Drea is a powerhouse vocalist able to launch
When Andrea Onamade was roped in to carry out at her highschool’s expertise competitors, she wasn’t anticipating a lot.
She wasn’t even competing — she had gained the earlier 12 months — and as reigning champ, it was her job to carry out whereas the visiting judges deliberated.
“I was singing and one of the judges was one of the lecturers at WAAPA (WA Academy of Performing Arts),” she says. “So he didn’t see me, but he heard me when they were deliberating who the winner was going to be that year. Then he approached me afterwards, and he was like, ‘Hey, I don’t know how you feel about studying music, but it’d be really cool if you could audition for WAPPA at the end of this year.”
Onamade did go on to audition and acquired a place on the prestigious academy, and also you solely must hearken to her powerhouse vocals to grasp precisely why a WAAPA lecturer can be so eager to have her in school.
Now Onamade, who goes by the stage identify of Drea, is impressing music lovers in all places along with her music — an ultra-cool mixture of R’n’B, hip hop and gospel.
“I was born into a musical family,” Onamade says. “My dad plays a lot of instruments at church. And my mum sings. So we were always surrounded with music,” she says.
The household was concerned within the Pentecostal church, and Onamade has been singing in gospel choirs from concerning the age of eight. As she obtained older, she began performing within the household band.
“My family and I started this thing called Expression, a gospel band,” she says. “Keys, drum, bass vocals, but gospel music. My mum, my sister and I would sing, my dad was kind of managing everything. My brother would play the drums and we’d ask our other friends to come help us out and play instruments and sing as well. We did a fair few things, performing in different churches and at different events.”
As a youngster, Onamade says her style in music began to increase outwards from the church — she was an enormous Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande fan. And then she found Frank Ocean, the avant-garde rapper and alt-R’n’B singer-songwriter. She describes first listening to his music as a “turning point”.
“My friend was like, ‘Hey, have a listen to Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange. And that completely changed the way that I listen to music,” Onamade says. “It was a different side of R’n’B and a genre that I’ve been listening to for ages but I didn’t really know that was the alternative side of it. So I started to listen to more of that. Kaytranada, GoldLink — there are so many artists that I could mention, but those are definitely the ones that changed the way that I viewed music, but also performed.”
“I still take a lot of inspiration from gospel sound because it’s what I grew up on and it’s what my voice matches, but I learnt very early on you don’t want to imitate anyone. You can take inspiration but you have to be yourself. And once I learnt that that’s when I created my sound.”
With an EP slated for launch later this 12 months, it’s a sound extra persons are positive to wish to hearken to.
Songs to stream: Yellow, Sonder, Keep It Classy.
Smol Fish are prepared for large issues
If you might have been watching native bands round Perth at any level up to now 5 years, likelihood is you might have seen Smol Fish.
“We did heaps of gigs in the first few years. We just said yes to everything,” frontwoman Clancy Davidson says. “We were doing two to three gigs a week in those first few years.”
Their apprenticeship served them properly. The 4 piece of Davidson, Hannah Coakley, Josie Offer and Cat Zoler, at the moment are veterans of the dwell music scene and have constructed up a loyal fan base with their catchy-as-hell indie pop sound.
Three of the band members met in highschool, however Smol Fish was fashioned in 2018, the 12 months after they left college when Davidson who was finding out a music diploma, was feeling uninspired by her coursework. She determined to jot down some songs, roped in some buddies to assist her report them and as she says “the rest is history.”
They launched their debut EP sooky la la in 2021, with the one Sad Girl Summer rapidly changing into a fan favorite. The band just lately launched a brand new single, Big Love, teasing their forthcoming EP Crocodile Tears.
“It’s the first time me and Clancy have shared songwriting duties which is really cool,” Coakley says. “We’ve been playing together so long now we’re trying out some different stuff and growing a little bit, which is really cool.”
Davidson says she is happy for followers to listen to the evolution of the band’s sound on Crocodile Tears.
“The more recent evolution of our sound has become a bit heavier, and maybe a bit more grown up, it’s just a bigger sound,” Davidson says. “We have more distortion on the guitars and it’s heavier.”
As for the longer term, Davidson says the band have misplaced none of their enthusiasm for the stage.
“We’d love to, at some stage, do a headline national tour or hopefully get some support slots for tours,” Davidson says. “That would be cool. And we’re both writing, writing all the time.”
Expect massive issues from Smol Fish.
Songs to stream: Sad Girl Summer, Cry All The Time, Big Love
Anesu finds their voice in protest and pleasure
When the Black Lives Matter motion ricocheted around the globe in 2020, the problems that have been out of the blue thrust into the highlight resonated deeply with Anesu.
Having misplaced their brother in 2019 in an act of violence, Anesu was fast to place up their hand to assist organise the BLM rally in Perth.
As a part of their involvement, they provided to learn a poem — written in response to their brother’s dying. They had little concept their phrases, written from a spot of anger and despair, would change the course of their life.
“I wrote a poem dedicated to what I was feeling at that time,” Anesu explains. “And I performed it at the BLM rally, and it got a lot of attention and people really liked and resonated with that poem. I was like, ‘Okay, what can I do, like to further this idea?’ I made it into a song called Black Girl … and that’s how it came about.”
Anesu rapidly turned a daily on Perth levels. There was a right away buzz. But their ascent has been removed from typical. Anesu didn’t even personal their very own microphone or laptop computer once they began performing round Perth. Before 2020, placing their music into the world had consisted of little greater than importing their lyrics to a web site the place aspiring rappers would go to share lyrics and get suggestions on songs.
“Basically you write your raps, and you upload it to this website. And then there’s like a community of people that give feedback,” Anesu explains. “I was 13 years old trying to be like Eminem. I was like, ‘How many rhymes can I fit into one like, bar?’ And obviously, I didn’t have anything to say. Just random whinging from a child. But as I grew older and started having more experiences I started having a bit more of a sense of identity and discovering my story and what I wanted to say.”
After the BLM rally, Anesu discovered themselves in scorching demand, regardless of having nearly no expertise performing dwell. They credit score, partly, the closed borders to their busy schedule. With no touring artists, venues have been pressured to look inwards, and in 2020 Anesu estimates they carried out in “50 to 70 shows”.
“I think people saw my potential and saw that I was passionate about what I wanted to do, and they kept giving me opportunities, which is so crazy,” Anesu says. “Because I didn’t have any equipment to practise on at home. So my rehearsal space was literally on stage. And I didn’t have a laptop or a microphone until maybe a year ago.”
The observe Black Girl created loads of early buzz for Anesu, and their follow-up MELANIN cemented them as an artist to look at. Earlier this 12 months they ventured past WA — to Melbourne and Sydney to carry out, together with showing on the Sydney Mardi Gras (Anesu identifies as queer and trans).
Born in Zimbabwe, Anesu was 5 when their mom moved their household to Sydney. Anesu returned to Zimbabwe aged eight, earlier than spending two years dwelling in Bali and attending a global college, earlier than finally transferring to Perth once they have been 12. It’s this vary of experiences and outlooks Anesu brings to their music, which they are saying is entwined with their political activism.
“I do call myself a musician and an activist because those things happened at the same time,” they are saying.
“When it comes to my music, the way that I go about politics has changed since Black Girl. But at that time, obviously, I had a lot of anger, rightfully so, at a lot of things that I was going through at the time. I’ve since learnt and realised that Black joy and Black resilience is also part of activism. It doesn’t need to be blood, sweat and tears every single day. You also need to be mindful of your emotional capacities, otherwise, you burn out really quickly.”
No doubt Anesu’s star will proceed to burn vibrant.
Songs to stream: Black Girl, MELANIN, Crown.
Teenager Elianie is in luck with energy pop
When Elianie performed Neon Picnic, the competition organised by native radio station RTRFM, this 12 months, it wasn’t her first time in entrance of a crowd. But contemplating her greatest gig earlier than that time was headlining a primary party, it was fairly the step up.
The 15-year-old might need to get used to crowds which have all their tooth as a result of there’s a severe buzz surrounding the Helena College scholar whose whimsical pop songs have made her a finalist on radio station Triple J’s Unearthed High School competitors.
Elianie began writing songs 4 years in the past. But it wasn’t till she realised a classmate of her older sister, Calvin Bennett, was a music producer, that she managed to report her songs.
“I reached out to him at the start of 2022,” Elianie says. “I’d wanted to record something and put it out for a while. I’d written this song in mid-2021 that I really loved, it was called Moonlight. I sent it to Calvin and asked if we could record it sometime. We recorded that song with his equipment in my bedroom and I released it not long after, and that kind of kickstarted everything.”
Her newest launch, and entry to Unearthed High, is Out Of Luck, an upbeat pop tune with intelligent lyrics showcasing Elianie’s droll sense of humour and knack for a catchy pop hook.
“It’s just cool,” Elianie says of constructing music. “Releasing songs is the coolest thing ever.”
She performs piano and ukulele and has set herself a objective to study guitar. “I think gigging will be a lot easier with a guitar,” she causes. And she has massive plans for her future profession.
“I’m going to study music. I just want to graduate and then go make music. Reach out to cool creatives … Hopefully, my music will let me travel a bit. Support people I love on tour and have my own headline someday.”
Songs to stream: Out Of Luck, Moonlight.
Joan and the Giants prepared for large issues
Aaron Birch and Grace Newton-Wordsworth hail from reverse ends of this nice State, and should by no means have met had it not been for an insistent buddy.
Birch, who’s from Beagle Bay, a distant Aboriginal neighborhood within the Kimberly, was finding out at UWA and dwelling in St Catherine’s residential faculty in 2014. While Newton-Wordsworth, who grew up within the South-West, was sometimes visiting Perth and crashing on a buddy’s flooring at St Catherine’s.
“One of Grace’s really good friends was like two doors down from me. So she would always come over and then one day they forced us to meet and play a song together,” Birch explains.
Newton-Wordsworth laughs and protests: “I’m going to tell it from my perspective!”
“This friend of mine kept saying ‘you’ve got to meet this boy,” Newton-Wordsworth says. “He plays guitar, he’s a bit of a cutie’. And then one day she forced us into a room and said ‘you have to play a song.’ We didn’t even talk. We just played an Ed Sheeran song and it was super awkward and then I just moonwalked out of the room.”
Luckily, they managed to moonwalk again to one another, and 9 years on the couple – in life and music – are one half of the music powerhouse which is Joan and the Giants. Despite having been enjoying collectively for nearly a decade, the duo fashioned Joan and the Giants in 2019 with Riley Sutton and Liam Olsen. But simply as they have been getting going, all the pieces, properly, stopped.
“Looking back it was probably a blessing because a lot of things we had in the works I don’t think we’re quite ready for as a band,” Birch says of the COVID-induced pause button on the band’s plans. “We had a couple of years break where we developed our songwriting. We used to host this thing every Sunday night called Cozy Down Lockdown, which was just us on Insta Live playing songs. We used to write new songs to try out on Instagram so it was really good. It forced us to sit and write.”
That enforced incubation interval paid off for the band. They just lately gained the WA Music Award for Best Rock Song for his or her observe Cool Kid. They have simply wrapped up their first nationwide headline tour in assist of one other single, Sleep Alone, and are revving up for a giant 12 months – they’ve spent the previous month within the studio recording new music and are one of many most-buzzed-about acts acting at Brisbane’s Bigsound, an annual showcase of the perfect new music within the nation. And Newton-Wordsworth says they’ve a “bunch of plans” for subsequent 12 months as properly.
Songs to stream: Cool Kid, Sleep Alone, Slow Motion, Home Song
Angie Colman is able to social gathering
For one of many hottest artists in WA, Angie Colman’s origin story has the sort of whimsy you may discover within the lyrics of a, properly, of a Angie Colman tune.
“I kind of grew up writing songs,” Colman says of her begin within the music business. “About four years ago I played a song for a friend of mine who was running a backyard festival. And he said, ‘oh, that’s awesome. You can you can start, you can play the first slot’ and I thought, ‘oh my God. OK, fine.’ And ever since then, that’s how I’ve been, like playing music.”
The formation of her band appears equally serendipitous – she met her bass participant at a celebration, and her drummer whereas working behind a bar. She was operating an open mic evening and recruited a guitarist, after which with the addition of a keyboard participant final 12 months, the band was full.
“Things just fell into place really beautifully,” Colman says.
Her lyrics, compelling voice and knack for a catchy hook have been attracting followers throughout the nation. Her first two singles, 2021’s Maths and 2022’s Who Are You After Me? showcased her songwriting chops however her newest single, the catchy No Party! which dropped in March, is Colman’s most assured launch but – and indie-pop bop good for a, erm, social gathering.
“It’s been great, it’s a really fun song. It goes really well at live gigs because people know the words,” Colman says. She says working with the band has meant an evolution of the Angie Colman sound.
“Now that I work with a band I think we have developed a more cohesive sound. I would say more alternative rock. There are a lot of folk and songwriter stylings in there, but I would say alternative rock with pop and folk.”
Colman is releasing a brand new observe, River Song on August 31, and has plans for a much bigger launch in November when there’ll nearly undoubtedly be a celebration to have fun.
Songs to stream: Who Are You After Me?, No Party!, Maths
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
