From party trick to pop star — meet Molly Lewis, professional whistler

About this episode

This episode features Molly Lewis, a professional whistler who shares her journey from a party trick to performing globally and her involvement in a documentary about whistling competitions.

Molly's niche career began over a decade ago when she entered a whistling competition on a whim and she now performs all over the world. Her music sits somewhere between birdsong and the soundtrack to a film noir. Born in Sydney, Molly moved to Hollywood as a baby before returning to Australia for high school in Byron Bay. Once she realised her talent was more than just a hobby for family and friends, she began performing live with musicians in LA and has collaborated with the likes of Dr Dre, Beck and Karen O. Mark Ronson even asked her to whistle on the Barbie soundtrack. Now Molly is at the centre of a new documentary, Whistle, which follows whistlers from around the world as they prepare for the Masters of Musical Whistling competition. This episode of Conversations was produced by Jen Leake, the Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. It explores whistling, music, art, film soundtracks, Hollywood, LA, Byron Bay, whistling competitions, African Grey Parrots, Mark Ronson, Barbie, Alessandro Alessandroni, Ennio Morricone, The Good the Bad the Ugly, Harry Dean Stanton, Cafe Molly, John C Reilly,African Grey Parrots, Mark Lewis To binge even more great episodes of the…

People in this episode

Hosts: Richard Fidler, Sarah Kanowski

Guest: Molly Lewis

Topics covered

• whistling
• music
• art
• film soundtracks
• Hollywood
• whistling competitions

Keywords

• Molly Lewis
• whistling
• music
• Hollywood
• Barbie
• whistling competitions
• Mark Ronson
• documentary

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ABC Australia

Books & works: Whistle, Barbie, The Good the Bad the Ugly

Places: Sydney, Hollywood, Byron Bay, Cafe Molly

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