Known colloquially as “DJY” among friends, David James Young is an experienced music and arts writer based in Wollongong, New South Wales. David has over 15 years of experience in journalism, covering the country’s biggest festivals as well as Australia’s hottest new artists and internationally-renown superstars.
Just a few of the bigger names in music David has interviewed over the years include Alice Cooper, At the Drive-In, blink-182, Bring Me the Horizon, CHVRCHES, Cold Chisel, Courtney Barnett, Cypress Hill, Death Cab for Cutie, Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters, Gang of Youths, Halsey, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Macklemore, Maynard James Keenan, Mick Fleetwood, Missy Higgins, Mumford and Sons, Muse, The National, Noel Gallagher,
Peter Hook, Refused, Sleater-Kinney and “Weird Al” Yankovic.
David’s current bylines include work for Junkee, NME, Music Feeds, Cone Magazine, Beat Magazine, The Australian, The Big Issue and Mixdown Magazine. Previous bylines include The Brag, LNWY.co, Red Bull Australia, Australian Guitar Magazine, Tone Deaf, The AU Review and TheVine.
An avid gig-goer, David normally averages over 200 shows a year, ranging from DIY house shows to huge-scale stadium and arena performances.
This was brought to national attention in November of 2017, when triple j‘s Drive presenters Gen Fricker and Lewis Hobba interviewed David live on air, and again in 2024 when David became the Guinness World Record holder for “Most Concerts Attended In One Year”. He was profiled on ABC News Breakfast and was also featured on Have You Been Paying Attention? and The Project.
Photo: Bree Wilkinson.
David also made music and performed live for over a decade as the frontperson of Australian band Nothing Rhymes with David, who released their final studio album sky lonely in December 2020.
Outside of music, David is passionate about stand-up comedy, film, theatre, podcasts and pro-wrestling. He has written about each extensively in his professional career, both interviewing subjects involved and reviewing works from these fields.
David was also the host of two popular Australian podcasts, All My Friends Are in Bar Bands and Hottest 100s and 1000s. You can find out more about those here.
David is on the Autism spectrum, which has also lead him to be an outspoken advocate for those that live on it. He is also proudly bisexual.
If you’ve read this far, he’s thankful for your time.
David James Young 