers Festival and Brisbane Writers Festival. In 2019 the book was adapted into a 10-part series for the ABC Radio National program Life Matters. The series was performed entirely by Heazlewood and featured samples of his childhood cassette recordings.

In 2020 Heazlewood was commissioned to produce a live theatrical version of Get Up Mum by Adelaide-based Far and Away Productions. Heazlewood relocated to his hometown Burnie for an extended period and received several grants from Arts Tasmania. The new work premiered at the Theatre Royal, Hobart in March 2022.

The ARIA Music Awards are a set of annual ceremonies presented by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the music of Australia. They commenced in 1987.

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the second-largest international comedy festival in the world. They commenced in 1987.