Trust.FMMusic is a brilliant way to connect and build trust with people – that sentiment is echoed by artist manager Aakanksha Sidhu, who co-founded Trust.FM with DJ Jordan Harrison.
Both heavily involved in Canberra’s creative communities, Sidhu explains that the city is “very rich” with “DIY scenes, house parties, and bush doofs,” showing that independent actors are the backbone of its underground music scenes. Yet that sphere often lacks cohesion.
“I noticed they were not often talking to each other,” Sidhu says. “Like, the punk scene never really spoke to the underground electronic music scenes – everyone felt they were very much in their own pockets.”
There used to be spaces for that connection, such as the beloved Canberra bar and venue sideway, which sadly closed its doors in 2024. The closure left a big gap in the city, as there was nowhere sustainable for people to gather in a non-commercial space.
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So, Trust.FM has filled that gap: An inclusive platform that connects these bustling artists, genres, and scenes operating outside of the mainstream realm, with creative freedom, authenticity, and a DIY sensibility as its utmost priorities.
The station’s liberating vision distinguishes it from Canberra’s broader venues, having been embraced so openly by many barely a month into its launch.
“When we first put this idea together, we were like, ‘It’d be great to have over 30 hosts jump on in the first couple of weeks. We’ll playlist the rest of the time. We’ll see if this project has legs,’” Sidhu recalls. “It’s gone way beyond anything we could have imagined.”
The rapturous response has been “a bit full on, but in the best way possible,” with almost 100 volunteer show hosts already joining the station, and its launch party in late June selling out with more than 150 attendees and pushing past its anticipated midnight finish.
The passion people have for Trust.FM is not only from its championing of underground and independent music, but also for its deliberate design as a selfless, non-commercial project.
“It’s entirely volunteer-run, so there’s a sense of coming together and belonging that enables everyone participating,” Sidhu says. “This is completely a labour of love. The co-directors are funding it independently. There’s no support outside of that at the moment.”
That perfectly comes through in the station’s name: “Trust”. It’s built on everyone’s generous involvement. The language used to promote the station’s inclusivity also denotes such an understanding of what underground music means.
“That’s on purpose to make sure we are about independent, DIY, non-commercial music, and because we’re not specifically electronic music, punk, or rock, we don’t have genre boundaries,” Sidhu notes. “Lots of different people can feel they belong in the project.”
It’s carried over to the eclectic programming, which boasts genres such as jazz, indie punk, techno, and hard house.
Sidhu affirms no genre is off limits to promote unity: “Our motivation is to bring the entire underground together because that makes it stronger. It means everyone is borrowing and supporting each other, versus competing with each other.”
Regarding inclusivity, Trust.FM also operates from Trust Café Club, an alcohol-free venue that hopes to engender a distinct, safer space and culture currently absent from Canberra’s music venues.
“Its model operates by allowing the café to fund the club without any alcohol sales,” Sidhu outlines. “That is a missing piece of the puzzle in Canberra because most venues here operate on a need-to-sell alcohol basis.”
It’s crucial to have creative spaces separate from commercial interests because many people thrive better in them. Australia’s largest musical capitals, Melbourne and Sydney, are abundant with those spots, but for artists in Canberra, they often need to move to the country’s east coast to grow their career.
It’s a “frustration” Sidhu has felt in her day job as an artist manager working with Canberra artists, who finds the state “such an incredible and beautiful place to live.” The other goal with Trust.FM, then, is to nurture Canberra as an ecosystem in which its artists can stay and find success, and encourage others from across the world to visit and play for the city’s deeply engaged audience.
“We will play Canberra music,” Sidhu says confidently. “So much of our music played is by artists from Canberra, and I think they struggle to get their music played on radio stations in Melbourne and Sydney because they don’t have that physical connection to those places or people.
“I’m very motivated to make sure that we play a lot of Canberra music, so people feel their communities hear their music and they can grow their audiences and shows get filled up – radio has that amazing impact on careers,” she adds. “That’s my hope for it.”
What’s just as incredible is that Trust.FM was an idea that came on a whim. Sidhu and Harrison went in blind, treating it as an experiment with no expectations. The only thing they discussed was the station’s continuity based on its reception: “If people receive it well and want to run with it themselves, then that makes it possible for us to run it.”
Clearly, by Trust.FM’s early success, its future is so bright. Listeners can tune in from the station’s website or via the radio.cult app, making it accessible from anywhere. Sidhu hopes it’ll propel Canberra’s entrance into the conversation of where Australian music happens.
“When people think of Sydney music, they know what they’re going to hear,” Sidhu notes. “When they go to Brisbane or Melbourne, it’s the same.
“I think Canberra has established its distinct voice in the national circuit, and I’m hoping that this radio station helps put us on the national map for what Canberra’s underground has to say.”
With much more on the way – events, show hosts, and memberships – Trust.FM is preserving a part of Australia’s music culture that doesn’t deserve to be ignored, and everyone is encouraged to get involved. After all, without its audience, the station wouldn’t exist.
Trust.FM is broadcasting now via its official website, with updates also available via its Instagram page.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
