DAM: Today we sit down with Robert Brodie, an all round Creative, Actor & Musician -he’s set to feature as ‘Chester’ in the upcoming feature film ‘Echo 8 Beyond’ (2026) directed by Maria Tran & Takashi Hara. Originally from New Zealand, Robert was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a condition that causes brittle bones, but he’s never let that hold him back. In this chat we talk his journey growing up from New Zealand to Australia, using art as expression, the car culture community in Australia, how mindset fuels him forward & having the courage to embrace standing out.
DAM: Robert, what was it like growing up in New Zealand?
RB: It’s different where I’m from, there’s a very small, small town mindset, so a lot of the people there are born there, they grow up there, have families, have their careers and basically die in the same place. Even as a child, you see the same people. If I go back now, I’ll see the same people I saw when I was like, two years old.
DAM: So would you your Dreams stood out growing up?
RB: I had no idea what I wanted to do. Ironically enough though, the spotlight was always on me, which is funny. Like I was consistently in newspapers for my condition or something relating to it. It’s funny because the attention only lasted a short while until I hit high school and then once I hit high school, I felt as though no one really saw me at all. I got made fun of for a lot of things, but I took up graffiti because with graffiti, you can see your name everywhere, right? And it’s self validation. I took up graffiti and that was a very big passion for a while. I still paint, but not very much anymore.
“I got made fun of for a lot of things, but I took up graffiti because with graffiti, you can see your name everywhere, right? And it’s self validation.”
robert brodie
DAM: Was that side of expression through art always there for you?
RB: I’ve always been very, very creative, even as a kid. Drawing was always a very big passion, same with music. I have this innate ability, whether you play an orchestra in front of me or not – I’ll be able to tell you every single instrument. I don’t know where that came from. I remember when I went to high school, we had a junior campus and senior campus and when you go to the senior campus for orientation they get you to do different classes for a day. I remember after that, the music teacher sent a letter to my parents saying I needed to be in the music class. She was adamant. And then I failed the class. How funny is that? But yeah, I think it was around the time I was 14. That’s when I decided I wanted to try making my own music. I was writing terrible rhymes in this old mathematics book. They were horrible, but I loved it. I’ve been, you know, kind of stuck with music ever since.
“…The music teacher sent a letter to my parents saying I needed to be in the music class. She was adamant. And then I failed the class. How funny is that? I was writing terrible rhymes in this old mathematics book. They were horrible, but I loved it.”
robert brodie
DAM: Was there a defining moment or reason you decided to leave New Zealand?
RB: I made the mistake of dating someone at my workplace. We were together for about two years and then we split, and it was very awkward seeing her come in all the time. And, you know, when you’re a certain age, you have a self realisation about things, you gain consciousness. I had a realisation that if I don’t leave my hometown now, I’m going to be stuck here the rest of my life. So I booked a one-way ticket to Peru in January of 2019, and then never moved back. It was hard, but it was amazing. I went to Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Panama, Brazil for Carnival and then lived in Mexico. It was the best and hardest decision I’ve ever made.
“I had a realisation that if I don’t leave my hometown now, I’m going to be stuck here the rest of my life. So I booked a one-way ticket to Peru in January of 2019, and never moved back.”
DAM: So how old were you when you came to Australia?
RB: I was about 21, give or take it, when I came to Australia. I was living in Mexico before I came here, that’s a story in itself.
DAM: Why Australia?
RB: Australia, ironically, was always plan A. I set up a bank account in Australia years before I even decided I was going to move. Brisbane was always my plan A, so I ended up in Brisbane before I came to Sydney. It was a culture shock from New Zealand, but it’s relatively the same as the people are similar. Brisbane is a very interesting place because it’s very cliquey. If you didn’t grow up there and go to high school, it’s very hard to make friends, as an adult. But when you do make friends, they’re very genuine. Ironically enough, you know how Sydney has that attitude where everyone here is kind of snobby because they’re in the big city? I haven’t really found that with the people that I’ve met. I’ve made more friends here in Sydney than I have in Brisbane. I don’t know what it is, whether people are more accepting, whether they’re more open. I’m not sure what it is. Because there’s a lot of white collar workers here that have nine to five jobs that can be quite boring. They want something more outside of work. Maybe that’s it.
DAM: It very well could be. Well, how has your journey in music been since being in Australia – from Brisbane to Sydney?
RB: Sydney has been the best place for it music wise because I have a team that I work with for film and they are the best team that an artist could ever ask for. If I didn’t move to Sydney, I don’t think I would’ve progressed musically and visually. Not to say there’s not creative people in Brisbane, but there are people doing more in Sydney.
“If I didn’t move to Sydney, I don’t think I would’ve progressed musically and visually. Not to say there’s not creative people in Brisbane, but there are people doing more in Sydney.”
DAM: There’s definitely lots of creative opportunities in Sydney! How would you describe your current style as an artist?
RB: Kind of like drunkish R&B in a way, rap R&B, yeah. I rap with an American accent purely due to the fact that I like the way my voice sounds, but it sells much better than a New Zealand accent. There’s not very many New Zealand rappers, unfortunately, that have or ever will make it outside of New Zealand. That’s something I recognised, same with Australia. Look at The Kid Laroi as an example, he grew up in Sydney but he sings with an American accent, so that tells you everything you need to know.
DAM: Who were some of your favourite artists or people you looked up to growing up?
RB: There’s one rapper called Russ. It’s not just his music, it’s his mindset that he has. He’s got a book that he wrote called ‘Get Out of Your Own Way’ which he based on reading Napoleon Hill, you know those sorts of books. He adopted a very self- driven do it yourself sort of mindset, which I’ve tried to adapt, and that’s why I’m filming the Docu series (DOYOU) because I learned that no one’s always going to give you the opportunities. You can’t sit around waiting for them so you have to make them yourself. Some other artists I would look up to would be J. Cole, who is an absolute genius in regards to his style. Another rapper, you guys will have never heard of called Phora. He’s from LA. I like his older music. Yeah, so many different artists I can name.
“I learned that no one’s always going to give you the opportunities. You can’t sit around waiting for them so you have to make them yourself.”
robert brodie
DAM: Speaking of mindset, we’re sure that there are many challenges you would have to face in the music industry – the arts in general. How do you go about facing those challenges when they come up?
RB: I have a nihilistic mindset, so I don’t care what people think and what they say because at the end of the day, we’re all basically on the same train, just with different stops. The biggest example I can give is like, there’ll be people that are worried about, [for example] something I said last week, ‘I shouldn’t have said that’ or ‘that person said something to me last month and it’s really stuck with me’. Like, those sorts of things don’t matter. As an example, I could probably ask both of you this, who is your great, great, great grandfather and what is his name?
DAM: Honestly, no idea.
RB: Yeah, you guys can’t tell me, right? Do you think any of the conversations that he had 100 years ago, if anyone will remember those? Absolutely not. That’s why I don’t care what people say or think, because there’s always going to be people that have opinions, but at the same time, they have their own things going on and with the day and age that we live in, we have such a short attention span that whatever people are talking about today – they’ll be talking about something completely different tomorrow. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter you know, so why would I let what someone is saying affect me?
“There’s always going to be people that have opinions, but at the same time, they have their own things going on… We have such a short attention span that whatever people are talking about today – they’ll be talking about something completely different tomorrow.”
robert brodie
DAM: Yeah. That’s a great answer. Do you ever think about your own legacy?
RB: Yeah, I always think about that. That’s why I try so hard to make music or, you know, I’m trying so hard to do film because that’s forever. Look at Robbie Coltrane who played Hagrid, he’s in those films forever and he’s left that legacy, which is incredible. I want the same thing.
DAM: Definitely. Well, as we’ve come to know, your car is a huge part of your life, tell us a bit about that – or should we say ‘Honey’.
RB: I would have a house by now if I didn’t have that car, but you can’t race a house and you can sleep in a car, that is all I have to say.
DAM: [laughs] That’s true!
RB: My car is my baby, essentially, I spent so much money on that car. It is the fourth car I’ve ever owned, I’m proud to say, because a lot of people my age have owned many more. I’ve put a lot of money and time into it and it’s a kind of car where the regular person would look at it and be like, I’m not going to put money into this because it’s the everyday car. It’s different and I like that because I always try to be different. The first ever car film I saw was the first Fast and Furious (2001) and then I was playing Juiced 2 on the PlayStation 2 and then Need for Speed Most Wanted: Midnight Club. Everyone knows Midnight Club, so I grew up being surrounded by that sort of thing. I didn’t actually grow up around people that had many sorts of street racing cars, but I definitely had that influence from film and TV and video games.
“I didn’t actually grow up around people that had many sorts of street racing cars, but I definitely had that influence from film and TV and video games.”
robert brodie
DAM: And have you found yourself a car culture community?
RB: Yeah, it really depends where you are. There was a great culture in Brisbane when I was there. It’s very toxic now, very, very toxic in Brisbane. Sydney is much better. It depends where you go. There are certain car shows you can go to where everyone will accept every car, to an extent, of course, but there’s other car shows where you’ll get people that have a better car than you and they’re in their little clique and they’ll be talking shit, but yeah, I’ve made a couple good friends through the car scene – lifelong friends too.
DAM: What do you enjoy most about that scene?
RB: The fact that if I take that car to a show, within the whole lineup, you’ll see nothing but silver, black, dark blue, and grey cars and then there’s mine and it sticks out like a sore thumb. I went to a meet called Tuned and I remember – I got up on the steps of the building and I looked over and all I could see was grey, silver and black and then there was mine. And it’s amazing, it just shines, especially on the highway as well. Humans aren’t necessarily creative, I could ask why there are so many grey and bland buildings around? Why are there so many brick buildings? They don’t want us to think or be free or creative and for me, it’s like, I want to do my own thing and if I stick out like a sore thumb then so be it. I like that. If I stick out from the crowd and everyone looks at me, then it is what it is, you know? It gets people thinking.
“Within the whole lineup, you’ll see nothing but silver, black, dark blue, and grey cars and then there’s mine and it sticks out like a sore thumb… They don’t want us to think or be free or creative and for me, it’s like, I want to do my own thing and if I stick out like a sore thumb then so be it.”
robert brodie
DAM: Absolutely, that’s it. Any final words of advice for anyone who might be afraid of taking a risk or standing out from the crowd?
RB: Never allow yourself to be in a position where you’re looking back in five years and you’re saying ‘I should’ve done that’. You have no excuse, literally no excuse. I never have. This is something I had a realisation on recently. I never ever wanna be in a position where I am gonna say oh I should’ve done this or why didn’t I say that because you know, there’s no point being too scared to not do what you want to do, because at the end of the day, as nihilistic as it is, we’re all going to die. Why would you want to live life and look back and regret not doing the things that you could’ve done?
“There’s no point being too scared to not do what you want to do, because at the end of the day, we’re all going to die. Why would you want to live life and look back and regret not doing the things that you could’ve done?”
robert brodie
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More on Robert Brodie here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robertbrodie_/
IMDB: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm11270459
DOYOU Documentary IG: https://www.instagram.com/doyou_au/
DOYOU Documentary YT: https://www.youtube.com/@doyou_au
Echo 8: http://www.echo8movie.com/
Diversity Australia Magazine 