BIGSOUND Artist Profile: Ali Barter

Band Name: Ali Barter

Member/Role: Artist

Hometown: Melbourne

Short description of your band and your music: Angry, pretty, indie-pop songs played by randy rockers.

Has the party side of the music industry been all you were hoping for so far in your career? TBH, I went hard on the partying before I started playing, so now I hope to avoid it! Drinking fucks up my music so I enjoy going home to a cup of tea post-gig.

What is the best thing that's happened to you/your band so far? Playing with The War On Drugs last year was pretty special and I recently travelled to LA to do some songwriting, which was super-inspiring.

Are your ambitions mainly artistic or commercial? Both! I think they can exist together. I want my songs to be played on the radio and be heard far and wide so, whatever that is: artistically commercial.

Is your music best rendered in the studio or the live realm? Hard to say. There is something about playing live that is hard to re-create in the studio but it also takes time and experience playing live to really nail it. Live is more fun!

If you could have any act past or present join you on your next tour who would you tap? I'd love to sing harmonies with The Flying Burrito Brothers, but playing with Ben Wright Smith is basically the same thing.

What industry lessons would you like to take away from the BIGSOUND conference? I release my music independently through my own label Ronnie Records and I'd love to learn how to get better at doing this so I can put out music and still eat dinner.

What acts are you looking forward to checking out at the BIGSOUND showcase? I'm going to check out City Calm Down, Ben Wright Smith, Aldous Harding and Holy Holy.

Why should people come and see you from amongst the many cool bands at BIGSOUND? 'Cause I have a great band of randy shredmasters and what the world needs is more shredding. I also shred, which may or may not be a good thing.