I don’t think I could even do PhatPhusions if I wasn’t at fbi, from just the networking to the curation. 110% of it comes from fbi, being a host and finding music and listening to new music.
If there’s one person uplifting the next generation of Sydney creatives, it’s Ifeoma Obiegbu (or Ify to her friends). Starting out as a poet, Ify brought her effortless charm and passion for music to our airwaves in 2023 as a host of Up For It. Tuning in any day from 7-10am, you wouldn't be able to tell that she’d been awake since 5:00am because of her long commute from Minto, in Sydney’s South-West, to the fbi studios in Redfern.
What you did hear (and can now hear on Thursdays 1-3pm for Lunch) was her easy charisma, deep musical knowledge and warm energy radiating through an incredibly eclectic playlist. One that seamlessly pivots from hardcore, to soul, to baile-funk. Creating the PhatPhusions event series in 2025, Ify continues to alchemise her love of music into tangible, community-driven experiences, hosting local legends like artists like Cherry Rype, Manfredo Lament and DJs like Attu on thoughtfully curated, genre-agnostic lineups.
Ify sits down with us to talk about her start at fbi, how it created her identity as a cultural curator and all things Sydney music.
fbi.radio Introduce yourself to the reader, who are you?
IFY OBIEGBU My name is Ifeoma Obiegbu but people call me Ify. At fbi.radio I am the host of Thursday Lunch. I’m also on the station's Management Committee as the Youth Vice President. I’m a poet which is my pride and joy. My first love. I’m not a DJ as one might think, but I am a music writer and a journalist and I also assess grants. I also have an event company called PhatPhusions which is for Sydney creatives, musicians and DJs. And I’m a Taurus.
fbi.radio How did you first get involved at fbi.radio?
IFY OBIEGBU It was circa-2022. I was working at a shoe store and writing poetry - that was my main thing. But I was really getting involved and falling in love with the local music scene. I knew I had a passion for talking about music, but I didn’t know where I wanted to direct my life. One of my gorgeous coworkers (God’s grace) was like “hey, you should apply for fbi.radio, I just saw that they’re hosting new presenters and I think you’d be really cool for it.” And I doubted myself for a long time until I pretty much applied. That was where it all started, where it all began. I just applied, and history was made... I should say.
fbi.radio What drew you to it?
IFY OBIEGBU It was pretty much just a sense of community. When I started looking into the radio station as a whole, it was very much people forward, it was music forward. That was at the heart of what the station does, which is where I wanted to be. It’s what I needed for myself at the time.
fbi.radio what do you enjoy about working in the music scene at such an up and coming, grassroots level?
IFY OBIEGBU I think it’s the proximity. The closeness and proximity you have to the music, the art and the people. For example, let’s say you’re listening to Beyonce - it’s great, you can relate to Beyonce, but you can’t easily access her at a gig down the road. Whereas the music that comes from Sydney, if I like something and I do most of the time, I’m easily accessible to that artist and to their art, and to their community that they from. I think that’s what I like the most about the kind of music that the scene produces.
fbi.radio Talk to us about PhatPhusions then. What made you start it?
IFY OBIEGBU I wanted to continue growing what I found at fbi. Coming to fbi, I found a sense of real community and real family which was nice. But then I got a good look at the broader music scene in Sydney and realised that there was still a lot of separation where separation just didn’t need to be had. I also wanted to go to a gig or to an event and experience as much in one go as possible.
I wanted to have people on the lineup that was so drastically different from each other, that could learn from each other, that could support each other in a different way, and I wanted to have people intermingle that wouldn’t normally be in the same room together. So having a hardcore band and then a jazz-DJ... I just wanted the weirdest people to come together and form a community so we could just have a stronger sense of belonging and connection within the scene.
fbi.radio What do you like about curating events like this? Is it something that you think has been missing in Sydney? Do you think it’s also an expression of what you want to find?
IFY OBIEGBU PhatPhusions is more-so an expression of what I wanted to see. Less of myself, more of just want I think needed to be there... What was missing from the scene. Which isn’t to say that people weren’t throwing events and parties like this, but I wanted it to be closer, more tight knit. I also just wanted more people that hadn’t had that kind of experience to gain that experience and to be in rooms like that. To say that they've been on a stage and performed their music to people that they don’t know. There were so many events and still are so many events running that platform, and really cool artists. But I wanted to give a chance to the people that are the underdogs, that only have one song on streaming, or don’t have a song on streaming, or are just learning to DJ, you know? That was what I wanted to see more of. It’s not really about myself and more so what I can do for the community in the little ways that I can do.
fbi.radio are you finding a lot of these artists through fbi.radio?
IFY OBIEGBU Yes, 110% yes. I don’t think I could even do PhatPhusions if I wasn’t at fbi, from just the networking to the curation. The curation, 110% of it comes from fbi, being a host and finding music and listening to new music. Being sent music is like the best way, and the main way that I get a chance to platform other people on this stage.
fbi.radio why should people support fbi.radio?
IFY OBIEGBU So people like me can continue to do stuff like this. I think people have it in their minds that supporting fbi is just supporting the station and keeping us running and keeping us open, and a huge part of that is. But supporting fbi also entails having these individual hosts, producers, volunteers, staff members go out and continue to build the city with their own hands, and do that outreach, continue to touch on community and to bring it back to the pillar of fbi.radio. You’re not just supporting us as a station, but you’re supporting each and every individual member of the community and those artists that you love, which are local. The stuff that we do isn’t just for the station, but it’s a bigger part of the city at hand. We can’t really do that stuff that we do as individuals, as people in the scene, if we don’t have fbi.radio. At least I can say that for myself. If I didn’t have fbi, I wouldn’t be able to do 90% of what I do in the community.
fbi.radio what would you like to see more of in the Sydney scene?
IFY OBIEGBU If you asked me this question a year or two ago, my answer would have been completely different. But with the way things are going and the money being invested into the scene, things are changing.
I think what I want to see is community engagement that has been building up. There have been little bubbles and pockets of the scene that are starting to really thrive and grow and their outreach has been crazy - I just want to see that x 100. I want to see more of the walls knocked down between each of these bubbles and communities and scenes that are ever present within the scene, and I think we still have a lot more communities and scenes that are ever present in the scene.
I think we still have a lot more intermingling to do and just we have to be less afraid of each other. I want to see us put our feet forward to explore things that we could be scared of, whether that be genres or other people. I also want to see more women at the forefront of these kinds of things behind the scenes. I want more female producers, more female event runners, or just non-male event runners. The kind of community that a woman can put forward at the forefront is very, very beautiful and I think that needs to be flourished, and tended to a little bit more.
I just want to see us Kumbaya, be cohesive, have unity, and just make art. I just want us all to make art in a really gorgeous and beneficial way to all of us.
fbi.radio what’s one thing that people don’t know about fbi.radio that they should know?
IFY OBIEGBU That in the least egotistical way possible, fbi genuinely runs the scene in every way possible that you can imagine. I think we put a lot of emphasis on the bigger artists that have come from fbi like Flume, Ninajirachi, even Genesis Owusu. But once again, there are always like three hundred volunteers rolling in and out of those doors, doing things behind the scenes that you didn’t even think capable of happening. And those people have gone on to do great things behind the scenes in this city. Think about when you go to a gig at Oxford Art Factory, or even Hordern Pavillion. There’s a big chance that the sound guy came from fbi, or learned a thing or two at fbi.radio.
We put emphasis on the fact that we’re a training ground, but we really are a place for people to come in and learn skills that would go into any kind of art and any kind of creation notion that they want to put forward. That includes media, that includes TV and film and fashion... I’ve seen chefs at fbi... It's just a melting pot of everything that you can imagine. And those people go on to do great things.
That’s why you should support fbi, because we really put our feet everywhere. We get people to come in and keep adding onto the scene in whatever way they can.
Words by Louisa Christie