Tape/Off’s brand of slacker-noise-pop has earned the Brisbane 4-piece an Australian Music Prize nomination, constant airplay on community radio stations and the J’s, and respect from the people and bands they look up to. Their songs sneak into your psyche like hook-ridden ninjas.

Q: What advice would you give yourself when you first started?

A: Look after your mental health, you’ll need it to be in good shape when you get older.

Q: What things have you learned and wish someone had told you?

A: I’ve learned that no matter how hard you try, you can’t force most things in life. You can’t force songs to be written, you can’t force people to like your music, but you can force yourself to be nice and respectful person.

Q: What are your goals in music?

A: To always challenge the listener and hope they’ll find something new in what they’re hearing.

Q: Where do you see your music fitting in on the Australian music scene?

A: I see it fitting in very nicely with bands that make loud music.

Q: Who inspires you in music?

A: Steve Albini. The records he works on sound meticulous, and he always sticks to his guns.

Performances

Wed 5th Sep

9:10PM – 9:40PM

Thu 6th Sep

8:10PM – 8:40PM

The Comfort have already made their mark on the Australian scene, having done multiple runs around Australia alongside The Hunna, Storm The Sky, Young Lions and Saviour; and their EP ‘Love’ has reached the corners of the globe with the band constantly finding new fans from New York, to London.

Q: What advice would you give yourself when you first started?

A: The advice I did give myself when I first started has stayed the same now, be honest to yourself, don’t change what you’re doing based on what other people are doing, that way any success achieved will feel genuine and deserved.

Q: What things have you learned and wish someone had told you?

A: I wish I knew from the start just how messed up and disingenuous the music industry is so I could have tempered the idealistic expectations I had when I was a bit younger.

Q: What are your goals in music?

A: To travel the world and to connect with as many people as possible through our music.

Q: Where do you see your music fitting in on the Australian music scene?

A:  I think about that a lot and I’m still not really sure, I’ve never really felt that we fit in anywhere 100% with scenes or other bands but there’s been a lot of people all around the world that have connected with us on an individual level and I suppose that is the most important thing at the end of the day.

Q: Who inspires you in music?

A: Bands like Angels and Airwaves, Death Cab for Cutie, Gang of Youths and The 1975. But in terms of the message behind our band, people like Graham Hancock, Johann Hari, Aubrey Marcus and Terence McKenna, their ideas about life and what’s beyond have definitely shaped my thinking over the last few years.

Latest single Mesada is here – 

Performances

Thu 6th Sep

11:20PM – 11:50PM

Very rarely does one come across a band that hits as heavy and magnificently as The Beautiful Monument. Boasting an arsenal of genuinely memorable songs and strong, energetic stage presence, these ladies are ready to take on the world.

Q: What advice would you give yourself when you first started?

A LOT of people are going to be downright assholes or piss you off in life so just gotta keep on keepin on kid.

Q: What things have you learned and wish someone had told you?

That communication is the most important thing in a band; make sure you listen. In saying that, people also aren’t mind readers, soooo, don’t bite your tongue just for the sake of keeping one person happy and fight for what you believe in. It’s not always possible to be on the same page as everyone when you throw a diverse bunch of personalities into a project, but compromising is definitely a thing that you have to accept and learn to deal with.

Q: What are your goals in music?

Personally, I want to tour more. There’s nothing more satisfying than doing what you love with your best friends and seeing new places whilst doing so. Not to mention it gets me the hell away from my day job… the further the better, like… take me to a different time zone.

Q: Where do you see your music fitting in on the Australian music scene?

TBM’s genre is kind of odd, like… Still couldn’t tell you exactly what genre we are because I don’t think we actually have one. We’re a little bit of everything. Sugar, spice and everything nice, add some chemical X and you get musical Powerpuff Girls… except we all look like Buttercup. Because our songs are so diverse though, we could literally slot in nicely with any kind of band/tour/festival and that’s kinda dope I think.

Q: Who inspires you in music?

So many heavy bands have inspired me to be a musician – A Day To Remember, Bring Me The Horizon, System of a Down, Korn, just to name a few. I literally wanted to be Max Green (OG bassist of Escape The Fate) when I was thirteen, that’s why I started playing bass. It wasn’t until a few years later that my music teacher found out that apparently I could sing (news to me) and he pushed me to keep going with it, so I did. As for the content I write, that’s all inspired by negative people and events in life. Our songs are literally Diary of an Emo kid, especially the stuff I’ve been writing lately.

Performances

Thu 6th Sep

11:20PM – 11:50PM

Forming after countless gigs with each other in previous Brisbane bands and soon becoming best pals, WALKEN are a pop-fuelled frenzy of alternative rock and ambitious punk that will satisfy your teenage-nostalgia-ridden Blink-182 loving heart. If you’re looking for Australia’s next answer to arena level pop-punk, this is surely it.

Q: What advice would you give yourself when you first started?

Just try to relax, nothing will ever be perfect – so stop being so padantic and wasting time on stuff that doesn’t even matter. Plus you’re still pretty shit anyways – so drop the ego and just keep improving, lil dude.

Q: What things have you learned and wish someone had told you?

Always put milk in the coffee before the hot water – it creates a similar effect to steaming the milk, so your instant coffee won’t taste as bad. Seriously though, don’t put the water in first, you burn your coffee and it ends up all nasty.

Q: What are your goals in music?

Promise not to laugh?…

I’ve always wanted the Dallas Cowboys.

Q: Where do you see your music fitting in on the Australian music scene?

I’d see us fitting on the Australian music scene like a nice pair of DT’s lent to you by your uncle at the family Christmas getaway.

Q: Who inspires you in music?

Yoni Wolf, Jamie Treys, David Bowie, St. Vincent, Kanye West, Merrill Garbus, Zach Hill, Q Tip, ABBA, Elliott Smith, Tricot, Kevin Abstract, Kate Cooper, Courtney Barnett, Frank Ocean, Jeff Rosenstock, David Bazan, Conor Oberst, Bob Dylan, Will Toledo, Damon Albarn, Fergus Miller, David Byrne, Brian Wilson, Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Billy Corgan.

Performances

Wed 5th Sep

8:10PM – 8:40PM

Thu 6th Sep

8:00PM – 8:30PM

Heavy newcomers Windwaker are a metalcore band from Melbourne. Originating in Wagga Wagga, NSW, the group packed bags for Victoria, later dropping their debut EP ‘Fade’ in 2017.

What advice would you give yourself when you first started? Network. Get tight with local musicians, bands and promoters before selling music to them. The more connections you have with people in the industry, the more likely you are to have opportunities thrown your way.

 What things have you learned and wish someone had told you?To not overplay your area. When we first started, we played so, so many shows and saw little improvement or growth from them. Put that time, money and effort into practicing and writing better music. That will pay off a lot more organically.

What are your goals in music?We want to spend the first half of our lives touring the world. I don’t think any of us want anything more than that from music.

 Where do you see your music fitting in on the Australian music scene? I think it’s irrelevant. The bigger the platform, the bigger the movement. We are just going to keep making the music we want to make, and hope people like it.

Who inspires you in music? To an extent, we do. We are all very competitive people by nature, so in a lot of ways, we try to outdo each other, and that collectively boosts our passion and energy.

Performances at Bigsound 

Tue 4th Sep

9:00PM – 9:30PM

Wed 5th Sep

9:40PM – 10:10PM

Thando  Australian singer, songwriter and actor based in Melbourne. Recently on tour with Odette the Zimbabwean born singer showed she knows how to impress.

Behind the lens Dominique Berns- Blackwell. 

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Western Australia’s impeccable coast inspires some fantastic music. As the azure Indian Ocean curls into some of the world’s most perfect waves, it’s impossible to be present and not be affected by its timelessness. Encapsulating this infinite energy in vehement progressive rock, Perth five-piece Yalla Yalla return with new single NotOrdinary, the first taste from their stunning forthcoming sophomore EP Tides.

Perfectly controlled, Not Ordinary juxtaposes the technical with the uncomplicated – melding effortless emotion with sheer cognitive power and complexity. Crescendoing in a tempest of soloing guitars and soaring vocals, it is as definitive a song of Yalla Yalla as any.

Vocalist Dave Watkins says of the track,“Not Ordinary touches on my will to flex and stretch social norms. It also delves into the dizziness that I find myself in when I get that loving feeling. You know, feeling a cut above the traditional romantic model that relationships follow. There’s also an angle of vulnerability, like hiding behind somebody as a barrier of safety to the big wide world that you both don’t understand.”

Yalla Yalla formed in 2014 as a trio made up of brothers Dave and Tim Watkins (vocals/guitars and drums respectively) and guitarist Ben Harvey. Over time, the band’s scope and personnel expanded to include bassist Alex Capes and Conrad Pene (who switched from bass to his current position of lead guitar). With this lineup, Yalla Yalla evolved into a musical vanguard that is part immovable object, part irresistible force. A sonic meteor storm of technical syncopated beats, inspired riffs and powerful, captivating vocals.

Recorded and mixed by Troy Nababan, Not Ordinary is the firstoutput of music since 2015’s debut EP Centre Yourself. Yalla Yalla have taken time well spent to craft this new body of work and will no doubt please fans and new listeners alike.

South Africa’s Nakhane today releases his new single ‘Clairvoyant’ via BMG. 

Drawing from his life experience, the upbeat track takes influence from the vocal elements of Africa, to the clubs of France, to the pop structures of London. 

Of the single, Nakhane says: “I was reading Jean Cocteau’s Les Enfants Terribles and there’s a line there that goes “love had made them clairvoyant” and I remember thinking “Jesus, love doesn’t make me clairvoyant – if anything I become more of an idiot when I’m in love”. I was looking around and most love songs were either fawning and sensational about how much they loved the person, or they were very biting about how much they couldn’t stand the other person. There seemed to be a lack of middle ground, how you can love somebody but you can also resent them.”

Nakhane was born in Alice and grew up in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in a deeply religious community. Though his upbringing ignited his love of music and unlocked his flair for performance, it also taught him guilt and shame that has proved difficult to rid himself of. “When I was Christian and prayed to God everyday, I had only hatred for myself,”Nakhane says. “Every day of my life, I was doing all I possibly could to be like everyone else, to be heterosexual. I was even convinced I would be able to ‘heal’ my homosexuality. I was living in constant fear; controlling myself at all times.”

In his early 20s, Nakhane came out and made the decision to renounce his Christian faith. Despite moving towards self-acceptance, Nakhane found an emptiness left in the silence that was normally filled by prayer. Having always found solace in music, Nakhane channeled both his pain and his newly found joy into his writing, and debut album You Will Not Die is a startling document of the person he was, and the person he is now.

Nakhane’s debut album You Will Not Die is released September 14 via BMG.

Vocalist, producer and multi instrumentalist HIGH HØØPS today releases his dreamy new single “Steady Rolling”, alongside the announcement of his forthcoming debut album Seasons On Planet Earth, set for release on September 21 via A Label Called Success. 

Following the much loved singles “Body” and “People”, the New Zealand-based producer provides another smooth slice of dream pop. The release signals a change in season; with bouncing basslines coupled with Jordan Art’s heavenly vocals, “Steady Rolling” is a seductive listen that will have you grooving along from start to finish. The acutely produced track flaunts Art’s exceptional talent and provides the ultimate taster for what is on the horizon with the release of his debut album, Seasons On Planet Earth.

HIGH HØØPS on the track says: “I came home from a house party one Saturday night with a buzz on, sat down with my bass guitar and locked up a groove real quick. Steady Rolling was born. It’s one of the few tracks that has a charging live room feel and certainly offers some balance on the record.”

The highly anticipated release of HIGH HØØPS’ debut album Seasons On Planet Earth comes after years of Arts making solo music on the side of his many other music projects (Kids of 88, LEISURE), or as a music video and documentary maker for the likes of Broods, Matthew Young and Avantdale Bowling Club. HIGH HØØPS has also been prolific on the features, lending his vocals to tracks by local hip-hopheroes SWIDT (“Boogie“), HIGH BEAMS (“Red Wine“) and perhaps most notably, “Comfortable“ by Moods(The Netherlands), a track clocking two million streams and climbing.

The album is a deeply personal project for Jordan, who not only played every instrument on the album,but also took on all writing, producing, engineering and mixing duties.

HIGH HØØPS on the album says: “I see the album as a journal entry of songs I’ve made over the last couple of seasons on planet Earth. They range from a time where romance and heartbreak, haunted blue days and red hot nights were phasing like season finales and premieres. The music is always centred around groove and melody, drawing influence from a nostalgic haze of 70s funk, 80s disco, 90s R&B and 2000s dance music romanced into a sound for the future.”

Rock ‘n’ roll never dies, it simply changes hands – and Melbourne rapscallions GRIM RHYTHM have risen to carry on a torch that was lit lifetimes before they were born. Today the band announce their recent signing to EVP recordings and release a brand new single, ‘Formaldehyde Blues’.

Having recently undergone a transformative growth from their instrumental, stoner-oriented beginnings to a vocally-driven and significantly more charismatic approach, ‘Formaldehyde Blues’ exudes a unique confidence, whilst riding the echoes of Motorhead, Judas Priest and AC/DC.

Alongside the previously released drink-spiller ‘Animal’, this is but a taste of the grease the band plans to serve up in full-length format via EVP Recordings in 2019.

GRIM RHYTHM – ‘FORMALDEHYDE BLUES’

BIGSOUND Shows
Tuesday September 4 – Crowbar @ 11:20pm
Wednesday September 5 – The Zoo @ 9:40pm

Single Launch Shows
with Defenestration + guests
Thursday September 27 – Stone Vault, Geelong
Friday September 28 – The Eastern, Ballarat
Saturday September 29 – The Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy