Comedian Luka Muller was a “Melbourne guy”, and never considered anywhere else. But when Bryce Mills was leaving the triple j Breakfast show, Luka got the call-up to co-host with fellow comedian Concetta Caristo – and that’s a gig you don’t say no to. As Luka says, “triple j is such a huge part of Australian culture – it’s the 50-year anniversary of the station next year.” So nek minnit, Luka was packing his bags and relocating to Sydney.
“It’s hard and a big deal to uproot your life,” he says. “There aren’t many jobs I would do that move for on really short notice, but it's been so worth it. I've been here a couple of months now. Sydney is awesome. I think Melbourne's a bit easier to get around, but Sydney is very beautiful. It’s only September and I've already been to the beach twice – in Melbourne, you don't even think about putting on shorts until like, late November, at best. So I know it's stereotypical, but the weather's really nice. The people are nice, heaps of good food. I really like it here.”
Of course, one of the best things about Luka’s new life in Sydney is his friendship with Concetta. When I meet the pair on our shoot in the triple j and Like a Version studios, the bond between the two is electric.
It's an intimate relationship with someone when you're doing Breakfast (Luka)
“So it's great that I love Chet so much. She’s energetic, authentic, vulnerable, curious about people, explorative, fun, funny, passionate, well-spoken, smart, genius, and she has a juicy arse,” Luka laughs.
Concetta’s love for Luka is also as clear as an uninterrupted radio signal. “Everyone says Luka is the nicest guy – ‘like, is there anything behind what we see?’ And it's like, no, he's fully nice, 100 per cent, inside, outside, good heart, sweetheart, caring, curious, loves people, loves to listen, just the most warm hug of a person. And obviously he’s a comedian, he's funny as f*ck. He's good at teasing little things out of me and showing why I'm crazy. But he's just a very positive, warm person. He's such a big music lover, it's just in his bones and blood, he can talk about it so eloquently. He has such a passion and is able to really articulate what makes music great and why he likes it. He's the perfect person to do Breakfast with.”
The pair are about to be part of presenting triple j’s One Night Stand from Warrnambool, which you can listen to (or livestream) on triple j from 2pm next Saturday, September 14. The festival will feature big names like G Flip, Ruel, What So Not + Friends, Thelma Plum and more.
After the photoshoot, I sat down with Chet and Luka and chatted about everything from oversharing on “the blower to the whole country” to awkward on-air moments, “big-fat load cakes”, their favourite music, getting vulnerable about Concetta’s experience with domestic violence and Luka’s asexuality, and their top Sydney hangouts.
triple j is such an iconic radio station – part of the fabric of Aussie life. How did it feel to nab your gigs as Breakfast hosts?
Concetta: Pretty life-changing, to be honest. It's part of Australia’s culture and legacy. I just couldn't really believe it when I was offered the job. It felt like the biggest honour to have a job like this. My parents, for the first time, were like, ‘OK, maybe she's gonna make this [comedy] business work’. There are all the past hosts, all the legends I've listened to, and I get to be part of that. I try not to think about it too much, you'll overcook it.
Luka: First off I did a shift of Late Nights, which is where they start to train you – it's 11pm to 2am. I was like, alright, I've officially hosted a show on triple J. But then to host Breakfast is such an honour, I was in disbelief as well.
One Night Stand is on in Warrnambool next week – what do you love about this music festival, and what are you most excited about?
Luka: It's really sick, bringing some of the biggest names in Australia to a small regional town. It's harder to see big acts if you're living regionally. I grew up in country Victoria, in Echuca, and when I was a teenager, hearing about One Night Stand, I wished it would come to Echuca.
Concetta: When we went to Warrnambool to do the announcement, you really saw, oh, this is a huge deal for the community. We got to speak to so many locals, the mayor, local music journalists, and they were talking about how it was getting dire – legacy venues shutting down. They were like, ‘You don't understand what this means to us’. There's a history of music in Warrnambool, and it feels like this big build-up – it hasn’t been on for five years, since Covid. So it feels really special to be a part of the big return. It's gonna be the best.
Luka: When we were there, we had to spend a night in Warrnambool, not telling anyone until we announced it the next day. But Chet and I went down the street and walked into this Vietnamese restaurant – this guy clocked us and… his face! He was like, “You guys really are coming here!” You could see the excitement in his face and we left knowing, oh shit, he's gonna tell his friends about this, the group chats are about to light up.
Luka, being from Victoria, what’s Warrnambool like?
Luka: It's awesome, a beautiful town. I went a little bit growing up. We went on this awesome walk in this park called Lake Pertobe. Got lost in a maze. Went down a huge slide. It's coastal but also super close to all these forests. The people are friendly as hell, yeah. There are a lot of young people there, it’s a big uni town, and they're very eager and invested in music.
There are plenty of them, but tell me about a funny moment on the job?
Concetta: We have this segment where we hear from people who work in a specific career, and the crazy shit that goes down for people in their jobs. We spoke to bakers one week – we had a baker tell a story of someone requesting to have the man's sperm put into a cake. It was nuts. And we have this joke on the show where we’re always trying to segue – like, how do you pivot from one topic to another really seamlessly? I’d made a comment of, “We're gonna hear more soon about the big-fat load cake, and, speaking of…’ – and I segued into ‘gorgeous newsreader, Jack James. I was speaking, and thinking was coming second. Luka’s reaction, and Jack's reaction… It was a laughing-in-church type thing as well, because Jack had to start the news on some tragic, horrific thing, after my big-fat load cake reference. And that's sort of the glorious part of live radio.
You guys share quite a lot of yourselves on the radio – is it hard being such open books? Do you ever afterwards think, ‘why did I say that?’?
Concetta: I'm an oversharer, all my comedy leading up to here was personal about my life, my relationship, my thoughts, my feelings. So I remember, the first day I started, I was talking about sending a nude to my boyfriend and getting a crazy response from him. And I've not really been afraid to do that, but the challenge has been getting into the more vulnerable parts. There was that week when all the horrific murders of women around this country were in the news… I have a past of domestic violence, and I [wondered if I] should speak about it. A producer came in and was like, “If you're comfortable, you have every right to speak about this from your point of view”. I needed a bit of support, and Luka was there. It was this moment of, I haven't planned it, but I'm speaking from my feeling, and it was one of the most scary and vulnerable things to be like, ‘I'm on the blower to the whole country, like, is this OK?’ I remember having a bit of shellshock after and being told, that helped a little bit. The text line went crazy. That's something about radio, like you're learning as you're going. My grandma just passed away last week, and I was able to speak about that on the radio. I think if I want to be open, I want to be open about all kinds of things – you want to be able to connect with people and show all the kinds of shades. But it takes a team of people being around you to feel comfortable to share that stuff.
Luka: Yeah, talking about stuff like mental health, depression, anxiety, my experiences with therapy, all that sort of stuff. Speaking about my asexuality – something I never would have thought I'd say out loud a few years ago, and now I talk about it fine on the radio. It feels pretty easy a lot of the time, because Chet and I have this great relationship, and the producers are great about it. But it can be daunting, if you ever think, ‘shit, there are maybe hundreds of thousands of people who are about to hear whatever the hell I'm talking about’. But it's good when it feels reassuring, when people go, “Thank you for talking about this, I've had a similar thing, I've been through this”. That's why you do it – we have a bit of a responsibility to show ourselves so people out there can know that they're not the only ones.
You're both comedians, but obviously a requirement of this job is loving music – who are your favourite musical acts?
Concetta: Heaps, obviously. I like Tame Impala. Tyler, the Creator. 3% are doing amazing things. I love Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. Allday. Clara. There are too many.
Luka: It's weird with this job because there’s a section of your taste that stays separate to the work. I like a lot of old stuff. I have a Steely Dan tattoo. But in terms of [triple j music], there are so many things I love and am passionate about. Gut Health are about to drop their debut album at the end of the year. Love them. We did an interview with Last Dinner Party a few weeks ago that was super fun, and love their music. It was cool to be like, “Oh, they're my friends and I'm fans of them”. Bizarre. Very lucky to be surrounded by it.
What are some very cool things you've done as part of your triple j roles?
Concetta: Where do you even start? One thing was making this music video, which we talked about on-air – I found this diary from when I was a kid, where I’d written a song. Listeners really got behind that – related to the little diary moments. And then suddenly I'm recording a song with my idols, like Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. I'm not even a musician; it was unbelievable. Getting to work with G Flip being so effing funny, and making this thing that people got around and celebrated is one of the coolest things I've ever done – on top of interviewing idols, like Raye. Also, presenting an Aria to Teenage Dads, who I adore.
Luka: I'm so much newer, but even I've done a bunch of fun stuff in just two months. We went to the Sunshine Coast for an event called On Ya Bike that we were throwing – the event itself was super fun, but just hanging out there with the whole team and meeting listeners was super fun. Every day there's so much fun stuff, and then I look at our calendar for the rest of the year, I'm like… all the good times!
How are you guys handling the breakfast shift?
Concetta: I'm almost two years in, and every morning when the alarm goes off at 4am, I go, ‘Oh my God’. And that's the best part about the show, because clearly I must be very extroverted. But in that hour when I wake up, I'm like, ‘this is crazy, it's dark, what am I doing?’ And then I get to work and everyone's like, how do you switch energies? It's people. When I’m at work I'm awake, I'm excited, I'm like, let's freaking get into it. Obviously, not all the days. Some days I’m really tired. No one teaches you how to do breakfast radio – you're a comedian, you come from being up at night, having a nightlife. It's a constant juggle – you’re trying to sleep, but also do things in your life, and exhaustion. I think I'm handling it good in that, once I’m there at 5am, I’m present as hell. But in those early days, on a weekend I would spend a full day in bed. I would go to my boyfriend, “I'm broken, what’s wrong with me? I need to be doing all this stuff”. He's like, “No, sweetie, you're fully exhausted. Your body needs to adjust.” So I'm probably better at handling it now, but it's a constant juggling act of everything in your life.
Concetta, you pulled your first all-nighter recently to go to the Logies and then straight on to work the next morning – was that the right decision?
Concetta: I honestly think yes, because I was like, I can't believe I'm going to the Logies, this is cuckoo lulu. Like, I may never, ever go again. I've got to go. So I was like, let's make this night last all night. The Espresso Martinis really got me there. My honest favourite part was then coming to the show, bringing that to people, being my authentic self in that moment, which was sometimes fully delirious and sometimes, by the end of it, falling apart. I'll never forget it. It's forever 24 hours of my life, in my heart.
What do you guys do in your spare time?
Luka: I'm pretty obsessed with food, so I'm always cooking, eating, thinking about food. I spend a lot of my Sundays doing a big all-day cook, meal prepping for the week. I love that. Italian is my favourite thing to cook. I try to make a point to still be social, hang out with people, go to the movies, go to gigs, go to dinners, go to drinks. I’ve also joined a group of Portuguese guys who play soccer so that’s pretty fun. We don’t talk much, but it’s fun. Even though breakfast radio is a bit exhausting, I figure it's better to be tired than lonely. That's good advice I got from friends who’ve done breakfast radio before: you'll be tired, but make a point to still do stuff and live your life. Otherwise, you'll start to resent that this is taking it away from you. So staying active, getting out there, seeing the sights of Sydney.
Concetta: I love hot-girl walks. I'm obsessed with activities. I always want to do activities, always want to go on adventures. I'm more often than not doing an escape room. That was my birthday present from Luka. I do them with my boyfriend. I do them with my team. I do them with my friends. Sometimes, on the weekends, me and my partner will go to inspections. Are we moving? No. Can we afford any place? No. But are we signing up, giving fake numbers, being like, thank you. I've seen inside every apartment in my block of six, except for one lady who lives there permanently. I just love going to places, seeing things.
Luka, is there anything that has surprised you about Sydney since you moved?
Luka: Melbourne feels very central – there’s the CBD, and then it expands slowly from there. Sydney feels like it's got five or six different CBDs in different areas, and then they're kind of interlinked. Like, I'll drive for 40 minutes and be like, I must be pretty far out of the city now. Oh, no. What's this? I'm in another one.
QUICKFIRE Qs:
CONCETTA
Favourite outdoor spot? McKell Park, Darling Point. It's this really beautiful private spot with the most amazing views. And honey, it's free mama. There is a ferry there. It's just a beautiful, quiet, peaceful spot right on the water, which makes you go, Sydney freaking rules.
Favourite neighbourhood? I'm always walking in Potts Point. I love the city, I love grungy city people. It's an amazing, eclectic place.
Favourite restaurant? I want to shout out Pastizzi Cafe in Newtown. Best pasta ever. I spent my birthday there. I know the guy, Francesco, I'm obsessed with him. You gotta go. And of course, they have pastizzis, which are delicious.
Favourite bar? I don't really drink too much, but I love Tucano’s in Surry Hills. I also like The Chippo Hotel, just because they do music and comedy, and as comedians, a lot of successful, great, wonderful gigs come out of The Chippo, and women's nights. The Chippo Hotel is freakin’ holding this place on its shoulders.
Favourite café? Happyfield in Haberfield.
Favourite escape room? I recently went to a good one in Parramatta called Scram.
LUKA
Favourite food? There’s so much good food in Sydney. I went to Burwood Chinatown with a couple of my friends and just wandered around, got a few skewers, got a little pancake thing, bits and bobs. That was great and pretty cheap as well.
Special-occasion spot? My friend Mitch runs Kiln at the Ace Hotel, which is great. I'm going to Cafe Paci next week with my brother, I love that place.
Favourite bars or pubs? Summer Hill Hotel is good, and the White Cockatoo in Petersham. I love the prevalence of the Inner West bowling clubs, as well: Petersham Bowls, Marrickville Bowls. It pops off at the bowls clubs.
Live music venues? I haven't sussed out that many because I'm new here, but I saw one of my favourite bands, High Vis, at Oxford Art Factory – my first time there. I knew it was an iconic venue and I really liked it.
Favourite outdoors spot? I went for a beautiful walk along the Cooks River, alongside Marrickville Golf Course, that was beautiful, maybe like an hour each way. And I went to Mahon Pool the other day when it was hot, that was really nice as well.
Listen to Concetta & Luka live from One Night Stand on triple j on Saturday 14 September at 2pm, or watch the livestream from 7pm on triple j's TikTok and YouTube.
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