Fighting the fear, finding inspiration, and staying true to the vision, always. If you haven’t heard about these artists on the rise, it’s only a matter of time. In collaboration with Bigsound, we got acquainted with 12 acts making their mark on the local and international scene – from Levi’s Music Prize-winner Emerson Snowe and RUSSH Man Didirri, to punk frontwoman and junior doctor Annabel Liddell of Miss June. Diverse in sound, with a common mission to create. These close encounters left us feeling inspired.
“I want to be open to everything. I don’t want to deny myself happiness just to get into a weird [creative] headspace ... But I feel like it’s easy for me to say because I’ve found what comes naturally to me now.”
“I’m inspired by nature, and Lou Reed. I guess you’d say [my music] is organic.”
"I started making music as an outlet of expression, and then it turned into something a bit bigger than that. And I thought, tight, let’s roll with this."
“I always try to embrace [my] cultural roots in some shape or form in my music. It feels good. It makes me feel like I am ... at home.”
“I feel inspired most days, by most things ... I try and write every day in some context, even if it’s a line.”
“Being up on stage, for me ... I feel like it’s when I am truly myself. It’s kind of like I’m reading my diary to everyone; for me it’s like my therapy. It relaxes me, it energises me ...”
“When you experience something that reminds you of what it means to be human, you are probably in the optimum state of mind to write a song ... The desire to reproduce that feeling is a big motivator. We are suckers for the classic love song and we're not ashamed of it.”
“I grew up skating on the sunshine coast and that changed into music ... I was obsessed with it and I still am. It’s the most fulfilling thing I could do with my life.”
“We’ve talked as a band about ... keeping our energy bouncing off each other and not giving a fuck who was watching or who we were trying to impress ... and that’s the biggest thing that lets you overcome fear is if you can look next to you and know that we’re all in it together.”
“The first thing to know about this project in particular is it’s kind of the start of my life’s work. I’ve been in various projects in the past and work with other artists but it just feels like now this is the most honest thing that I’m doing.”
Two People
“Getting to the point where you can sit there with a finished record in your hand and you know you’ve put your whole self into it is very rewarding, yet we feel like we don’t have a choice. It feels necessary for us to make music, especially now, at this time in our lives.”
“Being on stage is the perfect balance of being absolutely terrified and super excited ... our music is our own escapism and hopefully escapism for people who listen to it.”
