BIGSOUND Artists Pitch Themselves: 'We're A Bit Of A Mixed Bag'

21 August 2024 | 2:54 pm | Emma Newbury

Ahead of BIGSOUND 2024 (3 to 6 September), acts including Keli Holiday, Medhanit, Beddy Rays and more have pitched their art for The Music.

alayna, Keli Holiday, Medhanit, dust

alayna, Keli Holiday, Medhanit, dust (Undine Markus, xingerxanger, Supplied, Nikola Jokanovic)

Adam (Keli Holiday):

I'm a dude from Canberra who grew up on skateboarding culture and the music surrounding it, which I am very grateful for. So, my music is all over the place, to be honest, but with this next record, I'm going to bang it all down one line.

Kahlia from JUNO:

JUNO is very bright, colourful, bold, energetic, and empowering. Before this band, I wrote folk music—just me and my acoustic guitar in my bedroom. Storytelling is at the core of JUNO. Sam (the second half of JUNO) takes the songs I write with my guitar and works his production magic in our home studio. Our combined forces result in many ear-worm alt-pop songs that are like puzzle pieces that encapsulate my life’s story.

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Tiffi (Tiffany):

I would describe myself as an indie pop artist who makes music for people who like to collect things and have messy bedrooms •ᴗ•

breathe. (joint response):

We are producers and filmmakers who make late-night, minimal soul music. We’ve both spent a lot of our lives around club music and love exploring sounds from different eras—we’re particularly fond of emotional vocals, space echoes, and (unexpected) lasers.

PEPTALK (joint response):

We would describe PEPTALK as three besties bestie-ing. We’re all songwriters first and avid pop lovers.

As songwriters/BFFs, we love tea. We love spilling, sharing, and ingesting it, and that is what our music is to us. If it’s not a personal experience we’re writing about, then it’ll be the experience of someone close to us.

Bean Magazine:

Suppose we’re a bit of a mixed bag—liquorice all sorts, if you will. We think our music definitely reflects that. We’d like to think we make pop music with a bit of an edge. We like to bring as much energy as possible to our live sets, with a common goal for ourselves and the audience: to have the most fun.

Zion Garcia:

I’d describe my music as the truest reflection of myself, where I am at that moment, what I’m learning about, how I feel in the world, and what I feel is cool. My art is a reflection of my life in Western Sydney, my mixed Polynesian and Spanish heritage, and the culmination of everything that has inspired me.

As an artist, I’d like to think of myself as someone who’s always caring about what feels fresh and exciting to me, or at least whatever feels the most “real” to me. Whatever I do in my music, I just try to lead with love, passion, and good intent. Oh, and I always trust my gut. If I don’t think it’s the freshest shit ever, and it doesn’t make me emotional in some way, it doesn’t come out.

J-MILLA:

High energy hip hop artist that throws out big club bangers like my track Ego Trip and weaves them into a set of lyrical, profound tracks such as On My Soul. I’ve also been told I have one of the fastest flows around.

Yung Milla:

Storyteller, truth-teller, but in a way that’s vibing, and you can dance too.

I love to perform and entertain, and I've got plenty of energy and aspects to my show, so I can take you high or low.

Medhanit:

I would say I'm a genre-hopping, 808-loving, chronic grudge holder who makes music to cry to while you dance.

Noah Dillon:

Music has always been my way of processing my emotions and the world around me. I aim to explore the full spectrum of feelings that exist within me and hope it serves as a cathartic experience to those who listen. I’ve never set out to make a specific genre or sound, but instead, I have focused on letting the music share a symbiotic relationship with lyricism. This has come out as a mixture of folk / indie-rock that walks along a lot of differing dynamics from loud and heavy to minimal and soft to playful and poppy.

Luca (Neptune):

I'd describe myself as an artist who blends pop melodies with a touch of raw honesty. I think of it as indie pop with a splash of coastal emotion. It’s the kind of sound that captures the contradictions of feeling both uplifted and reflective at the same time—like finding a forgotten coin in an old pair of pants—genuine, nostalgic, and satisfying in the simple ways.

Beddy Rays:

We’re a bunch of tradies who make music that will take you back to some mid-2000s rock whilst gripping you firmly in the modern era of rock!

Dear Sunday:

From the very start, we’ve done Dear Sunday because it is fun. We want to enjoy what we do, and we want people to enjoy themselves when they experience what we do. Our live sets are often described as energetic, funny, and interactive. We love getting involved and making it feel like everyone is a part of the show.  



The music we make changes so much that it’s hard to keep up. It started as surf rock, but as we’ve progressed, we’ve gone down so many different paths that it’s been hard to put a label on it. We’ve never listened to just one genre, so we thought to ourselves, why would we need to write just one genre?

dust / Gabriel Stove ( Guitarist )

dust is a conglomeration of the diverse influence and vast musical background of five Newcastle-based bruisers.

The result is a mixture of punk and electronic music with moments of chaos and catharsis.

dust attempt to grab the audience gently by the throat and take them on a journey of sonic exploration.

alayna

I'm writing my way through life, figuring it out as I go and doing my best to articulate and understand my feelings along the way. I definitely just follow my intuition on wherever my music sonically wants to go, whatever feels right at the time. I'd say it spans R&B, Soul, Indie, Singer/songwriter, and folk music, which are all different loves of mine.

Reuben - Y.O.G.A.

I put the cowfunk in Feng Shui. I sprinkle the cow dust on your shiny, clean disco boots. I turn the barn into a rave, and your next hoedown is in my cave. I’m your cow☆tech romance, the gunslinging boot-scooting big dance. Do si do for the country glow. Grab it by the balls and call it a coyote. I hear the train a-comin’. Let’s roll around the bend, baby!

Brae - Dear Seattle

Boogie boards and power chords. Fun, energetic and heartfelt alternative rock tinged with grunge to get your head banging and your heart pounding.

BIGSOUND 2024 will run from Tuesday, 3 to Friday, 6 September, at Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. You can find all the details about this year’s event here.