Brodie Lancaster
Writer, editor
Who are you, and what do you do?
I'm Brodie Lancaster, a writer and editor. On a good day I call myself a critic too.
I started my career at 20 as the managing editor of Portable TV, a culture website that no longer exists. I self-published and edited the zine Filmme Fatales for a few years. It was an unpretentious publication about women and film. I did interviews and ran comics and jokes and poems and short stories, but didn't do reviews. I like to think you'd get as much out of reading the first issue (written in 2012, released in 2013) now as you would've on its release. I made eight issues, and it's been a year since I put it on pause indefinitely.
As a writer I've contributed to Rolling Stone, Rookie, MTV News, Pitchfork, Elle.com, Smith Journal, Frankie, Hello Mr, Junkee, Jezebel, Vulture, The Guardian and other places I can't remember right now.
In July 2017 my first book, a pop culture memoir called No Way! Okay, Fine was published by Hachette. I guess now I can call myself an author as well.
I co-hosted and produced a podcast called Can U Not? from late 2016 through mid-2017, and I sometimes DJ.
I've been working at Single Double (a copywriting and content studio formerly called The Good Copy) since 2013. I do a lot of jigsaw puzzles and want to write a horror movie.
What hardware do you use?
I'm so bad with technology I recently went into the Telstra shop to complain that my iPhone 7 was bugging out, only to learn I had an iPhone 6S Plus. Ay carumba. I have 2 or 3 external battery packs for my phone because I play too much Blossom Blast so it always dies at lunch time. I also don't want to keep upgrading my phone because I hate those Bluetooth headphones and resent that Apple wants us all to use them!!!!
I'm using a 13-inch MacBook Air from early 2015. I got it from a guy on eBay who felt like he had to explain how laptops work to me before we did a dodgy-looking cash exchange at a café. I bought a USB disc drive for it because I still like to burn CDs when I DJ. (NEVER TRUST THAT A DECK HAS USB DRIVES AND THAT YOU'LL REMEMBER TO BRING YOURS.) I have a tiny handheld Zoom recorder for doing interviews, and use one of those SD card adapters to get the Zoom's contents onto my computer. I also recently bought a Canon PowerShot G7 X for filming videos for the YouTube channel I'm kind of embarrassed I have.
I'm pretty analogue about organisation, and have never found a list-making or calendar app that works for me as well as a physical planner and notebook do. I use a Ban.do planner, a Rollbahn grid notebook, a pad of Kikki.K to-do lists that don't have too many "inspirational" messages on them. Checking things off a list is a huge motivator for me. And I use black Pentel EnerGel pens in 0.7 width. (If I need a red pen I prefer 1.0).
At work I have an A4-sized whiteboard with a calendar on it. Using about 7 different-coloured pens I can map out all the client work I do so I can visualise everything that's coming up and (hopefully) not get too overwhelmed with surprises. When I finish a job, I erase it from the whiteboard.
I have an old iPad I bought at the Apple store at JFK while Joel Edgerton was there getting a charger. It only connects to wifi because I Know Myself Better To Have Another Thing That Goes Online On Its Own. I use it to read from when I have to give talks, and to read my saved articles on Pocket. (I have about 6 years of unread stuff in there. It's a constant source of guilt.)
Oh and I recently bought an old iPod Classic with the goal of spending more time listening to music and reading (as opposed to listening to podcasts and staring at my phone constantly), but it's just another thing to charge now.
And what software?
I write everything in iA Writer Classic. On my laptop it ends up in a mix of Dropbox, Excel, Drive and nvALT. At work I also use Airtable and Dropbox Paper because they make submitting and getting client feedback smooth. The reality of working in "content" means I spend a shitload of time inside Facebook Business Manager.
My portfolio is on Squarespace. I chat on Slack, download questionably-legal things using Snowfl with ExpressVPN turned on, and watch them on VLC. Stream stuff on Netflix, hayu and Stan.
If I need to edit audio, video or photos I use Adobe stuff. I taught myself very basic InDesign to make the first four issues of Filmme Fatales, before a designer came on board to save me from myself.
I like to own music, so always have iTunes running. I recently, finally paid for a Spotify subscription because my "End of 2017" list was so embarrassing I decided to use it more now. But ever since I started using Spotify again my data has been out on control and I remembered why I stopped years ago.
On my phone the Apps I use most often are: Inbox by Google, Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, BOM Weather, CommBank, Instagram, Podcasts (I HATE THE NEW UPDATED APP IT SUCKS PLS RECOMMEND SOMETHING BETTER FOR ME), Uber Eats, Blossom Blast.
I need Pages and Adverts for work; TimeScroller is essential if you have friends overseas or need to set up an interview/FaceTime date across time zones; ImgPlay is great for making videos and GIFs from stills; I've been relying on Sleep Cycle to wake me up and track my sleep for like 7 years now; I've just started collecting points on the PappaRich app every time I eat roti with curry sauce; Footy Live is my go-to during AFL season (Go Tiges); depending on my mood I flick through Raya and Tinder on the toilet; Pocket for reading (though I don't love reading off my phone); Clue for period stuff; Health for occasionally tracking my steps (I hate when I'm exhausted after a physically huge day and it tells me I've done like 3,000 steps fuck u man I'm aching); Tinybeans for seeing my friends' kids; K-Box for karaoke; Later for scheduling clients' 'grams (thought I'm moving to Schedugram); Voice Memos for all interviews (make sure you're on airplane mode while you record or risk losing your recording when you get an annoying call!!!!); 1SE, which I've been using for a total of 5 days so far.
What would be your dream setup?
My dream setup would be Dropbox for everything, but with all the shit on my various hard drives organised perfectly. A new laptop with an audio jack and a new laptop with USB ports. (HI APPLE R U LISTENING???) I am resistant to change but always adapt to it eventually. So honestly my "dream setup" doesn't exist but I could probably make it happen with what I have now if I just reclaimed maybe 8-14 full days and sat in a cool room with a steady supply of Coke Zero to properly categorise every single digital file I've ever stored somewhere in the depths of this machine.