This episode I was lucky enough to have a old good knees up with a friend I’ve got to know working in the video biz; Director of Photography / DJ / music producer / editor / creator extraordinaire Arlen Figgis!
Growing up in an incredibly creative household and leaving school at 16 to pursue DJing and rave culture during the birth of the drum and bass scene, it was clear Arlen was never going to have a boring life.
Since his early days DJing at Kool FM, he’s filmed years of Gumball 3000 with the likes of Dirty Sanchez and Tony Hawk, toured Europe making cult skate film Zootopia, and even built a stage that now tours UK music festivals like Latitude, Boomtown and Bestival, so it’s no surprise that Arlen had more than a few stories to share when I joined him in his incredible self-built studio at his house in North London.
If you want to check out Arlen’s work or get in touch with him, be sure to check out his instagram @arlenrok and website www.arlenfiggis.com which also has photos of his amazing studio that I fail to do justice in describing at the top of the episode.
Finally, make sure you check out www.shack.events/ to find out which UK festival Arlen’s awesome Shack will be rocking next.
Thanks as always for listening and I’ll catch you in the next episode!
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This episode I was lucky enough to have a old good knees up with a friend I’ve got to know working in the video biz; Director of Photography / DJ / music producer / editor / creator extraordinaire Arlen Figgis!
Growing up in an incredibly creative household and leaving school at 16 to pursue DJing and rave culture during the birth of the drum and bass scene, it was clear Arlen was never going to have a boring life.
Since his early days DJing at Kool FM, he’s filmed years of Gumball 3000 with the likes of Dirty Sanchez and Tony Hawk, toured Europe making cult skate film Zootopia, and even built a stage that now tours UK music festivals like Latitude, Boomtown and Bestival, so it’s no surprise that Arlen had more than a few stories to share when I joined him in his incredible self-built studio at his house in North London.
If you want to check out Arlen’s work or get in touch with him, be sure to check out his instagram @arlenrok and website www.arlenfiggis.com which also has photos of his amazing studio that I fail to do justice in describing at the top of the episode.
Finally, make sure you check out www.shack.events/ to find out which UK festival Arlen’s awesome Shack will be rocking next.
Thanks as always for listening and I’ll catch you in the next episode!
Ep 10 - Nathan Dalah talks founding Fishbowl, systematising growth and changing fast-food culture
So How Did I Get Here? with Sam Lax
5 years ago
Ep 10 - Nathan Dalah talks founding Fishbowl, systematising growth and changing fast-food culture
This week I was joined by Nathan Dalah - one of the young gun co-founders of Australia’s quickest growing healthy restaurant chain, Fishbowl. From the opening of their flagship Bondi store in 2016, Nathan and his business partners Nick and Casper set out with a bold goal - to change fast food and its culture. Specialising in made to order salads with a Japanese twist, the trio’s growing restaurant empire is arguably doing just that - at the time of writing, they have 13 stores; having just expanded out of Sydney and into Melbourne.
At university Nathan enjoyed cooking and hosting, but like a lot of people he didn’t really know what he wanted to do. He changed degrees several times, nearly bought a cafe in the heart of UTS and eventually dropped out altogether to move to America where he was exposed to a ‘new wave’ of quick casual restaurants. Inspiration from these restaurant experiences melded with his love for Japanese cuisine and when Nathan returned to Sydney, he teamed up with his two mates; bringing the sum total of their professional hospitality experience to one bar job; to make a go of it. The rest as they say, is (a very brief) history.
In our chat, Nathan walks me through the Fishbowl journey and offers an insight into what makes the business tick today; from working as a yacht cleaner to earn the first down payment on their flagship store, to the apps, systems, spaces and people that make up the rapidly scaling Fishbowl enterprise. We also talk about the culture the guys have built around their food - complementing their product with design-driven spaces, curated music, house sports teams, run clubs, events and more. Finally, Nathan leaves us with a tantalising glimpse of what’s on the horizon for the business.
I left this chat with Nathan feeling super inspired, so I hope it gives you a similar tingle too. If it did, please let me know with a punny food themed review and be sure to share the episode with a friend.
Keep up with all things fishbowl at their website, on their instagram (fishbowl_sashimi
) and watch those spaces for their soon to come app too.
Music: Young & Reckless - Young Kartz
Thanks for listening!
So How Did I Get Here? with Sam Lax
This episode I was lucky enough to have a old good knees up with a friend I’ve got to know working in the video biz; Director of Photography / DJ / music producer / editor / creator extraordinaire Arlen Figgis!
Growing up in an incredibly creative household and leaving school at 16 to pursue DJing and rave culture during the birth of the drum and bass scene, it was clear Arlen was never going to have a boring life.
Since his early days DJing at Kool FM, he’s filmed years of Gumball 3000 with the likes of Dirty Sanchez and Tony Hawk, toured Europe making cult skate film Zootopia, and even built a stage that now tours UK music festivals like Latitude, Boomtown and Bestival, so it’s no surprise that Arlen had more than a few stories to share when I joined him in his incredible self-built studio at his house in North London.
If you want to check out Arlen’s work or get in touch with him, be sure to check out his instagram @arlenrok and website www.arlenfiggis.com which also has photos of his amazing studio that I fail to do justice in describing at the top of the episode.
Finally, make sure you check out www.shack.events/ to find out which UK festival Arlen’s awesome Shack will be rocking next.
Thanks as always for listening and I’ll catch you in the next episode!
