16 Aussie acts invited to showcase at Great Escape, SXSW
More Aussie acts are going global, thanks to two of the world’s biggest industry festivals.
The Top 50 acts announced overnight for The Great Escape in the UK, May 13—16 included two acts from Down Under.
Baker Boy has been preparing for a hectic 2020, teasing new material in the wake of expanding his live band. Currently working the ‘In Control’ single, this week he was in New Caledonia, performing and doing dance workshops
Evie Irie, who emerged as a talented teenager, has gone on to be signed by Republic Records and released a US-made EP 5 Weeks In LA.
She now has a single out called ‘The Optimist’ which comes with a video featuring a little girl as the main character “who was living in a dark place but found the strength and the light inside herself.”
Evie Irie / by Catie Laffoon
SXSW also revealed its second round of Showcasing Artists invited to perform, and while 14 were from Australia, a massive nine hail Melbourne.
These nine include: Sony-signed singer-songwriter Alexander Biggs has already had chart success in Europe and the US, and Alice Skye, who is currently fundraising for $12,000 after a last-minute invitation to New Orleans to attend The Folk Alliance International conference in January.
Behind the release of debut album The Grand Tour, BATTS ht has been collaborating with Scienceworks in Melbourne to bring a visual experience to the album on November 16, which he calls “the biggest dream come true ever!!” Cable Ties already have a presence overseas, with a UK tour in May 2019 and contributing a song to an Alcopop Records compilation to raise funds for social inclusion programs run by United Glasgow Football Club.
Leah Senior has been hitting hard in terms of gigging, solo piano player and composer Luke Howard is prepping a new live show. Quivers have heir new single ‘When It Breaks’ playlisted on triple j, Sarah Mary Chadwick just dropped her sixth solo studio album Please Daddy, while Sui Zhen who is getting national radio airplay for ‘Losing Linda’ makes her return to SXSW after her 2017 showcases.
Sui Zhen / Facebook
From Sydney are conservatory-trained trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist Anatole who just signed a record deal with Decca Publishing, Sophie Hutchings did a European tour this year, while Kota Banks wrote new single ‘Big Bucks; about 21st century capitalism while daydreaming in the London tube “about living luxe, wearing designer brands and staying in nice hotels.”
From the Gold Coast Jamie-Lee Dimes is currently touring the US, while Hobart’s A. Swayze & The Ghosts have a new single ‘Connect to Consume’ out no.