John Seed interviews Peter Garrett of "Midnight Oil"

PG: It's no longer satisfactory or acceptable for anybody, whether they are a musician or a manager or a kid to ignore the extraordinary pressures that are being placed on the important natural parts of the world, including places like the Ecuadorian forest. It is entirely fitting and I guess natural for Midnight Oil to want to commit a track and we hope that people listen and we hope that they get energised, we hope that they turn off their computers and turn up somewhere and defend the natural world.

JS: The Midnight Oil track "Frontier ... What Frontier?" opened my eyes to the origins of a lot of the racial injustices that have taken place in Australia. Its similar in many ways in Ecuador and all connected to the desecration of the natural world.

PG: Well, if you sort of peel back the covers a little bit you often find in places that are on the cutting edge of going up in smoke, that the beautiful areas, the forests, the remote regions have always been somebody's home and quite often indigenous people are facing overwhelming odds in trying to have a say about what happens to their land and I think we've always felt that it is very important to try in our own small way to lend them a hand in their struggle.

JS: What is you view of the future?

PG: I think that people are beginning to wake up to the real preciousness of the world and questioning quite strongly the direction that things are going in. And that it is only really a matter of time before that momentum and energy builds to such a level that we will be able to change the course of the good ship a little and offer up some possibilities for living in balance in the 21st century.

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diana Ah naid:

"Music plays a big part in taking messages to the world" she told me, "and music has been a big help in my life since the very beginning. There are people on the North Coast of NSW where I base myself who started some of the earliest huge rainforest protest movements which is really inspiring to the younger generation like me. My dad taught me about the big hamburger companies chopping down rainforests and I've never eaten a Big Mac. The same goes for Coke, they're too big, polluting of the whole world.

Most of us need petrol but we can change over to natural gas and alternative power and all these things are very important for the future of the planet. Musicians and artists can take that message out to a broad range of people cause it all starts with small things like education.

I didn't get enough environmental education at school but now its improving though far from perfect as yet. Thats why groups like the RIC and environmental collaborations and CD's and concerts that raise money for that kind of thing are very important.

Musicians can produce revenue for taking care of the Earth and thats something we can do and want to do.

Look after the planet to whatever extent you can."

diana was nominated for best female Australian vocalist at this year's ARIA music awards and is currently working on new material for her 3rd album.