About

In the year 2000, when she was still known as Mel Bampton, Lissie sat down in front of a microphone at triple j and started talking to musicians about music, scientists about science and with listeners about life.

For 3 years she sat as host of drive along with Charlie Pickering (The Project/The Weekly) followed by three years as ‘Mel in the Morning’. During this time Lissie had the immense privilege of breaking bread with many of the Gods and monsters of modern music – Radiohead, REM, Mike Patton, Lou Reed, Blondie, The White Stripes and Grandmaster Flash to name but a few - and behind the scenes her love of yoga keeping her swimming during many heady years of music industry mayhem.

Through this prolific time, with some consistent practice by her side, a journey of deep-self inquiry was propagated – observing particularly the insecurities and uncertainties of the human condition that cultivate much of human suffering. Based on her own sleepless nights ruminating on her words to the nation each day, Lissie discovered a restlessness to explore something deeper, that tugged a little stronger each day.

During this time there were many highlights - once a week Dr Karl Kruszelnicki would join Lissie and together they turned the tone from music to science. Other luminaries such as David Suzuki, Dava Sobel and Tim Flannery floated in too.

In 2004 Lissie created and kicked off, Like a Version. A segment that has become one of the most popular in triple j history, spawning more than a dozen compilations, enjoyed by millions and earning a place on the station’s breakfast program – where it lives happily to this day.

In 2004, Lissie’s then producer Jordy Kilby devised The Producer Series, which became her baby for 6 years on the ABC and a further 10 years as it took shape into book form, leading to the release of ‘Off The Record: One Woman’s Global Search For The World’s Greatest Music Producers’ in 2022.

Over two and a half decades Lissie has contributed writing to jmag, Life Etc, Surfing World, BtN, Green Living, Blunt, Tracks, Sydney Morning Herald, Cleo, Cosmo, The Glow, Limelight and many more. For 4 years she was the Music & Film Editor for ‘alternative mainstream’ women’s magazine, yen. Now she reserves her music and copy writing skills only for the finest individuals, such as Angus Stone, Ash Grunwald and Danni Carr, who’s personalities, hilarity and good hearts she cannot resist.

For five years Lissie was the National Media Manager for Soundwave Festival, experiencing the festivals record-breaking year in 2013 as the biggest touring music festival in Australia’s history, as well as survive tours with Marilyn Manson, Iron Maiden, Pennywise, Slayer, Nine Inch Nails, TOOL and hundreds more. Soundwave Festival highlighted Lissie’s love of working with amazing teams of highly skilled legends who could accomplish miracles.

In amongst some of the greatest tales ever lived, all around the world, the tearing desire to be more the Mother Lissie knew she yearned be, became a deafening roar. Courtesy of a liver that decided it was done with such mistreatment and a child who was soon to experience the nightmare of being a young woman in a world where predatory behaviour not only exists but is supported far too often with a dominantly-biased system, Lissie took a step back from the spotlight and turned a 22-year drinking career into a thirst for profoundly calmer and more humble living.

Becoming a Yoga Teacher first, then doing a 4 year Post Grad to become a Yoga Therapist, Lissie, along with her husband built The Yoga Shack - a yoga school that over a decade became legendary, as a place of complete acceptance, a renegade yoga school of deeply respectful honouring of the Krishnmacharya lineage along with a punk ethos that didn’t hold glamour or flexibility of body as it’s bastions but saw the grit as symbiotic with the gold, in everyone. Lissie is the creator of ‘Dissolving Patterns™’ - a 21 day program to dissolve unhelpful and harmful habits, 'Stories from the Sisterhood', ‘Communicating with Courage’ and co-Creator of ‘Living Hormoniously™ - A Human Revolution Through Hormonal Education’. As an internationally registered therapist with the IAYT, who sits on the board of the Australasian Association of Yoga Therapists, Lissie specialises in using the vast tool kit of yoga to assist people with ‘deeply seated’ problems - cancer, autoimmune, endocrine issues, addiction and more - complimenting existing treatments and standalone.

Lissie is the CEO of The Prana Project,a global initiative that connects people back to environment, using the reinvigoration of wounded landscapes as the tool to help people thrive. The Prana Project is the culmination of Lissie’s life’s work in addiction recovery, women’s health, as a vigorous environmentalist, passionate surfer, professional communicator, author, Mother and Grandmother.

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