Hi everyone, welcome to a special edition of Mini Scroll,
where I am sitting here with millennial heartthrob icon Cody
Simpson. Wow.
How's the intro? Thank you.
Welcome to mini scroll. Thank.
You so much. OK, so we are an Internet
culture podcast, so we like to ask our guests right off the
bat, are you chronically online? Yeah, I'd, yes, I'd say so.
Probably too much so sometimes after really, like be conscious
about getting off it. Yeah, yeah.
You know, yeah. So you're a chronic scroller?
I'm chronic scroller. Yeah.
Chronic comment reader, chronic comment responder.
Oh my God, The whole deal. Probably more so in the last
year. I've like, really like embraced.
I don't know, I, I only got on Tiktok about a year ago.
OK, well, I've been on it longer, but I've only said
started actively using it a year ago, even six months ago.
And it's sort of, you know, it's a deep, dark hole that you get
sucked into. And yeah, I've been a victim
lately. Well, I have seen that you do a
lot of fit checks on. Tim, I've done a few fit checks.
What is popping up on your algorithm?
What algorithm are you on right now?
God, a lot of comedy right now. Yeah, yeah, sometimes.
Sometimes dark comedy. My friends send me all kinds of
weird stuff and it just sort of like, just sends my algorithm
down the drain. Oh my God, inmates can do that
to you. But yeah, yeah.
Fair, I know. I feel like I'm always on either
whatever is trending like the trending drama or dogs a lot.
Of dogs, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah However, my Instagram, my
Instagram algorithm is better than my Tik TikTok algorithm.
My Instagram algorithm is a little bit more like things I'm
into, you know, inspirational stuff or music or cars or, you
know, like what other things TikTok, TikTok seems to be.
A bit more. Of a dark hole, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, fair. OK, so you have lived many
lives. Musician, swimmer, stage actor,
fashion tick tocker. Like I mentioned.
I want to take it back a bit. What did you see yourself doing
as a kid? It's fun music, yeah, always.
Since I was like, since I picked up a guitar at age of 6, I think
I was like, it was always music for me.
I saw my dad play and sing and some family friends playing,
singing it barbecues and family get togethers and stuff.
And I was just like that that just saw the way music moved
people and brought people together.
And ever since I was, I remember telling my grandmother or mother
at like when I was like age of 10 or 11, I was like, I'm going
to be a famous musician and. And it happened really soon
after that. And it was, yeah, it, it, it, it
manifested probably three years later, you know, which is so
much sooner than I thought because at the time I was, I
was, I just assumed it would come later on.
And, and my plan was that I, because I was, I was swimming
full time at that age. I got started really training
really seriously. And I was going to try and make
like the, the Rio Olympics, 2016 and all this stuff was like
really on that trajectory. And that was my life path.
And I was like, I'll play music later.
And then YouTube came along and I changed the whole game and
like, I started posting on there and it happened within six
months. It was like, very.
That's amazing. Yeah.
Did you have strategy behind posting on YouTube?
Like did you have any idea what? You.
No, no, absolutely. You know, And it was just like,
give my mom the camera like in my bedroom.
It was just one of those things that I got on early and I was
just in the first wave of kids doing it.
Like it was just one of those things.
It was right place, right time. Saw the opportunity early.
I didn't even see it as an opportunity.
It wasn't like I was doing it to get sign or get, you know,
whatever. It was just like a way of
expressing myself and sharing what I like to do with other
people because I thought it was a cool thing.
And the Internet was still like a very, and social media was
still like a very, very infantile thing at, at, at that
stage. So I was just experimenting.
And then people realized how many people would actually see
it and discover. It's wild.
Yeah, yeah. That's honestly amazing.
When you have done these career pivots, what's your decision
making process behind that? Because it sounds like you've
done, you've had these thoughts as early as you know, 11-12
thinking, oh, can I do music? Maybe later I'm going to do
swimming. Yeah, it's funny.
I just, I just have always followed my heart and my gut.
I don't know, like it's just been, I've, I've never had an
exact Grand Master plan. It's always just been year by
year trying to figure out what feels right to me and knowing
the things that I want to accomplish.
But you, you kind of have to be, I love the saying that like you
can, you have to be like firm on vision, but like flexible on, on
plan on on the way. Yeah, because it's, it's never
going to be the way you think. And for me, it happened the
opposite of the way I thought because I thought I was going to
swim and then I was going to retire and I was going to play
music. And it was like, there's no way
I would have known it would happen that I would have this
like 10 year career through my teens and early 20s as a
musician and then stop that and go back to swimming way later
than, you know, then I then would be considered possible
considering the amount of time I didn't train and, and be able to
go and do that. So yeah, it's just been, it's
just been a matter of following my gut, like.
Yeah. Have you felt more pressure
making these big pivots or decisions knowing that you're in
the public eye? Oh yeah, for sure.
It adds a layer of like, you know, of scrutiny and and
criticism and and just just like eyeballs on you is like is an
extra added element that you have to deal with.
I guess I've just been become so used to it because I started in
the public eye at like 13, you know?
Yeah. Nothing I've ever done has been
private. Yeah, really, you know, from in
my public and personal life, it's, it's very hard to to hide,
I suppose in that sense, you know, and, and it's just
something I had to get used to, but it, it's never stopped me
making the decisions that were right for me.
You know what I mean? Growing up in pop music, leaving
my label going and doing a more singer-songwriter kind of thing,
like going independent, doing all that was like a risk, but
and probably not considered the best commercial decision, but
like I had just did it because it was right for me.
The swimming thing, you know, having to kind of leave and fire
my team because I had to go and do something else for like 4
years and, and, and train and, and like move back to Australia
was like probably it was for me, you know?
So it was like, I've never let that stop me making the
decisions that I want to make for me.
So, yeah, yeah. Yeah, No, that makes sense.
What's your relationship to the public eye now then?
A lot healthier than it was at one point actually.
And my relationship with my, my past like self and my, my old
like errors and, and everything is a lot healthier than it used
to be as well. I think it's one of those things
where you know, when you're like, you're growing up through
your teens, like late teens, early 20s, and you kind of look
back at like your old Facebook pictures or like Myspace
pictures or whatever. And you're like, oh, the
hairstyles, the outfit, you know, and you just cringe and
you just, you know, you want to delete it all.
Like I couldn't, it was on Google, you know what I mean?
I tried to run from it and, and change everything and rebelled
and all this stuff. And then like now, and, and
because I just felt so trapped in, in the public eye and in the
in the media and in all that stuff.
And like now I feel much more like I embrace it all and, and
don't try and reject it. I'm like, that's really cool
that I did that at 14 or that's really awesome that, and I've,
I've been so grateful or to have the opportunity to be heard
because the, the alternative is like no one caring or not being
heard. So I'm like, I reframed it all
and I'm like so much happier because, like I am just didn't
have embraced the whole journey. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I I feel like it's an interesting conversation to
have with you because you experienced tea tween teen fame
almost pre social media. And now social.
Media has democratized fame for young people in such a different
way. Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.
It was like almost like back when I started, it was like J14
and like pop star liked all those magazines and they'd only
usually be like, you know, five or six faces on the cover.
And I just remember they'd put them on a circle and it was
like, the goal was to like be one of the faces on the on the
cover, you know what I mean? It wasn't very democratized, as
you say. It was like very gate kept by
like the record labels and stuff.
And so I was just very lucky to like have, I guess gotten in at
that stage, but there were much less people doing it.
And so now it's like everyone's got a platform and everyone's
got a way of being heard. And that's like a blessing for
so many people to give people more opportunities.
But like, at the same time, it's like a lot more people are
having to kind of deal with it and, and aren't necessarily cut
out or like like taught how to, you know, I was lucky to have
like the family and, and to, to get prepared in a way, in a
weird way. And like now it's like, you can
go viral tomorrow. I know it's actually so.
Scary. I feel so bad.
I'm so glad that I did not grow up as a team.
It's. Crazy with like tik?
T.O.K, I'm so glad you'll be. A 14 year, you go viral tomorrow
and the whole world knows who you are and like, what do you
like? I know you and then you just
ostracize in school and like you like that's not right for a kids
brain, you know, 100% that's crazy. 100%, yeah.
So did you have in any of your endeavours, I guess like a made
it moment? What would you say Was your made
it moment or have you had? One that's crazy.
I've been so lucky to have had so many of those.
Yes, which is awesome. Definitely starting to play
shows that were quite large. Like I jumped on the Justin
Bieber 2 and I was like 15 and I toured well with him and we
played stadiums in South America and 60,000 people and all that
stuff. And I'm just like, I'm not even,
I mean I'm homeschooling, you know, in the, in the back of the
tool bus. Like before I go out on stage in
front of 60,000 people, I'm doing, I'm literally doing math
class with my teacher going, why are we doing this?
I get like all these people out there screaming for, you know
what I mean? It's so trippy and like that
those are these made of moments of like just the the strange
contrast of like walking out from doing your homework to
putting on like your stage outfit and going out in front of
like all these, you know, thousands of screaming,
screaming girls. It's like the craziest thing.
And and so there was definitely all these made-up moments of
standing up on stage in front of that many people that were
singing along to your lyrics. And Oh my God, like, yeah, that
must be. Three years.
Ago I was in Australian middle school, you know, making the
Australian swimming team was 1 was a big one for me because
that's something that I grew up wanting to do and it was a dream
I gave away. When I went to play music, I was
like that's I'm going to have to kind of like park that one that
was not happening. So to have been able to come
back and actually do that and I have that to my name now.
And like you have these, you get these things when you make the
Australian swimming team called a dolphin number.
And it's like your number of the amount of people that have made
the team, you kind of are assigned a number.
And it's there's I've been been only say 800 and something over
the history of the team. And I have the little emblem
right here with the Australian coat of arms and 838, which is
my number. And my mom actually is like #400
and something, something so like from back in the 80s.
So it's like really special. We have have that together.
And just to have been able to compete on the world stage as an
athlete and it, you know, is, was, was such a dream and and
such a, a crazy thing that was definitely made at moment for
me. Like competing at the
Commonwealth Games and doing all that stuff that I just never
thought I would do, especially after this whole career as a as
a musician that I've had. So yeah as well so.
You are back in entertainment full time, Yeah.
Yeah, what can? We expect from your music.
God, I'm really excited. I've been in the studio all
year. I've been back in LA most of
this year, recording very close to having a fair, a fair amount
of music done. And so we start next next year,
probably early next year, starting to get back in the
game, which is exciting. And it's it's nice.
It's like a blend. It's kind of a blend of
everything I've ever been as an artist, like all my errors and
everything. It's kind of like doing justice
to and, and service to like all of those things and like
wrapping it up into something totally new and fresh.
So I'm excited for people to hear what that is and, and to be
able to be able to go out and start playing live again.
Like, I'm so excited to do that. So yeah, it's cool.
Yeah, why do you say thank God when I said you're back in
entertainment full time? Because I love it so much, you
know? Yeah.
I, I missed it a lot when I was swimming and.
And towards the end there, I was really, really excited to get
back in. And so, like when I got back in
the studio, I just felt like a kid again.
Like going back to LA, it was like I felt the way I did when I
was 14 going there. Yeah.
And it was just really cool. It was like the full circle
thing. Yeah.
Well.
You've accomplished so much since you left, right?
Yeah. I suppose so.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
OK. So circling back to your TikTok
fit checks. Yes.
Yes, fashion has been woven through different areas of your
career the entire time, and now you're partnering with Uber and
Red Cross to help Aussies donate their clothing this weekend.
Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, it's.
It's an amazing, I'm, I'm wrapping the T-shirt today, if
you couldn't already tell, it's an amazing initiative.
I, I was approached by Uber and Red Cross to be a part of it and
kind of help be a megaphone for the cause.
And I find like with a, with a platform like I've been given,
it's, it's so important to use that for good things and, and,
and to help people. And so when they approached me,
it was like kind of a no brainer thing.
And I'm I'm a culprit of, of, of storing a lot of clothes and
then getting a lot of clothes, being given a lot of three
wardrobes like it's, it's quite embarrassing, the dream.
And so. Well, yeah, until you kind of,
you know, move house and you're like, jeez, you know.
And so I think we all, we're all, we're all guilty of, of
having the, the boxes or the bags in the back of the car or
in the garage that you, you know, have been wanting to
donate for months, but you just never have the time to go or
whatever. So basically Uber, you can order
an Uber Courier and that will come to your house and, and pick
it up for free. And so you can order one for
free this Saturday and they'll take it to Red Cross for you.
Is that? Anywhere across Australia.
Yeah, it's all major cities, I think Brisbane, Sydney,
Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth from like 10:00 AM to 4:00 PMI
believe it's it's free from 3:50.
If you order it, you know, I'll come and grab it and take it off
your hands and give it new life, which is cool.
Yeah, yeah. The last thing that I would love
to know is like, what's next? I know you said music.
Do you have anything else on the horizon that you can sneakily
tell us? Oh yes, I'm in a I'm in a series
TV series coming out streaming on Stan next month.
I believe it. I believe it.
I don't know exactly when it premieres.
It's coming out really soon. I have yet to post that or
anything so Oh my God. I love that.
The exclusive Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's called He Had
It Coming, which is a a sort of a mystery drama set in a set in
a college. And so that's that's sort of an
Australian screen debut for me, which is cool.
And then also did a funny film for Netflix called Zombie Plane
in which I play a young Vanilla Ice.
No way. Baby vanilla ice and he's also
in the film and I think it's it's Sophie Monk, Chuck Norris
like it's the weirdest and most wonderful mix of of people in
this in this movie and that that's that's premiering next
month. So I'm in that as well.
And then aside from that it's it's music.
So top of next year, we'll be starting to to hopefully roll
out a ton of music. So I'm excited to you're doing
the. Most like.
Absolutely. Always.
Wow. Well.
Thank you so much for joining me, of course.
Thank you.