Eight Aussie acts to play digital The Great Escape
Eight Australian acts have been invited to showcase at the digital version of UK’s The Great Escape, held on May 13 and 14.
The Great Escape’s showcase has successfully built up a reputation for picking export-ready acts, and many Aussie names have in the past gone on to sign record, publishing, booking agency and tour/festival promoter deals.
The online edition will feature dozens of curated showcases by industry partners including CD Baby, MCD, Paradigm, Primary Talent, UTA and WME as well as country-specific specials with artists representing France, Ireland, Scotland and Sweden, among others.
The eight Australians are:
Allday who’s about to drop his fourth album Drinking With My Smoking Friends on May 28.
It features DMAs, The Delta Riggs, Hayley Mary and Japanese Wallpaper. The rapper and singer said the album “is about escaping something and finding something new, whether that’s a place, a relationship or something else”.
He tours in August with Adelaide’s George Alice and one of his favourite young rappers JK-47.
Genesis Owusu, the Ghanaian-Australian singer from Canberra is currently on tour until mid-June, celebrating his 23rd birthday with a sell-out of his hometown.
He’s heading for his first US tour in 2022 with the ARIA-nominated debut single ‘Don’t Need You’ collecting 1.3 million streams.
He’s currently recording his debut album in home studio with Kirin J Callinan on guitar, Touch Sensitive on bass, World Champion’s Julian Sudek on drums and Andrew Klippel on keys.
Cinematic pop singer Jaguar Jonze (Brisbane native Deena Lynch) is enjoying some love for her new five-track EP Antihero which has just been featured in the UK’s The Independent as one of the best new releases.
Australian-born Brighton-based musician Penelope Trappes drops her Penelope Three album on May 28 on Houndstooth.
The video for the new ‘Fur & Feather’ “was inspired by the Celtic mythological tale of The Selkie, which is about ‘homing’ – returning to a sense of self”.
Cat & Calmell
Sydney pop duo Cat & Calmell came together from two worlds, Cat growing up in China until her teens and Calmell born and raised in Western Sydney.
They met at an after-school program for developing artists, and their debut release ‘dumbshit’ was played on triple j, BBC Radio 1 and the Diplo & Friends streaming playlist, on which it generated 100,000 streams in mere days.
Sydney pop-rock band Planet already had their first taste of international touring, in 2018 playing across Europe and the UK with DMAs with an Australian version of Britpop.
To preview what you’ll see on The Great Escape stream, Sydney psychedelic outfit The Lazy Eyes have just posted their online SXSW 2021 set on YouTube.
The Magic Lantern aka jazz pianist, singer-songwriter and composer Jamie Doe was born in Australia and moved to the UK at 12.
There he became part of a London scene of musicians who move fluidly between jazz, folk and contemporary classical music.
He’s posted a preview of his The Great Escape appearance here.
Others showcasing over the two days at The Great Escape include NZ’s nui-soulster Teeks, rising UK names Alfie Templeman, Holly Humberstone and Dialect, the USA’s Geese, punk powerhouse Chubby and the Gang, technicolour pop visionary Pyra, rising rapper Goya Gumbani, Spanish alt-rockers Belako, Hong Kong’s Chanka, Ireland’s Dani Larkin, Italy’ Joan Thiele and France’s Keep Dancing Inc among others.