Fresh Finds: Class Of 2025 – Aussie Acts To Add To Your Playlist

Steve Bell, Journalist

Steve Bell

Many, many moons ago Steve Bell was unassumingly writing a small fanzine for the inner-city Brisbane record store where he worked when on one otherwise normal day he was poached into the cutthroat world of street press, embarking on an eye-opening journey interviewing bands and banging on about music for the street press publication Time Off. It's an association that's now existed for well over 20 years - including a decade full-time as the print editor for Time Off/The Music - and one which still provides him with immense enjoyment and satisfaction, even though in recent times it's nestled alongside other music-related vocations such as co-owning a record store and indie label, radio broadcasting and navigating the podcast world.

Features / Music
Primitive Motion Dance To The Beat Of Their Own Dreamy Drum
"You never know when that accidental note or super-simple riff is going to be the best one you've ever heard."
Features / Music
Why The Arcs Doesn't Sound Like An Old Retro Project
"We were really influenced from that period in the '60s or early-'70s when things were really experimental."
Reviews / Live
Live Review: Tumbleweed, Heavy Roller, Sacred Shrines
"the crowd looks like some weird high school reunion featuring all the long-haired stoner kids from every school"
Features / Music
How To Use Musos To Raise Awareness Of Domestic Violence In Australia
"Intimate partner violence has become the biggest cause of death and ill health in women under the age of 40."
Features / Music
How To Dismantle The Traditional Gatekeeper Model In A&R
"Everyone has an opinion about music, it's completely subjective, but the system actually realigns a lot of things."
Features / Music
Why There's Pressure To Nail The Live Aspect Of His Artists' Careers
"It's much more competitive than ever before, but I feel that more competition breeds better music."
News / Music
15 Acts You Can't Afford To Miss At BIGSOUND
Trust us. We got this.
Features / Music
How Brother Ali Dedicated His Life To Spreading The Doctrines Of Truth
"We're all experts in the tyranny that life has given us and they way that we've navigated it."
Features / Music
Music Criticism Is For Everyone, Not Just The Chosen Few
"There's a very particular idea of what fandom looks like, and lots of times young female writers are written off as being 'fan girls'."
Reviews / Live
Live Review: The Drones, Batpiss
"These intense songs remain routinely timeless and vital."
News / Music
30 Years Ago: Was Models' Commercial Peak Also Their Death Knell?
A fascinating part of the tapestry of Australian rock’n’roll history...
Features / Music
How FIDLAR Nearly Went Hip Hop To Avoid Being Boring
"When things become just 'standard' it's weird."