My Kind of Scene uncovers the past and present of Australian music. This is the 3rd and final part in our Aussie soul series. We'll cover reality TV soul stars, explore the fertile soul breeding ground that was 2010s Melbourne, and discuss of the future of Australian soul.
Find the episode playlists on Spotify & YouTube. Send questions or compliments to mykindofscenepod[@]gmail.com.
MKOS acknowledges and pays respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of the land many of us call Australia. Warning: This episode contains the names and voices of people who have died. It also contains a few swear words.
Sources:
My Kind of Scene uncovers the past and present of Australian music. This is the 3rd and final part in our Aussie soul series. We'll cover reality TV soul stars, explore the fertile soul breeding ground that was 2010s Melbourne, and discuss of the future of Australian soul.
Find the episode playlists on Spotify & YouTube. Send questions or compliments to mykindofscenepod[@]gmail.com.
MKOS acknowledges and pays respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of the land many of us call Australia. Warning: This episode contains the names and voices of people who have died. It also contains a few swear words.
Sources:
Intro 00:00:00
🎵 Welcome to My Kind of Scene, where we uncover the past and present of Australian music. I'm Cara Diaria, indie musician and music nerd, bringing my unique perspective to the hits and misses, the movers and shakers, the goodness and greatness that makes the Australian music scene my kind of scene.
I'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to the past, present, and future traditional custodians and elders of the land many of us call Australia, and give a warning that this episode may contain the names and voices of people who have died.
This is the third and final part of our deep dive into Australian soul. If you haven't listened to parts one and two, 🎵 I suggest you start there. In part one, we delved into the stories of three of Australia's pioneering women of soul: Renée Geyer, Marcia Hines, and Venetta Fields. In part two, we attempted to explore everything that's happened since, but there were just too many great artists to discover, revisit, and share.
We did manage to uncover some of the early soul imitators of the sixties and seventies 🎵, and discover some of the 🎵 innovators of the eighties, nineties, and two thousands.
🎵 We paused our story with the 2012 film, The Sapphires, in which Jessica Mauboy and company brought a modern spin to those well-worn Motown classics, while shining a light on the real experiences of an Aboriginal girl group who entertained the troops in 1960s wartime Vietnam.
In part three, we'll take a look at how artists from reality competition TV shows have contributed to the canon, explore the fertile soul music breeding ground that was Melbourne in the 2010s, and try to pinpoint what gave it that special sauce, and yes, we'll finally get to our discussion of the future of Australian soul. I think you're really going to enjoy this episode and hopefully find a few new favorite artists!
Reality soul stars 00:03:28
🎵 Speaking of Jessica Mauboy, 2006 Australian Idol runner up, there's a string of other great soul singers that have come from music competition shows.
Maya Vice, from this year's reboot of Australian Idol, shone her brightest when belting out disco classics. Her recently released debut album, Maya Vice To You, shows promise for a bright and funky future.
🎵 Earlier, we mentioned Mahalia Barnes, daughter of Jimmy, named after US gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson. You might remember from our siblings episode that Mahalia was part of the Barnes kids' group, The Tin Lids, who had three platinum albums in the nineties, but she was reintroduced to the Australian public in 2012 via the first season of The Voice with the song, "Proud Mary." She didn't win the show, but continued her music career fronting The Soul Mates, with whom she's released two EPs and three albums of blues and soul.
🎵 2009 Idol winner, Stan Walker, was popular on the show for his covers of artists like John Legend, James Brown and Prince, which helped his debut album reach number three on the charts and platinum status. 🎵 Since then, he's released six more albums, mostly pop-R&B, with the exception of 2015's covers collection, Truth and Soul.
🎵 Papua New Guinea-born, Australian-based mononymous singer Ngaiire studied jazz at university before making it to 13th place in Australian Idol in 2004. After the show, she performed and recorded with Blue King Brown, Paul Mac and Jon Butler, before starting her solo career in earnest in 2013. Her work across three subsequent albums defied genre, incorporating influences as varied as experimental jazz, electro-pop, Melanesian string band, hip hop, and gospel.
And how can we talk about Australian Idol without 🎵 mentioning Guy Sebastian, the very first winner. Like Stan Walker, he's made a career out of R&B flavored pop, releasing ten top-10 albums, including three number ones. He's the only Australian male artist in history to achieve six number one singles. His 2003 boy band-inspired winner's single, "Angels Brought Me Here," was the highest selling song in Australia in the naughties – um, what??? And his 🎵 2012 collaboration with Lupe Fiasco, "Battle Scars," has been certified 12-times platinum.
Despite mostly staying in the R&B lane, Sebastian has also put out an album of 🎵 soul covers. Unlike many others, though, The Memphis Album was recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, with members of Stax house band, Booker T and the MGs, the musicians who played on and wrote many of the originals. The MGs joined Sebastian on his 2008 tour and he later recalled what an unbelievable feeling that was.
🎵 Now, I know they're not reality television-based, but it seems relevant here to mention Human Nature – a nineties boy band styled in the vein of the Backstreet Boys, and Take That.
🎵 In 2005 and -6, the group ended their career slump with a pair of number one Motown-themed covers collections that were respectively six- and four-times platinum in Australia. A bit like Jimmy Barnes's soul records, these were pure tribute – there wasn't much effort to innovate, but they kept the genre in the public's ears and on the charts nonetheless.
Melbourne / Naarm 00:11:14
🎵 I don't know if it's because I'm from there and so I've paid more attention, but Naarm, or Melbourne, seems to have absolutely been punching above its weight in comparison to other Australian cities since the turn of the millennium. I'll mention a couple of contributing factors.
One: the plethora of small-to-medium sized venues in the city's inner neighborhoods like Fitzroy, Collingwood, Richmond, and the CBD that allow niche music scenes to flourish and blossom in a way that they can't in cities, with only a handful of rooms to play.
And two: the thriving community radio and club scenes with long-standing DJs like Vince Peach, Miss Goldie, and Chris Gill, faithfully spinning new and old treasures to radio audiences and sweaty dance floors, week in, week out.
This scene gave rise to several major funk-soul players that would stand the test of time.
The Cat Empire 00:12:58
🎵 The Cat Empire began as a three-piece, expanding in 2001 to include trumpet and turntables. They leaned in heavily to a Latin sound, merging it with funk, rock, jazz and ska, making them a popular addition to the festival circuit. 2003's catchy lead single, "Hello," received high radio rotation in Australia and the UK. Their self-titled debut album ultimately went three times platinum, and 🎵 follow-up LP, 2005's Two Shoes, made it all the way to number one on the ARIA charts.
Five more top-five albums later, The Cat Empire has had a long and celebrated career, performing in the opening ceremonies of two different Commonwealth Games, receiving 12 ARIA nominations, including one win, scoring an American record deal, touring Asia, the US, Canada, and Europe, and headlining festivals on their home turf.
They played their final show with the original lineup in April 🎵 2022 at Bluesfest Byron Bay. But the Empire continues, led by original vocalist, Felix Riebl, and guitarist, Ollie McGill.
The Bamboos, Kylie Auldist and Cookin' On 3 Burners 00:15:12
🎵 The Bamboos also had their beginnings on the Melbourne live scene initially starting as a four-piece funk combo, playing instrumental covers of American artists like The Meters, James Brown and Grant Green. Their originals caught some attention in the UK and, adding horns, they toured Australasia, supporting UK artists, Quantic and Alice Russell, who recorded some vocal tracks for their debut album, Step It Up.
🎵 In 2006, the Bamboos added a singer, Kylie Auldist, as well as continuing to feature guest vocalists like Megan Washington, Ohmega Watts, 🎵 Daniel Merriweather, Bobby Flynn, and Ella Thompson, who also joined the band as a full-time member in 2012. Fifth album 🎵 Medicine Man charted at number 28 and produced the single, "I Got Burned," featuring Tim Rogers, which scored commercial radio play, TV spots, and a respectable 54 in the year's Triple J Hottest 100.
The band continued to develop and expand their retro-funk soul 🎵 sound and live reputation, supporting UK superstar Robbie Williams on his 2018 Australian tour, releasing several more acclaimed albums, and in 2021, performing at Melbourne's Hamer Hall backed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In their two-plus decade career, The Bamboos have released 10 studio albums and four live ones, received six APRA, six ARIA, and five Music Victoria Award nominations... Still waiting on that win though.
🎵 One of the stars who emerged from the Bamboos stable is surely one of Australia's greatest contemporary soul singers, Kylie Auldist. Kylie is half-Samoan, raised in rural New South Wales and recorded her first song at age six.
Her teenage years were spent singing country music in the local pubs. Moving to Melbourne, she contributed backing vocals for Renee Geyer and Jimmy Barnes and started working with various bands, including Polyester, whose guitarist Lance Ferguson had a then-instrumental side project, you guessed it – The Bamboos. Ferguson invited Auldist to sing with The Bamboos for a festival performance, which led to the singer recording on their next album, and becoming a permanent member of the band.
And what a great fit! Auldist has described The Bamboos as her <quote unquote> "Cinderella slipper," and has collaborated with Ferguson on her solo recordings. Traveling to the UK with the band in 2008, Auldist was signed to Brighton record label Tru Thoughts after just one show, resulting in a series 🎵 of three solo albums: Just Say, Made of Stone and Still Life, the latter of which won Best Soul, Funk, R'n'B and Gospel Album at the 2013 Music Victoria Awards.
🎵 For her next two long players, Auldist drew on eighties disco-funk influences like Prince, Quincy Jones and Chaka Khan. The prolific soul vocalist has continued to collaborate in recent years with artists 🎵 like Mind Electric, Hawk, Tony Garcia, and Inkswel.
🎵 Another one of Kylie Auldist's collaborations illustrates the point that there's no such thing as overnight success. In 2009, she contributed vocals to a track for Melbourne funk trio Cookin' on 3 Burners, who shared a member with The Bamboos and were nurtured by the same live scene. 🎵 Seven years later, the song, "This Girl" was remixed by French producer Kungs, and went to number one in France, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Latvia, and Scotland, and number two in the UK. It was a well-earned high point for the long-standing band, who, since 2007, have released seven studio albums 🎵 that feature funky instrumental originals and covers, like this reworking of Gorillaz', " Feelgood Inc.," sprinkled with guest vocalists like Auldist, Daniel Merriweather, and the Cat Empire's Harry Angus.
🎵 Clairy Browne and the Bangin' Rackettes 00:23:48
The 2010s was a fertile time for Melbourne soul acts, especially those fronted by ladies. Clairy Browne and the Bangin' Rackettes was one such group, and boy did they commit to the bit. With their throwback name, sixties styling, overdriven vocal production, and choreographed live show, they were out to give audiences a bangin' good time, interpreting retro soul to the letter and bringing the swingin' sixties to life every time they performed. Their original tunes with relatable lyrics injected just enough authenticity to skate the right side of the parody line.
Their story started in 2009 when the nine- piece formed around smoky-toned singer Clairy Browne and her posse of sultry backing singers. Their dramatic girl group vibes quickly gathered steam on the live scene – I mean, who didn't wanna be a Bangin' Rackette? 2011 debut album, Baby Caught the Bus, was honored as ABC Radio National's Album of the Year. A few choice commercial and TV placements later, Clairy Brown and the Bangin' Rackettes started getting noticed in the States. They were signed by US label Vanguard Records in 2013, who released the album along with the lead single "Love Letter," which by the way, won the Adult Album Alternative category of the 2012 International Songwriting Contest.
They toured the US small club circuit, feeding off the uninhibited energy of the American punters. An EP 🎵 followed in 2014, Love Cliques, but the group disbanded the following year. 🎵 Clairy Browne has branched out on her own since, with 2015 solo album, Pool, and a pair of recent singles exploring a more pop direction.
More Melbourne divas 00:27:02
🎵 Yet another female fronted Melbourne band, Saskwatch, led by sweetly soulful vocalist, Nkechi Anele, who went on to host Triple J and Double J radio shows and trumpeter-songwriter Liam McGorry, played hundreds of shows together over a decade, including a multi-year residency at the CBD's famed Cherry Bar, and festivals like Meredith, Falls, Splendor in the Grass, and Glastonbury.
The nine-piece shared stages with soul legends Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings and Earth, Wind & Fire, and pumped out four albums between 2012 and 2017, progressively growing more experimental.
Another Melbourne vocalist and songwriter to grace the Glastonbury 🎵 stage, Florelie Escano released her Moody Blues EP in 2012, followed the next year by single, "Woman Scorned." But it was her interpretations of classics that really allowed her voice to spread wings, as evidenced 🎵 by her popular series of Aretha Franklin tribute shows, and by this exceptional cover of "Vision of Love," a wildly difficult song that, until I heard Flo sing it, I thought nobody other than Mariah Carey had any business singing.
Escano relocated to London around 2015 where she established party band, The Flo Collective.
🎵 Keeping the diva train rolling, Chelsea Wilson is a Melbourne-based singer, DJ and broadcaster, who had a funky debut album in 2014, I Hope You'll Be Very Unhappy Without Me, which was nominated for Best Soul Album at the Music Victoria Awards, and followed by a Glastonbury Festival appearance and tour supporting Macy Gray. Second album 🎵 2019's Chasing Gold, dove into disco and continued her run of UK radio play.
And in 2017, 🎵 soul-funk-R&B outfit Mayfield, fashioned around the colossal voice of Carla Troiano, released Victim of Circumstance, which was named PBS FM's Album of the Week, scored a few international spins, courtesy of the BBC.
Don't forget the guys! 00:32:50
Melbourne has produced at least a 🎵 couple of notable male-fronted soul acts as well.
In 2011, electronic R&B performer Nick Murphy, better known under the moniker Chet Faker, went viral with his cover of American R&B group Blackstreet's 1996 hit, "No Diggity." It was used in a Super Bowl commercial, propelling his loungily soulful debut EP, Thinking In Textures, into the spotlight, bringing his first taste of Triple J Hottest 100 success. Next came a collaboration with then-rising star 🎵 producer Flume, who was fresh from the success of his own debut album.
In 2014, Chet Faker's Built On Glass debuted at number one on the ARIA album charts and produced three top 10 tracks in that 🎵 year's Hottest 100, including at number one, "Talk Is Cheap," which was eventually certified platinum. That year, Chet Faker took home five ARIA Awards from nine nominations.
A change of name back to Nick Murphy in 2016 signified 🎵 a new direction, leaning into more of the pop, electronic and experimental sides of his sound for a few albums. The past few 🎵 years have yielded albums and EPs from both Nick Murphy and Chet Faker.
🎵 In 2017, almost a decade after they first formed, Melbourne group, The Teskey Brothers released debut album, Half Mile Harvest. It resembled a sixties time capsule, a collection of obscure long lost soul and R&B tunes by the original artists, or perhaps very authentic sounding covers. But in fact, it was an album of Teskey originals, written and recorded in the brothers' beloved southern blues style.
Named after brothers Josh on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Sam on lead guitar, the band was signed to Ivy League Records and followed up with number 🎵 two, gold-certified album, Run Home Slow.
2019 and 2021 brought a pair of live albums, the second recorded at Melbourne's 🎵 Hamer Hall with Orchestra Victoria, and the Teskey Brothers have a third studio album, The Winding Way set for release in June, 2023. I'm calling it now – this track, "Take My Heart," will be a first dance wedding staple for many years to come.
Emma Donovan & The Putbacks 00:39:27
🎵 A recent Teskey Brothers collaborator is also high on the list of Australian contemporary soul singers. Emma Donovan is an Aboriginal singer who grew up in New South Wales and Western Australia. From the age of seven, she began singing with The Donovans, the family band her grandparents founded with their children, including Emma's mother, Agnes, who encouraged her to enter talent contests.
By the way, she was later rejected from Australian Idol, a high stakes contest, which her 16-year-old cousin Casey Donovan would go on to win the following year.
In late 1999, 🎵 Emma began her music career in earnest with the vocal acoustic band, Stiff Gins. They were signed to Sony and won two Deadly awards.
Leaving to concentrate on her 🎵 solo career, Donovan released her debut solo album, Changes, in 2004 – a genre-blender, predominantly R&B, with shades of funk, gospel, reggae, and country. Her prayer to acknowledge the Stolen Generations' experience 🎵 "Ngarraanga" was also included on an EP released on National Sorry Day in 2009.
In her career, Emma Donovan has performed at Olympic ceremonies, played the Sydney Opera House with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, performed with the acclaimed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander touring musical theater group, Black Arm Band, been the subject of an SBS documentary, played countless festivals and released a children's album.
But it's with her longtime collaborators, funk band, 🎵 The Putbacks, that Donovan has staked a claim to Australian soul. Across three long players – Dawn, Crossover, and Under These Streets, they have explored the breadth of the genre, crafting original tunes with funk, R&B, classic and neo-soul stylings. Donovan often draws on her culture and heritage for lyrical inspiration and regularly sings in Gumbaynggirr and Noongar traditional 🎵 languages. It's a truly Australian evolution of the genre, this pairing of Aboriginal language and storytelling with retro funk and soul stylings.
WILSN 00:44:10
🎵 Another Teskey Brothers collaborator, Melbourne soul-pop singer WILSN – that's W-I-L-S-N, real name Shannon Busch, and not to be confused with Chelsea Wilson – had the recent epiphany that she could make music in her favorite style, even if industry people warned her off it, starting with 2022 single, "Tell Me."
Subsequent singles supported her thesis, gaining popularity on alternative and community radio. Her soul PhD was awarded with the 🎵 closer of 2023 album, Those Days Are Over; a dreamy duet with Josh Teskey. She's toured with the Teskey brothers as well as US soul star, Alan Stone, an opportunity she described as "mind-blowing." You might have recently caught WILSN dueting with Jimmy Barnes on the revival of RocKwiz, or on her own 2023 headline tour.
So that brings us up to date with Australian soul, right? Not quite.
Recent innovators 00:46:36
🎵 Let me tell you about a few other soul-influenced groups that didn't quite have the longevity of The Bamboos, Cookin' on Three Burners, or Kylie Auldist, but did bring some innovation to the development of the genre in Australia.
International outfit, Sugarush Beat Company – a one-album wonder that mixed classic soul sounds with modern pop production. The group was formed in 2005 by Jarrad Rogers, a Melbourne producer and songwriter who had worked with Phrase, Delta Goodrem and Jimmy Barnes, plus American actor and singer Rahsaan Patterson. They added Gambian-Danish soul singer Ida Corr to complete their threesome, describing it as a <quote> "technicolor world of soulternative pop" <unquote>.
🎵 The Hipstones, formed in Tokyo by couple Anthea White and Mark Palmer, had a smooth, jazz-influenced approach with their 10-piece outfit that spent two years in Sydney before relocating to Brooklyn, New York in 2009.
🎵 Adelaide group, Lowrider, brought us soul-inspired sounds with a slightly darker edge. Third album, Round the World was nominated for the 2010 Best Urban Album ARIA award, and the following year they toured Australia with Lionel Richie and John Legend.
🎵 Minimal soul outfit, MOVEMENT, burst onto the scene in 2013 with US music site Pitchfork adding their second single, "Us," to its best new tracks list. The same honor was bestowed upon MOVEMENT's third single, "Like Lust," the following year. The Sydney trio released just one self-titled EP and toured with Banks, Darkside and Solange before fading into obscurity.
🎵 Sydney singer Jade MacRae had success in the mid-2000s with swaggy top-40 singles, "So Hot Right Now," and "Superstar," which scored her a couple of ARIA nominations. When her second album 🎵 failed to land, she changed direction, launching a more alternative project, Dune. After a long 🎵 break, MacRae returned with a new album in 2020, Handle Me With Care, released under her own name this time. It was a collection of classic R&B and soul tunes, all written or co-written by MacRae, that perfectly showcased her honey tones.
Future soul - Hiatus Kaiyote & Nai Palm 00:53:23
At the beginning of this journey, I promised you we'd talk about the future of Australian soul. According to many, including Prince and 🎵 Erykah Badu, that was invented about a decade ago by a Melbourne four-piece that has been sampled by Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Beyoncé & Jay-Z.
Hiatus Coyote described their sound as future soul, although they don't like to be confined to a genre. But before I tell you more about the band, I need to tell you about its driving force and front-person.
Naomi Saalfield, a.k.a. Nai Palm, was raised by an artistic single mother who introduced her to soul, flamenco and Northwest African music. She discovered classic rock staples like Hendrix and Zeppelin later through her brother, and learned to harmonize with her aunt's acoustic guitar.
Saalfield was orphaned young after losing her mother to breast cancer. Through teenage years of grief, separation from siblings and moving between houses, including a stint with wildlife rescuers, she developed a strong affinity for the natural world. She began to express this love through her clothing, jewelry and tattoos, finding comfort in adornments sourced from nomadic cultures, and developed a distinct tribal-punk style that borrows from the past as much as it points to the future. As Naomi began to experiment with music, a similar signature carried through. She was at no point simply recreating what had been before; she built sonic collages of place and time.
The "Nai Palm" moniker was adopted while working as a fire performer, came with her as she started to gig around Melbourne as a singer and guitarist. After seeing her play in 2010, bassist Paul Bender suggested they collaborate, the following year they added drummer Perrin Moss and keyboardist Simon Maven. Hiatus Kaiyote was born.
What comes next seems 🎵 kind of like a fairytale ending, but I don't believe we're even close to the end of Nai Palm's story yet.
After a year or so of gigging, Hiatus Kaiyote scored a support for Taylor McFerrin. In case you're unfamiliar, he's the eldest son of Bobby McFerrin. Remember "Don't Worry, Be Happy?" Yeah, that McFerrin. So anyway, Taylor is a DJ, producer, keyboardist and beatboxer, who caught the end of Hiatus Kaiyote's set and was enamored.
Before the band knew it, the good word had spread to international artists like Animal Collective, The Dirty Projectors, Questlove and The Roots, Erika Badu and yes, Prince, who were all singing their praises. Can you imagine Prince tweeting about you? What a surreal moment that must have been. Perfect timing for Hiatus Kaiyote's debut album Tawk Tomahawk, released independently in April, 2012, and later re-released by Sony imprint Flying Buddha. This version featured a collaboration with American Hip hop legend, Q-Tip, from A Tribe Called Quest, on the track "Nakamarra," which in 2014 was nominated for a Grammy award for Best R&B Performance. That's right, forget the ARIAs, Hiatus Kaiyote went straight to the Grammys and were the first Australian act to be nominated in an R&B category.
Second album, Choose Your Weapon, was released 🎵 in 2015 to critical acclaim, peaked at 22 on the Australian albums chart. The band repeated its Grammy nomination feat, this time, with the track, "Breathing Underwater."
In 2017, Nai Palm released her debut solo album 🎵 Needle Paw, a stripped bare, yet lush, exploration of guitar and voice. The following year, she was featured on Canadian R&B giant Drake's fifth album, Scorpion.
In 2018, the singer revealed she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer the same disease that killed her mother. She underwent a mastectomy, an experience she referred to as the <quote> "...scariest and most emotionally triggering shit I've ever had to endure" <unquote>. Declining reconstructive surgery, she was instead determined to increase visibility of breast cancer survivors.
Nai Palm channeled this experience, along with the loss of her beloved parrot Charlie Parker, and the challenges of the Covid 19 pandemic, into Hiatus 🎵 Kaiyote's third album, Mood Valiant, which debuted at number 10 on the Australian albums chart, and was nominated for a Grammy in 2022.
Other soul artists of the future 01:02:14
While I do think Nai Palm and Hiatus Kaiyote will continue to wear the future soul crown for many years to come, 🎵 there are a few up-and-coming artists also pushing the envelope. Another singer often labeled neo soul is Mo'Ju whose fourth album Oro Plata Mata just dropped a week ago as I'm writing this. Mo'Ju was mentioned in our episode titled How Can We Dance, about protest and political songs, and indeed, since their debut album in 2012, they've explored topics of identity and race, politics, and even mental health alongside the more traditional soul fodder of love and loss.
🎵 Like Mo'Ju, using they/them pronouns, Indigenous North Queensland artist Kee'ahn, was seemingly born to share their voice, with a name that comes from the Wik people, meaning "to dance, to sing, to play." In just a few years on the scene, they've already made waves, being awarded the Archie Roach Foundation Award at the 2020 National Indigenous Music Awards, as well as playing high profile festivals including Bigsound, Golden Plains, and Womadelaide.
Dean Brady captured hearts and showed off his singing chops in 2013 with his 🎵 stint on Australia's Got Talent. Well, guess what? 🎵 Little Dean is all grown up now and he's just released his delightful debut single "Falling." The Queensland artist grew up in a musical family; his parents had their own band: Troy N Trevelyn and the Tribe, also known as Banawurun, who won a Deadly award in 2006 for Band of the Year. It certainly seems their son Dean is heading in that direction and more, with his catchy debut earning rave reviews on Triple J's Unearthed website.
I'm coming to think that the future of Australian soul definitely belongs to 🎵 First Nations artists. Another young singer who's caught the ears of the Australian public is Budjerah, a Coodjinburra man from the Bundjalung nation. The son of pastors, he grew up attending worship practice and surrounded by soul and gospel music. His debut single, "Missing You," won the Breakthrough Artist Award at the 2021 ARIAs, and he collaborated with Matt Corby to produce his first two EPs. 🎵 In 2022 he upped his collab clout, featuring on a remix of an Ed Sheeran track, and subsequently supporting Sheeran on his stadium tour of Australia in early 2023. Not bad for a 19-year old!
Bumpy 01:08:42
We started this three-episode 🎵 arc with women; it's only right to end it with a woman.
Singer-songwriter Amy Dowd, a.k.a. Bumpy, is a proud Noongar artist that developed her beguiling voice fronting neo-soul outfit, Squid Nebula, in the late 2010s. Her solo career began with the jazzy 2020 debut track, "Falling," but it was 🎵 2022's soulful single, "Leave It All Behind," that started gaining listeners' attention, The song showed up on Bumpy's Morning Sun EP in 🎵 2023, alongside slow burn powerhouse single "Return Home."
The recipient of Music Victoria's Archie Roach Foundation Award for Emerging Talent – yes, Uncle Archie's foundation sponsors several awards – Bumpy has performed in high-profile settings, including the Vivid, Bigsound, Port Fairy and Boogie festivals, as well as Aussie Rules football's "Dreamtime at the G" match, the APRA Awards and the State Memorial Services for both Archie Roach and Dame Olivia Newton John.
For this soulful singer, the future is looking anything but bumpy. Sorry, I couldn't help it!
This is where I'm going to adjourn our comprehensive journey through Australian soul. I hope you enjoyed revisiting some of the great funky, bluesy music that this country has produced, and perhaps discovered a few new favorites.
If you want to hear the songs again, check out the Cara Diaria page on Spotify – you'll find a playlist featuring as many of the tunes as possible, plus playlists from previous My Kind Of Scene episodes. I'll also add a YouTube playlist to the episode description that fills in many gaps, especially of the earlier artists not available on Spotify, and lets you enjoy the visual splendor of many of these performers.
Outro 01:12:35
🎵 Thanks for listening to My Kind Of Scene.
What aspect of Australian music would you like me to dig into next? Send me an email at My Kind Of Scene Pod @ gmail.com.
This episode was written, recorded, and produced by Cara Diaria. Theme Music by Cara Diaria. Source links are in the episode description. If you enjoyed it, please rate and review us and tell your friends!