Everything You Need To Know About WA's Most Popular Acts
Your complete guide to the 2017 WAMAwards Most Popular Act nominees. See the full list of nominees here.
Birds Of Tokyo
In equal parts a radical departure and a return to their epic rock roots, the band released their fifth studio album Brace in 2016. Deploying a heavier, more urgent attitude, the relentless ten-song set was produced with Canadian David Bottrill who had helmed releases for Tool, Muse and Silverchair. Together they created a bold and uncompromising piece of work that debuted at #3 on the ARIA Album Chart, becoming the group’s fifth top five charting record. With new music planned for 2018 they are proof that in an age of ‘tracks’, ‘songs’ and ‘bands’ can still matter.
Drapht
With a platinum record, multi-platinum and gold singles and two ARIA already under his belt, it’s no great secret that Drapht is a songwriting prodigy. Whether you focus on his lyrics, his melodic hooks (or focus on nothing at all and just enjoy yourself) as a songwriter Drapht can pretty much do everything. Each of his four subsequent albums – Pale Rider (2003), Who Am I (2005), Brothers Grimm (2008) and Life Of Riley (2010) – brought increasing levels of complexity and refinement, ascending Drapht to the absolute upper echelon of Australia’s stacked card of hip-hop heavyweights. Already, he is one of the greats.
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Jebediah
Kevin Mitchell, Chris Daymond, Vanessa Thornton and Brett Mitchell were mostly teenagers when they set out: brothers and best mates from some far-flung Perth high school who'd accidentally stumbled into the first division of the global rock'n'roll perpetual and given it a cheeky kick up the arse while running rings around it with guitars in the air. Twenty years later, of course... um, actually, nothing much has changed…
John Butler Trio
Revered for their brilliant live performances and superb musicianship, the John Butler Trio are one of the most successful Australian bands of the current era, both locally and on the world stage. In 2014, the trio’s most recent album, Flesh & Blood, took out yet another accolade - the Aria Award for Best Blues and Roots Album. The band are a constant on the world touring circuit, their avid fans can expect a new studio album to be released early in 2018.
Karnivool
Revolution is a chaotic and unbalanced affair. It challenges the state of things, and for those who revolt against the status quo, it bears both great risk and reward. These truths are as vital in art as they are in any other realm, and it is within these redefining upheavals that Australian hard-rock architects, Karnivool thrive. With their acclaimed LPs, Karnivool established themselves as one of the most vital forces in progressive modern music.
Make Them Suffer
Since the band's inception, Make Them Suffer have been sweeping the nation by storm with a highly addictive blend of contemporary death metal, black metal and deathcore. Fused smoothly together by symphonic texturizing and intricate piano to create a very dark and mature, emotionally driven onslaught of brutality.
Methyl Ethel
The monster that is the new Methyl Ethel album Everything Is Forgotten is a vivid, compelling and mysterious creature, all sinewy, curvaceous pop nuggets and enigmatic currents. But ask its leader, Jake Webb, to explore those enigmas is met with a little resistance. “Ideally, I want the music to speak for itself, rather to present myself,” he explains. “When I was making music alone, before I had the band, it was genderless and without a paper trail of information about my past.”
POND
What do you call a group of psychedelic songsters all grown up? A group who were often considered the younger sibling, who have come into their own? You call them POND, and deliver one of the rowdiest and strongest live sets around.
San Cisco
San Cisco haven't slowed down for a second since forming, producing some of their best material to date this year with The Water, featuring single Hey, Did I Do You Wrong?.
SLUMBERJACK
Bass-heavy and bombastic, frenetic yet lush, the music of SLUMBERJACK is born from its Perth-based creators’ passion for contrast. Made up of DJ/producers Morgan Then and Fletcher Ehlers the duo dig into their disparate backgrounds to push into a thrillingly original sonic territory.
Ta-ku
"I'm Regan Mathews aka Ta-ku. I write music, I take pictures, and work with people & brands to tell stories. I'm grateful to collaborate with friends who inspire me."
Tame Impala
The sound of spacy, guitar-heavy psychedelic pop has never really gone out of fashion since the Beatles brought it to the mainstream in the late '60s, with proponents like Pink Floyd and the Flaming Lips managing to make long careers out of mining its every seam. In the 2010s, there is no more popular psych pop group than Australia's Tame Impala.
The Waifs
“Where do we take it from here?'' sings Vikki Thorn on Day Dreamer, one of the most uplifting moments on The Waifs' extraordinary sixth album, Temptation. It's a question the much-loved Australian band has asked itself several times in the 21 years since Thorn, her sister Donna Simpson and guitarist Josh Cunningham set off on their incredible journey.
Tired Lion
After seizing Australian rock fans by the scruff of their necks in 2015 – winning triple j’s prestigious Unearthed Award, tearing down the main stage at Splendour In The Grass, claiming the WAMAward for Best Rock Song, and supporting the likes of The 1975, Kingswood and Luca Brasi – Tired Lion released their debut album this year to much acclaim.
Troye Sivan
You’ll need a Twitter ticker to keep up with the constantly expanding stats and factoids relating to Troye Sivan’s popularity and swelling international celebrity: For starters, at last count, over 1 million tracks sold, 3.6m YouTube subscribers, 3m Twitter followers, as well as literally hundreds of millions of hits and streams of his videos and songs.
Voyager
The band’s loyal international fanbase has praised their incredibly catchy songwriting and compared its sound to a mixture of Amorphis' thirst for melody, Soilwork's heaviness and the crystal vocal clarity of A-HA’s Morton Harket.
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