OLD GUILDFORDIANS as part of the ‘ Big Hoo Haa ’ club in Perth , and volunteering at the local radio station . His pursuits were certainly not restrained in their variety . Stacy was picked up to film a few television commercials , worked as a wedding DJ and toured all around the State doing puppet shows with ‘ Constable Care ’. He then set off travelling around Europe for a year before finding himself working at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and living in Greece for six months . He managed to make money doing caricatures on the streets while he was away and this allowed him to think about the future . By the time he came back to Perth he was excited to pursue a career in music . He practiced a lot , played in a lot of gigs and actually made a return to Guildford Grammar School in 2012 to put on a show in the School ’ s Chapel called ‘ Hush : An Evening of Quiet Music ’ with a good friend of his and some of Perth ’ s best local musicians . It was the first show in a series that Stacy still runs today , with his first interstate show happening at the Parliament of Victoria in November this year .
Eventually Stacy wanted to focus on pursuing a more permanent career path and looked into studying Graphic Design in Melbourne . He was accepted into a diploma course at RMIT and would there develop the skills he needed to pursue his interest in illustration , whilst also receiving the qualifications needed to be a graphic designer . He began work doing layout design at the Greek Australian Newspaper , Neos Kosmos , as well as a graphic design studio called ID Lab based in Melbourne .
Ever since joining Triple J , Stacy has been balancing art and radio and enjoying every second of it . He loves working as part of the Triple J team and was drawn there out of a love for radio and for music . In describing the experience Stacy said , “ It ’ s an incredible place to work , it ’ s like a big community station . Everyone genuinely loves music and finding and sharing great new stuff . It ’ s a very supportive and positive environment and everyone just feels lucky to be doing what they do . It ’ s a very competitive industry with relatively few jobs and I certainly feel lucky to get paid to be doing something I ’ d be doing anyway .”
As well as being Triple J ’ s weekend breakfast presenter , Stacy has found himself working with the Triple J Unearthed team , listening to hundreds of new artists every day and producing some graphic design illustrations for some of the station ’ s online content . His line of work has allowed him to cross paths with some very interesting people . He has met Australian rock legend Paul Kelly and spent time with the Hip Hop duo , Hilltop Hoods . At an awards night Stacy has also hung out with Murray , the Red Wiggle from ‘ The Wiggles ’, and he claims cheekily that they are now “ best friends ”.
One of Stacy ’ s illustrations .
Stacy still plays music , draws , paints and plays AFL for the East Brunswick Eye Gougers , using the skills that saw him win Runnerup Best and Fairest for Guildford Grammar School ’ s 2nd XVIII team in 2004 .
Currently , Stacy is enjoying his work with Triple J and still pursuing the other passion of his , working as a freelance artist and illustrator . He focuses on having effective time management skills , self-discipline and confidence in order to work on his own projects , creating comics and drawings as well as undertaking commissions and freelance design work . His advice for current Guildford Grammar School students is : “ If you want to do something , don ’ t think about it too much and talk yourself out of it . Just do it . Don ’ t worry about what other people are thinking or doing , just work hard at it and do it . Don ’ t stress out too much about the future . Just do your best and things will unfold as they need to . Ask for help all the time and surround yourself with excellent people that make you feel good .” As for Stacy ’ s future plans , he ’ s very satisfied with where he is at currently and remains open minded about his future . “ I want to keep doing what I ’ m doing for as long as I can . Then I ’ ll do something else .”
Throughout all of this , one thing that remained constant was Stacy ’ s voluntary radio work . He had been a presenter at RTRFM between 2006-2012 , presenting and producing a large variety of different shows , learning from all the knowledgeable people at the station and finding a mentor in the breakfast presenter , Peter Bar . When Stacy decided to move to Melbourne , he had to start from the beginning again at a local radio station , RRR . It was the producer at that local station that put Stacy in touch with the producer at Triple J . From there began a long process of creating “ demos ” that would display his work , talent and potential . He would go to the Triple J station every couple of weeks and produce a “ mock show ” and get feedback . He did this for a year while he continued to study graphic design . He then spent another year presenting overnight programs , which are referred to as “ Mid Dawns ”. After all of this , around the same time he was graduating from RMIT , Stacy was offered a regular presenting spot on Triple J .
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