Interview: West Thebarton

PHOTO CREDIT: Nick Astanei
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE AU REVIEW, MAY 2018

The debut album from West Thebarton – Different Beings Being Different – will finally be unleashed on to eager fans this Friday and we can safely guarantee that for the Adelaide fans who have been on the journey with the seven piece since the beginning, this is the perfect culmination of what’s been a grind of a career over the last three years.

Pangs of nostalgia and a familial love hit hard with each reference to Adelaide watering holes and the venues that have held the band (and their other projects) up through the years; a portrait of terrain well trodden by these musicians who have been quick to establish themselves as a South Australian rock behemoth still gaining speed.

To speak with any of West Thebarton about their successes up to this point, and the impressive international and domestic commitments they’ve already got in the calendar as 2018 enters its second half, there’s no ego. And there never has been.

“It’s so humbling.” vocalist and guitarist, Ray Dalfsen says. “Growing up in Adelaide, you watch bands slog it out and you watch bands really hustle; you’re used to seeing them piss off to the east coast before they get a record deal. I guess Bad//Dreemswere the vanguard of that here and it feels really nice to be like, ‘You know what; I’m kinda setting the precedent for bands being able to stick it out in Adelaide’. To do well and show that that slog and hard work, playing to ten people in the crowd early in your career, is worth it if you’re ready to capitalise on things and ready to put in the hard yards.”

Set to release Different Beings Being Different on the newly formed Domestic La La record label, helmed by Violent Soho‘s James Tidswell, West Thebarton have found themselves in the same company as Dear Seattle – making this roster one that has started out strong.

“There’s this funny photo of Tom Gordon with Tids at the 2011 or 2010 Laneway Festival,” Dalfsen laughs. “It’s pre-pubescent looking Tom with his idol and it’s really surreal to think, ‘Oh shit – we’re on a label with not only someone who gives a shit about us, but someone who is so passionate about our music,’ after we’ve been listening to theirs for so long.”

“Around 14 months ago, when the album was all done and stuff, we were ready to just put it out ourselves. Somehow that’s grown into releasing it on Domestic La La. It’s definitely been a learning curve and it’s definitely been a cool ride.”

The ride is only just beginning too, with a massive national tour set to take West Thebarton through June, before their first international jaunt awaits. With festival appearances at Reading and Leads, Pukkelpop in Belgium just the tip of the iceberg, the band is making their entrance to the UK and European market a memorable one.

“We’re all really humble people, you know that.” Dalfsen says, looking ahead at the band’s next few months. “I don’t think we’ve ever bought into expecting those things; it is still so awesome playing these gigs. When we got told we were playing Reading and Leeds, we were freaking out. When we got told we were playing Splendour, we were still freaking out; when the line up got dropped, we were all just talking about how good it was going to be just to be at the festival. Then we realised, ‘Oh shit – we’re playing this festival, how awesome is that?'”

“We’re all just super hyped and that’s what makes the band so fun, in the first place. We get to do things that are just awesome. I’ve been watching videos from Reading Festival since I was a kid. Arctic Monkeys videos from 2007. To think that we’ll be playing Reading is just awesome.”

Approaching these shows obviously brings some nervous apprehension, but sometimes it also pays to feed into this energy and churn out the frenetic live shows Australian crowds have been associating with West Thebarton for some time now.

“I went to Primavera a couple of years ago,” Dalfsen says. “I was thinking, ‘How’s this going to go?’ – like, I doubt The Replacements could speak Portuguese and everyone was just vibing on it because it was a rock and roll show. Run the Jewels was the same – it was an awesome show and it didn’t matter than it wasn’t in the language. The language barrier doesn’t exist, as much as a cliche that is.”

“A good friend was telling me a couple of weeks ago, ‘You only have one debut album.'” he furthers. “You only have one debut album, so lap it up. That’s all that’s really going through my head; we’re getting all these chances and I’m so thankful for them because essentially, we’re untested. We haven’t had a debut album and we haven’t played to international crowds who have never seen or heard us at the Exeter before. We’ll get that chance and I can’t wait. Us playing live is really our strong point, so showing it to crowds overseas is going to be nuts.”

Before they tackle international shores though, there’s this little matter of their Australian tour to conquer first. With Pist Idiots and a slew of selected local bands on for the ride, West Thebarton are aiming to bring Different Beings Being Different to the stage in full.

“We’re making sure the tour is going to be tight,” Dalfsen says. “These are the biggest rooms that we’ve headlined to date. We’re going to be playing a longer show and we want to play the album in full. We haven’t been playing it in full, so that’s something we’ve been rehearsing. We’ve been actively writing new songs as well. Because there’s seven of us, someone’s always got an idea.”

“I’m in the pre-season at the moment, I think that’s what we’re all thinking. Being at the eye of the storm is the best descriptor of it, I think things are really going to kick off and it’s going to be awesome fun. It’s going to be us doing what we do best.”

When you listen to Different Beings Being Different, the authenticity that you see bursting through each West Thebarton show is presented in a pure and unadulterated fashion. There’s anger, there’s euphoria, there’s reflection and there’s an unashamed love of the genre and the environment each member has come up in musically; it’s made this debut album the best snapshot possible of where West Thebarton has come from and the band they are now.

“With “Reasons” as an example, one of the songs around the middle of the record, I had this desire to really show off raw emotion, all those feelings that it made me feel.” Dalfsen explains. “Even when I sing that song live, I feel angry. I feel pent up anger and so much frustration. It’s really funny because when we were recording that, I was getting really angry with myself because I wasn’t happy with the vocal takes. I kept on going at it and I think that is a defining moment of the record because I knew how I wanted things to sound, and it was just getting there that was the tough bit. When we got there, I think all that raw emotion really shone through.”

“I guess that’s a way of describing our career. It’s just slogging it out and it’s really working at it; we know what we want, and it’s getting there.”

Interview: Everything Everything

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE AU REVIEW, AUGUST 2017

An email announcing Everything Everything‘s return to American shores hits my inbox roughly 10 minutes before I find myself on the phone with the band’s vocalist and songwriter Jonathan Higgs; while the band haven’t been on a stage in some weeks, he’s quick to note that their ‘down time’ has been filled with promotion for their new album, A Fever Dream.

Despite the banal elements of doing press cycles and the itch to get back on tour that often presents itself around this time for a band, he’s enthusiastic about heading Stateside again this October.

“The last album did really well in America,” he says. “It’s nice to go back with something new; do it again and do it properly. Just to see our American fans again too; we’ve got a lot out there, which is weird, but’s it cool.”

“It’s a very strange feeling when you go somewhere you’ve never been,” he remembers of earlier visits abroad. “We were somewhere in America and this entire family – Mum, Dad, four kids – had travelled something like 300 miles to where we were. They were all wearing Get To Heaven t-shirts, all of them. This five year old kid! I was like, ‘What the hell is going on? This is so weird.’ It was in being very far from home and having these guys be this into the band that they’d come all that way…it was crazy.”

The band’s reach has extended greatly since 2010’s Man Alive positioned them as a breakthrough British band to keep on your radar, though in 2013’s Arc, Everything Everything experienced more widespread acclaim. In 2017’s A Fever Dream, we see the band as frenetic as ever, though the chaotic nature of the arrangements indicates that this is a group harnessing more greatness in their artistry than we’re likely to have seen previously.

“It feels like the right thing to do,” Higgs says of the album. “The right record to have made and the right way to react to the last couple of years. The right way to react to our previous record. We didn’t want to repeat ourselves, we didn’t want to drastically go against what we’d done. We wanted to develop it and make it a bit more human, a bit more nuanced and a bit more mature. Whatever Get To Heaven was, we wanted to move on properly; see what we’d learned from that record and make it better, move on from some of the stuff we’d done.”

Looking at their now four-album strong body of work as a snapshot of how the band has developed over the past seven or eight years, Higgs reflects on the writing process behind A Fever Dream and how it’s progressed, particularly since Get To Heaven.

“I found it easy.” he says. “I don’t know about the other guys but I think it definitely did [come easier]. We were writing while we were touring Get To Heaven and that made sure that we had a lot of material when we came to the studio. We had hundreds of things and we’d worked together on so much of it, rather than slaving away by ourselves. It was very collaborative.”

“We had a lot of songs before we got to the studio,” he remembers. “Sometimes when you go into the studio; you’re like, ‘Oh shit…’ but this time, we knew we had it down. So often in the past, people have said, ‘[Everything Everything] don’t know who they are, they’re all over the place’ and I’ve thought, ‘Well we do know who we are and we’ll show you, but we’re not going to stay like this – sorry’!”

Everything Everything make their Australian return before the year is out, set to spend the final days of 2017 out our way on the Falls Festival tour. It’s been a while in between drinks, but Higgs assures me that with this record, the band is very much in the best headspace they’ve been for creating and their sights are very much set on what is still to come.

“I feel like we’ve found out who we are in lots of ways, but we’re also still searching. We’re all in a stage now where we’re not young anymore, but we’re not old. We’re in this transitionary period and we’re still figuring it out. We’re much more confident in ourselves.”

Interview: Ecca Vandal

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE AU REVIEW, OCTOBER 2017

Shimmering keys production leads into a pounding marriage of drums and guitar. Enter Ecca Vandal‘s banshee high range, soon to be joined by Jason Aalon Butler‘s guttural notes and punk royalty Dennis Lyxzén. The latest weapon out of Ecca Vandal’s musical arsenal is “Price of Living” – a hip hop licked punk fireball, it’s a statement on the harsh realities asylum seekers face everyday.

Drawing upon some well made networks in bringing this collaboration to life, “Price of Living” is a remarkable example of the way Ecca has managed to defy genre expectations.

She knows it too.

“I’m really passionate about community,” she says. “I’m really passionate about breaking down walls. Normally, you wouldn’t see those particular names together, but why not? That’s my question. Why not? We’re all stuck in our little communities or our pockets of social scenes but it’s like, ‘Why can’t the punks hang out with the hip hop kids? Why can’t the coloured people hang out with the white people?’ – all of those concepts are ones that I think about a lot. I think, conceptually, that’s what I’ve done. I’ve, hopefully, brought people together.”

The long awaited debut album from Ecca Vandal drops on Friday and from what we’ve heard of Ecca Vandal already, the record charts the Melbourne musician’s chaotic journey from “White Flag” to now pretty damn accurately. But while the hype continues to grow and the international interest is getting stronger (Ecca heads out on tour in the UK with Frank Turner & The Rattlesnakes in December), Ecca herself remains calm and collected. If she isn’t, she’s got incredible poker face game.

“I’ve gone through the whole process, you know?” she laughs. “I’ve loved the album, I’ve not known if I’ve liked it, I haven’t been sure if it’s any good. All of those thoughts have gone through my head over the last six months and right now, I’m feeling excited.”

“It is challenging and it does take a lot of energy, thought and time.” she adds. “The self-care that is needed amongst it all is bizarre.”

She reflects on the making of Album Number One with a sense of nostalgia, almost; Ecca Vandal may be the album to bring newcomers to the fold but for the leading lady herself, this has been a long time in the making. A part of a much larger story.

“I felt the progression,” Ecca muses. “I have definitely felt like I’ve grown as a songwriter. I definitely feel that I’ve been the most free in this process. I think I’ve always tried to maintain that sense of freedom and removed any kind of limitations or restrictions applied by styles and genres and categories.”

“I really started that mission a long time ago, but with this particular record, I think it’s really exploratory and I’ve really allowed myself to go into those areas. I didn’t want to put any restrictions on it; in fact, I really wanted to show different sides of myself. There’s so much more vulnerability, I think, in some of these recordings than say, “Battle Royal” or “White Flag”. There are delicate moments and there are really abrasive moments; they’re all part of who I am.”

The tour that is due to kick off around Australia next month brings Ecca to some of the largest venues she’s ever played. From club venues to the Corner Hotel in Melbourne, the excitement she speaks with is infallible.

“Everything is really interesting in terms of the live process,” she says. “It’s been recorded and tracked already, so we’re trying to work out how to do that in the live atmosphere. Everyone is playing everything live and I’m really proud of that, that we don’t have to rely on other backing tracks. It’s going to be a fun run of shows; these are my biggest shows, so it is nerve wracking but it is exciting. I mean, I’m going to play the Corner Hotel, it’s an iconic venue!”

While artists like Ecca have the platform to switch things up, musically and performance-wise, in bringing music fans an experience they can properly sink their teeth into and escape the normal banalities of life through, it’s still a struggle in a lot of ways. While, to many, Ecca Vandal is still a new name; the graft she, Kidnot and her band have been putting in extends years prior to now. With Ecca Vandal showcasing the likes of not only Lyxzén and Jason Aalon Butler, but Sampa The Great and Darwin Deez on the credits too, it’s obvious that pushing through restrictions or any boundaries put in place for Ecca, boundaries put in place decades ago, is something this artist relishes.

 perfect contender for stages like that of the annual UNIFY Gathering (where’s her call up, organisers?), the punk fireball we mention at the beginning is only just heating up and getting started.

“I think we’re getting there,” Ecca says, commenting on the diversifying of Australian music. “I think there’s definitely a lot more experimenting happening. I do think there is a lot of great music out there, but I do think a lot of it sounds the same. I think, personally, the magic happens when the combo is right and when you can put different combos together and go, ‘Okay – what can we create?’. That’s when we are actually being really creative, not when we’re being copycats. When we’re being artists and when we’re doing what we’re supposed to do as artists. I think that that’s all in the combination. That’s why I really love having unexpected collaborations and processes. I never thought that I would write a song like this with Darwin Deez, for example, on “Your Orbit”. I think it’s great. It’s about being inclusive and being open minded; it comes down to being up for the adventure of it too.”

“You get challenged and somebody will put an idea forward from a different perspective and you go, ‘Wow – I never thought about it like that,’ and it challenges you to open your thinking process and ultimately, improve. I think that’s a positive thing, it’s a win-win situation. That’s why I’m a massive advocate for embracing that, it’s important for me to keep doing that.”

Interview: Foster The People

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE AU REVIEW, DECEMBER 2017

The last time we caught up with Mark Foster of Foster the People, we were in Chicago; the band was set to play Grant Park’s Lollapalooza, a festival that had come off the back of a trip out to Australia for Splendour, as well as some sideshows to promote their then-latest album, Supermodel.

Even then, it was plain to see how much Foster the People had elevated themselves as a live unit since our introduction to the band in 2011. A formidable band exploring multiple influences that brought them out from under the indie rock umbrella, Foster the People were proving themselves to be more than a flash in the pan act out of Cali.

Fast forward to 2017, and I find myself in contact with Mark once more and the band is in a very different space to where they were when we first met. Returning to Australia for the first time since that Splendour tour for the Falls Festival, Foster the People have not only a new line up to debut for Australian fans – following the departure of Cubbie Fink in 2015 – but a new album too, in Sacred Hearts Club.

Executively produced by Foster, the frontman and songwriter takes me through the process of regrouping and pulling their ideas together for Album Number Three.

“It was the first record where I felt the confidence to be able to go in as a producer and not bring anybody for the bulk of the record.” he admits. “It was me and my band mate Isom [Innis]; the two of us locked ourselves in a studio and really took time to explore and see what the aesthetic was going to be for this record and really wanted to see what kind of music was revealed itself to us, as opposed to going in with somebody else overseeing it and cracking the whip in pushing things forward. I think we were just patient; our label was patient and everybody just said, “Take your time and just explore and see what comes out.””

“The first year in the studio, we just wrote without finishing anything,” he remembers. “We just wrote whatever came to us, whether it was hip-hop or heavily electronic influenced; punk or rock or psychedelic, whatever came we just chased it and then put it aside and started a new idea. By the end of that year, we had about thirty ideas out of eighty or ninety and started to carve out what the record was going to be.”

The end result of Sacred Hearts Club proved to be a significant sonic departure for Foster the People too, as the band explored those electronic, soul and funk influences that clearly trickled down in the early stages of production. As Foster explains, it was a freeing process.

“I think that we were intentional with not wanting the pressure of radio or trying to write a radio single,” he says. “We were really intentional about keeping that in the room and to just write and follow the spirit of creativity. I think that was very different from how we worked in the past; it was highly collaborative.”

“It’s nice to have that kind of support.” he says of the band’s backing from their label and behind the scenes team. “I also think over the years I’ve gotten better, even when that pressure was getting put on, my exoskeleton has gotten tougher. I wouldn’t be nearly as bothered as when I was 25 years old making my first record. At the end of the day I’ve learned how to take my successes and my failures – they’re going to land on my shoulders.”

“I think that there’s things I’ve learned from the past when rushing the process at the end and putting that out prematurely. It’s the worst feeling when you put something out when you didn’t quite feel like it was ready; you just release it and then over time, it’s proven to you that your instinct was right and it wasn’t finished. Now you have to live with that and all the thousands of hours put into that project would have all benefited from just twenty more hours. The last part of the marathon is always the trickiest, because song writing is like staring at the same puzzle for so long. At the end of it, you’re staring at these ten or twelve different puzzles that you think you’ve finished and then you’re stacking them next to each other, trying to sequence it with the whole thing. Making good records is hard.”

Interview: Ruel

PHOTO CREDIT: Michelle Grace Hunder
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY TRIPLE J, OCTOBER 2018

"When people say they don't read the comments, they're lying."

You might remember Ruel's impactful presence on M-Phazes' Like A Version session last year? Perhaps you've been getting in your feelings over his hit singles 'Younger' and 'Dazed and Confused'?

When it comes down to it, it's that huge soulful voice that has brought the 15 year old Sydneysider a huge amount of acclaim in a short period of time. With a headline Australian tour already underway, and highly anticipated European tour dates before the year is out, Ruel has certainly been thrust into a spotlight not many teenagers can relate to.

For Ruel, traversing the often bumpy terrain that is the social media-dominated community is all about percentages. When it comes to dealing with the pressures of maintaining a presence online and in doing so, dealing with online trolling, Ruel's got his own way of managing.

"I’ve never had a problem with being offended with that stuff," he says. "I think I’m pretty lucky. It might be the way I’ve been brought up by my parents or the environment I’ve been in; growing up I didn’t have the greatest friends and the greatest of experiences and I guess that toughened me up for this. When it’s online, I turn it off. Close your eyes. I feel it’s a lot easier to get away from. That might just be me and I can understand why people find it a lot harder, but I haven’t had a huge problem with that."

"When people say they don’t read the comments, they’re lying." he asserts. "Everyone reads the comments, whatever status you’re at. You can’t avoid it. It’s just the way you take them and the way you see it, is the only way you can ignore the hate. You’ve got to put it into perspective, how many people are giving you compliments and how many people are giving you negative comments. When 70% are giving you compliments and 30% aren’t, don’t sweat it at all."

This week will have Ruel back on the road with the Ready EP, after completing a sold out show at The Corner Hotel in Melbourne and heading west to Perth last weekend. Fan footage from those shows are mixture of raised phones, screams, huge sing along sessions and at the centre of it all, a 15 year old simply living his best life.

"As a kid, when you think of being a singer travelling around the world, you think of just the great things." Ruel says. "Getting money, living in mansions, playing to fans. When I was really young, that’s all I thought it was."

"I’ve just noticed how much more it is than that. Obviously I’m still at the very start of my career, but it’s definitely changed in terms of my fans. I try to do a meet and greet after every show for no extra charge. I try and go through the whole crowd and meet everyone who bought a ticket because they bought a ticket to see me – I want to meet them, I want to talk to them. When I talk to them, it’s really cool because when they’re chill, we just have a conversation. It’s not just me having a wall between my fans, it’s cool to almost have a bunch of friends who I can hang out with after a concert."

Ruel's debut EP Ready has accumulated over 50 million streams, while each of his music videos are sitting on a combined view count that exceeds four million. Get him talking about being approached to play Tyler, The Creator's Camp Flog Gnaw festival, and Ruel's response is what you'd expect - "It's a dream come true".

A quick Twitter search will show fans urging Ruel collaborations with fellow young-names-of-the-moment in Khalid, Shawn Mendes and Billie Eilish, while if you search his name on Instagram, you'll quickly notice the amount of fan accounts that have been created for the singer off the back of successful tours of the US and more recently, Japan.

"The first time I was there, I had no idea I had anything close to a fanbase there." he remembers.

"As soon as I got to the hotel, there were fans waiting there giving gifts, little scrapbooks that they’d made. I was so surprised. I was thinking to myself, ‘I wonder what the show’s going to be like now?’ and it was a lot different to what I thought!"

"When I went on stage…they weren’t silent, but they weren’t crazy at all. They were a very respectful audience. Someone told me that if you draw a line between a Japanese fanbase and their biggest idol, and told them not to cross it? No one would. They’re so respectful."

Ruel credits his family and tour team with anchoring him in the midst of what's felt like a tornado of action; having his parents and sisters on the road with him at times has further ensured that he remains centred - definitely still the little brother.

"They’re always going to keep me grounded, no matter what happens." he says. "I’m just around good people and they’re my family. I won’t be getting too big for my boots!"

The lasting effect Ruel's family has had on him and his musical choices even continues to show itself today.

"My dad’s love for music, he’s a huge music nerd," he says. "He’s just influenced me with so many great artists I resonated with at a young age. So much soul, R&B and jazz music. Everything that makes you feel. That’s just resonated with me for a long time. He set up guitar lessons for me when I was 8, actually."

"In this new era of music, I really think it’s about modernising older genres. I feel like the best way to do that is to put young people who have been influenced by that music from a super young age, and take it into a different area. I think that’s what a lot of younger artists are doing [like Khalid] and I think that’s why they’re getting the attention."

Review: Solange - A Seat At The Table (2016)

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE AU REVIEW, OCTOBER 2016

Solange Knowles‘ A Seat At The Table may very well be the album that brings the artist to breakthrough-levels of success but for those who have been following her music for the last few years, this 21-track epic is the result of a creative talent that has been thriving and developing outside the mainstream for quite some time.

The album is an unapologetic yet gorgeous illustration of what it means to be black and the challenges that come with being of colour, especially a woman of colour, today. A Seat At The Table also serves as a tool to remind people, especially newcomers, that Solange is much more than ‘the younger Knowles sister’ and occupies her own creative space. The album is a strong and defining moment for the artist who undoubtedly stands as a figure of admiration and strength for many young women and girls of colour and while she may not be twirling baseball bats into the windows of cars, Solange’s messages on A Seat At The Table ring out just as loud.

She urges the listener to thrive and be comfortable in our own uniqueness, despite whatever imperfections we’re born with on album opener “Rise” – the music is soft, a sentiment that is evident throughout much of A Seat At The Table, but Solange’s smoky, almost wispy thread of an R&B vocal streams through and hypnotises. Her calm and warm vocals wrap you up – she’s not aggressive, but she’s defiant. It’s a type of R&B that we’ve seen Blood Orange execute nigh on flawlessly this year and quite frankly, I’m stoked that it’s happened again with this album.

“Cranes In The Sky” and “Don’t Touch My Hair”, the two album tracks that recently had their music videos released are two of the most powerful on A Seat At The Table. Featuring Sampha, “Don’t Touch My Hair” channels the frustration any woman of colour is likely to have felt at least once – issues of privacy and ownership have been rife within black culture for centuries and as both Solange and Sampha chant, “What you say to me?” gently, their  response is pretty damn loud. “Don’t touch what’s there / When it’s the feelings I wear”, she warns – this an anthem for anyone who has felt like their culture has been relegated to public property or a novelty to be appropriated.

The interludes inserted through the album serve as good turning points and excellent perspective insights; from her parents Matthew Knowles and Tina Lawson going in on integration of schools in Alabama and reverse racism, to the iconic Master Pdetailing his own childhood and the formation of the No Limits label, the emphasis on the importance of self-ownership, empowerment and the ability to rise in the face of adversity is stressed in a flawless way.

Kelly Rowland, Kelela, Lil Wayne, The Dream, BJ The Chicago Kid, Nia Andrewsand Q-Tip feature on A Seat At The Table, highlighting the diverse range of influence Solange has operating in her circle, all weaving together excellently in this tapestry she’s created. There are moments on the album that hark back to her previous work, with songs like “Don’t Wish Me Well” easily being a tune that could have featured on 2012’s True.

What Solange has done with A Seat At The Table is two things that I can tell at this point: she’s created a record that, in an age of surprise releases and visual albums, stands strong in its subtlety and narrative. She’s also produced a collection of music that younger listeners who feel any less than their peers because of their skin colour can take as an album of empowerment, encouragement and celebration.

As she wrote in a blog post detailing her and her family’s experience at a Kraftwerkconcert this year, “We belong. We belong. We belong. We built this.”

Profile: Jaxsta's Humans of Music

PHOTO CREDIT: Lauren Connelly
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY JAXSTA, AUGUST 2018

1) Who are you in the music industry? What’s your story?

Where to start…my career in music journalism started around 2011 when I was living in Adelaide and halfway through an arts degree. I’ve written for a number of online publications, but most people will know me for my work with national music and arts publication, the AU review. I came on board as the site was entering its third year and in 2018, the AU turns ten; needless to say, a lot has changed in the Australian music media scene over that time. I’ve been lucky enough to help take the brand overseas during my time and cover some dream festivals, profile some incredible established and emerging talent both at home and abroad.

In recent years, my work has been featured in Rolling Stone Australia and Beat Magazine while on the more ‘industry’ tip, I’ve been part of the judging panel for the Australian Music Prize since 2016, as well as having served on other award boards including the South Australian Music Awards, NT Song of the Year, The Age Music Victoria Awards and the ARIA’s. I’ve also delved into music publicity this year as well and gotten back into community radio too, as a way to experience the other side and broaden my own experiences and skills.

Since moving to Melbourne in late 2017, I’ve been enjoying connecting with one of the country’s best music communities and finding new artists with stories that need to be heard.

2) If you had to give credit where credit’s due, where would that be? To who? And why?

In terms of kickstarting the journey to where I am now, editors who gave me a start early on, whether that be a free ticket to the first shows I reviewed or the musicians who have been behind me since the beginning; people including Ryan Winter, Larry Heath, Tobias Handke, Urthboy, Andy Bull, James Mangohig, Ali Hawken. Kathy McCabe, for being an early inspiration. In more recent years though, I’ve had a core network of industry colleagues whose support I have found invaluable; the Michelle Grace Hunders, the Leanne de Souzas, the Emily Cheungs, the Kirsty Rivers’, the Helen Marcous’…the list goes on. Passionate people who champion music and their causes wholeheartedly with honesty and intelligence. They’ve helped me a great deal over the years, particularly when navigating the politics of the Australian industry, that can often feel rather exhausting.

3) What are you most excited for this upcoming year? Who should we shine the spotlight on?

I’m excited to be tackling some new projects here in Melbourne. There’s one in particular that is in the baby stages that I’m really looking forward to seeing come to life over the next year. I’m keen to travel more and experience new types of music and artists I’ve not really had much to do with; I’m ready to be challenged and to ~hopefully~ thrive on that challenge. In terms of new music, I’m very keen to see where artists including Kaiit, Alexander Biggs, Tasman Keith, BIRDZ and Marlon Williams go as this year wraps up and 2019 kicks off. These artists, in particular, represent very different corners of music but the way they have captured the attention of a broader music fanbase (and industry base, too) over the last 12 months has been incredible. I’m very excited to see what’s coming next.