MEET SIDNEY ROSE: MELBOURNE’S NEW INDIE-POP TRAILBLAZER
For some artists, the push and pull of Melbourne’s lockdown measures has stunted creativity, forming mental roadblocks. This was not the case, however, for a newcomer to the scene, Melbourne indie-pop artist Sidney Rose. Described as “pop, but left of centre” by Triple J’s Tommy Faith, Rose has established herself as one to watch with her second single of the year, Guarantee.
PREMIERE: Thea Fitzgerald CLOSES OUT THE BUILDING BLOCKS ERA WITH TWO FRESH VIDEOS
Thea FitzGerald closes out the Building Blocks era with two fresh videos, and we’re pumped to be bringing them to you here first! Better late than never, 23 year old Melbourne singer-songwriter Thea FitzGerald has two brand new videos to round out her debut body of work - Building Blocks.
INTERVIEW: ON THE PHONE WITH PROG METAL LOCALS, RELIQA
Sydney’s Reliqa have had a massive year. From supporting Sevendust when they toured, to playing Big Sound in Brisbane, and making the Good Things Festival band final. Things aren’t slowing down for them either. Recently releasing new single “Mr Magic” early in May, which is one of the standout single releases this year, the band has now signed with Destroy All Lines Agency. I caught up with Reliqa vocalist Monique Pym.
INTERVIEW: FUTURE STATIC - ALL ABOUT ‘FATALIST’
We chatted to Future Static about the response to and creation of Fatalist, their mission as a band, their biggest influences, what cats dream about, their top 5 isolation bangers, and whats up next!
INTERVIEW: KATIE WIGHTON // KIT
We jumped on for an e-interview with Kit // Katie Wighton from All Our Exes Live In Texas, about her recent jump to a solo debut and her latest release, her influences, the change to livestream shows to replace live gigs during isolation, and what she’s looking forward to once everything calms down.
GRETA STANLEY’S ULTIMATE ISOLATION PLAYLIST
We’ve been in chats with Greta in talks about her most recent release ‘Soak Into This’, and she’s also given us her top 10 tracks for her ‘Ultimate Isolation Playlist’.
GROOVY LOCAL GALS - THE SPAGHETTI STAINS
The Spaghetti Stains, who describe themselves as ‘three Gippsland gumnuts slapping strings and hitting buckets’ have JUST released two brand new tracks and we can’t help but love ‘em for it.
GROOVY LOCAL GALS - YERGURL
Victoria’s teen queen, yergurl AKA Fae Scott, is a songwriter, vocalist and producer, making dreamy pop beats in her bedroom. Most recently, yergurl has been peppin’ it up at St Kilda Fest 2020, just before her featured release with Mars And Bones, her announcement of her place on the bill for Grampians Music festival, and (the part that we think is the coolest tbh) her feature on the cover of Beat Magazine.
GROOVY LOCAL GALS - YARA
We recently put together a small Instagram story series featuring a bunch of local gals who’re killin’ it right now, doing what they love and doing it well. Here’s a more in depth series-style look at each of those featured legends and a few more sick chicks we wanna mention! First up…
YARA (Yara Alkurd) is a Palestinian singer/songwriter with a melting pot of smooth sounds, stemming from jazz, soft RnB and neo-soul.
ICYMI: BackBeat’s Spotify Playlist - Full Of Local Goodies
In case you missed it; the BackBeat has put together a playlist to end all Aussie playlists (…maybe). We think it’s pretty cool anyway. Tunes from artists like Tonight Alive, Tame Impala, Spacey Jane, Stella Donnelly, The Kite String Tangle, Ocean Grove, and of course, The Veronicas, all the way to more local lesser-knowns (but still just as eargasm-ous) such as Velvet Bloom, Mia Ro…
BackBeat Season 2, Comin’ At You!
We are well into the new year now and we’ve just uploaded our first episode of Season 2 for the new year! We want to wish you all a warm welcome into the new year, and if you’re new here, a warm welcome to us and the BackBeat podcast. We’re up to our 7th episode now, and we figured we’d start the new year with a new season too!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! - But Gigs?
The holiday season is in full swing, and while festive events are of course booked on every block, we wanted to push a reminder of all the local artists performing and doing their own thing over the Christmas and New Year period. Here’s a small collection of what caught our eye, from late December to the earlier half of January 2020 - because yeah, we’re pretty much there already…yikes.
Chats with; Jess and Jay - Don't Fret Club
In our most recent episode, we chatted to Jess Hope and Jay Wennington about, well, everything. Here’s a funky snippet where we talked about one of their primary projects (amongst many others, including Bad Seed Agency), Don’t Fret Club, a podcast about mental health in the music industry - what it is, how it came to be, and where it’s going next!