THE NEW WAVE: From hip hop to indie, R&B to pop, WA’s emerging musical talent is ready to launch
![From a gospel singer turned R&B powerhouse to a Perth Hills teenager with a knack for a great pop hook, get ready for the next generation of WA talent about to hit the airwaves.](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-11394615/4f800e882eeb44e2b48521a5eb2fa2d9024c1251-16x9-x0y0w1020h574.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
Drea is a powerhouse vocalist ready to launch
When Andrea Onamade was roped in to perform at her high school’s talent competition, she wasn’t expecting much.
She wasn’t even competing — she had won the previous year — and as reigning champ, it was her job to perform while the visiting judges deliberated.
“I was singing and one of the judges was one of the lecturers at WAAPA (WA Academy of Performing Arts),” she says. “So he didn’t see me, but he heard me when they were deliberating who the winner was going to be that year. Then he approached me afterwards, and he was like, ‘Hey, I don’t know how you feel about studying music, but it’d be really cool if you could audition for WAPPA at the end of this year.”
![Drea is an up and coming R’n’B, gospel, soul singer.](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-11394615/0e8dca8e158c260676645288be6171e26f46b4f2.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
Onamade did go on to audition and received a position at the prestigious academy, and you only have to listen to her powerhouse vocals to understand exactly why a WAAPA lecturer would be so keen to have her in class.
Now Onamade, who goes by the stage name of Drea, is impressing music lovers everywhere with her music — an ultra-cool mix of R’n’B, hip hop and gospel.
“I was born into a musical family,” Onamade says. “My dad plays a lot of instruments at church. And my mum sings. So we were always surrounded with music,” she says.
The family was involved in the Pentecostal church, and Onamade has been singing in gospel choirs from about the age of eight. As she got older, she started performing in the family band.
“My family and I started this thing called Expression, a gospel band,” she says. “Keys, drum, bass vocals, but gospel music. My mum, my sister and I would sing, my dad was kind of managing everything. My brother would play the drums and we’d ask our other friends to come help us out and play instruments and sing as well. We did a fair few things, performing in different churches and at different events.”
![Drea grew up playing in her family’s gospel band.](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-11394615/e73ab87a61d4b5db74866817abc53c512682c629.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
As a teenager, Onamade says her taste in music started to expand outwards from the church — she was a massive Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande fan. And then she discovered Frank Ocean, the avant-garde rapper and alt-R’n’B singer-songwriter. She describes first hearing his music as a “turning point”.
“My friend was like, ‘Hey, have a listen to Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange. And that completely changed the way that I listen to music,” Onamade says. “It was a different side of R’n’B and a genre that I’ve been listening to for ages but I didn’t really know that was the alternative side of it. So I started to listen to more of that. Kaytranada, GoldLink — there are so many artists that I could mention, but those are definitely the ones that changed the way that I viewed music, but also performed.”
“I still take a lot of inspiration from gospel sound because it’s what I grew up on and it’s what my voice matches, but I learnt very early on you don’t want to imitate anyone. You can take inspiration but you have to be yourself. And once I learnt that that’s when I created my sound.”
With an EP slated for release later this year, it’s a sound more people are sure to want to listen to.
Songs to stream: Yellow, Sonder, Keep It Classy.
Smol Fish are ready for big things
If you have been watching local bands around Perth at any point in the past five years, chances are you have seen Smol Fish.
“We did heaps of gigs in the first few years. We just said yes to everything,” frontwoman Clancy Davidson says. “We were doing two to three gigs a week in those first few years.”
Their apprenticeship served them well. The four piece of Davidson, Hannah Coakley, Josie Offer and Cat Zoler, are now veterans of the live music scene and have built up a loyal fan base with their catchy-as-hell indie pop sound.
Three of the band members met in high school, but Smol Fish was formed in 2018, the year after they left school when Davidson who was studying a music degree, was feeling uninspired by her coursework. She decided to write some songs, roped in some friends to help her record them and as she says “the rest is history.”
![Smol Fish](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-11394615/1b6dd73882233ee374b685903e537b6d51859351.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
They released their debut EP sooky la la in 2021, with the single Sad Girl Summer quickly becoming a fan favourite. The band recently released a new single, Big Love, teasing their forthcoming EP Crocodile Tears.
“It’s the first time me and Clancy have shared songwriting duties which is really cool,” Coakley says. “We’ve been playing together so long now we’re trying out some different stuff and growing a little bit, which is really cool.”
Davidson says she is excited for fans to hear the evolution of the band’s sound on Crocodile Tears.
“The more recent evolution of our sound has become a bit heavier, and maybe a bit more grown up, it’s just a bigger sound,” Davidson says. “We have more distortion on the guitars and it’s heavier.”
As for the future, Davidson says the band have lost none of their enthusiasm for the stage.
“We’d love to, at some stage, do a headline national tour or hopefully get some support slots for tours,” Davidson says. “That would be cool. And we’re both writing, writing all the time.”
Expect big things from Smol Fish.
Songs to stream: Sad Girl Summer, Cry All The Time, Big Love
Anesu finds their voice in protest and joy
![Anesu is a local hip hop artist.](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-11394615/c8e8d490fb5ccf242ced58fab18ec735f87554e1.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
When the Black Lives Matter movement ricocheted around the world in 2020, the issues that were suddenly thrust into the spotlight resonated deeply with Anesu.
Having lost their brother in 2019 in an act of violence, Anesu was quick to put up their hand to help organise the BLM rally in Perth.
As part of their involvement, they offered to read a poem — written in response to their brother’s death. They had little idea their words, written from a place of anger and despair, would change the course of their life.
“I wrote a poem dedicated to what I was feeling at that time,” Anesu explains. “And I performed it at the BLM rally, and it got a lot of attention and people really liked and resonated with that poem. I was like, ‘Okay, what can I do, like to further this idea?’ I made it into a song called Black Girl … and that’s how it came about.”
![Anesu is a local hip-hop artist.](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-11394615/542d8810bbb49497cfd02b15f69378e59e097750.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
Anesu quickly became a regular on Perth stages. There was an immediate buzz. But their ascent has been far from typical. Anesu didn’t even own their own microphone or laptop when they started performing around Perth. Before 2020, putting their music into the world had consisted of little more than uploading their lyrics to a website where aspiring rappers would go to share lyrics and get feedback on songs.
“Basically you write your raps, and you upload it to this website. And then there’s like a community of people that give feedback,” Anesu explains. “I was 13 years old trying to be like Eminem. I was like, ‘How many rhymes can I fit into one like, bar?’ And obviously, I didn’t have anything to say. Just random whinging from a child. But as I grew older and started having more experiences I started having a bit more of a sense of identity and discovering my story and what I wanted to say.”
After the BLM rally, Anesu found themselves in hot demand, despite having almost no experience performing live. They credit, in part, the closed borders to their busy schedule. With no touring artists, venues were forced to look inwards, and in 2020 Anesu estimates they performed in “50 to 70 shows”.
“I think people saw my potential and saw that I was passionate about what I wanted to do, and they kept giving me opportunities, which is so crazy,” Anesu says. “Because I didn’t have any equipment to practise on at home. So my rehearsal space was literally on stage. And I didn’t have a laptop or a microphone until maybe a year ago.”
The track Black Girl created plenty of early buzz for Anesu, and their follow-up MELANIN cemented them as an artist to watch. Earlier this year they ventured beyond WA — to Melbourne and Sydney to perform, including appearing at the Sydney Mardi Gras (Anesu identifies as queer and trans).
Born in Zimbabwe, Anesu was five when their mother moved their family to Sydney. Anesu returned to Zimbabwe aged eight, before spending two years living in Bali and attending an international school, before eventually moving to Perth when they were 12. It’s this range of experiences and outlooks Anesu brings to their music, which they say is entwined with their political activism.
“I do call myself a musician and an activist because those things happened at the same time,” they say.
“When it comes to my music, the way that I go about politics has changed since Black Girl. But at that time, obviously, I had a lot of anger, rightfully so, at a lot of things that I was going through at the time. I’ve since learnt and realised that Black joy and Black resilience is also part of activism. It doesn’t need to be blood, sweat and tears every single day. You also need to be mindful of your emotional capacities, otherwise, you burn out really quickly.”
No doubt Anesu’s star will continue to burn bright.
Songs to stream: Black Girl, MELANIN, Crown.
Teenager Elianie is in luck with power pop
![Elianie is a 15-year old student from the Perth Hills who has been making waves thanks to her catchy indie-pop music.](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-11394615/b1d818ead83a3e3bc82986c9777ee3054db6dfd9.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
When Elianie played Neon Picnic, the festival organised by local radio station RTRFM, this year, it wasn’t her first time in front of a crowd. But considering her biggest gig before that point was headlining a first birthday party, it was quite the step up.
The 15-year-old might have to get used to crowds that have all their teeth because there is a serious buzz surrounding the Helena College student whose whimsical pop songs have made her a finalist on radio station Triple J’s Unearthed High School competition.
Elianie started writing songs four years ago. But it wasn’t until she realised a classmate of her older sister, Calvin Bennett, was a music producer, that she managed to record her songs.
“I reached out to him at the start of 2022,” Elianie says. “I’d wanted to record something and put it out for a while. I’d written this song in mid-2021 that I really loved, it was called Moonlight. I sent it to Calvin and asked if we could record it sometime. We recorded that song with his equipment in my bedroom and I released it not long after, and that kind of kickstarted everything.”
![PLAY: Elianie is a 15-year old student from the Perth Hills who has been making waves thanks to her catchy indie-pop music. Michael Wilson](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-11394615/214dd6c82353751de263255ded96fd67d0c604e4.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
Her latest release, and entry to Unearthed High, is Out Of Luck, an upbeat pop song with clever lyrics showcasing Elianie’s droll sense of humour and knack for a catchy pop hook.
“It’s just cool,” Elianie says of making music. “Releasing songs is the coolest thing ever.”
She plays piano and ukulele and has set herself a goal to learn guitar. “I think gigging will be a lot easier with a guitar,” she reasons. And she has big plans for her future career.
“I’m going to study music. I just want to graduate and then go make music. Reach out to cool creatives … Hopefully, my music will let me travel a bit. Support people I love on tour and have my own headline someday.”
Songs to stream: Out Of Luck, Moonlight.
Joan and the Giants ready for big things
Aaron Birch and Grace Newton-Wordsworth hail from opposite ends of this great State, and may never have met had it not been for an insistent friend.
Birch, who is from Beagle Bay, a remote Aboriginal community in the Kimberly, was studying at UWA and living in St Catherine’s residential college in 2014. While Newton-Wordsworth, who grew up in the South-West, was occasionally visiting Perth and crashing on a friend’s floor at St Catherine’s.
“One of Grace’s really good friends was like two doors down from me. So she would always come over and then one day they forced us to meet and play a song together,” Birch explains.
Newton-Wordsworth laughs and protests: “I’m going to tell it from my perspective!”
“This friend of mine kept saying ‘you’ve got to meet this boy,” Newton-Wordsworth says. “He plays guitar, he’s a bit of a cutie’. And then one day she forced us into a room and said ‘you have to play a song.’ We didn’t even talk. We just played an Ed Sheeran song and it was super awkward and then I just moonwalked out of the room.”
![Joan and the Giants](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-11394615/56df68922df9096b8563e6cef38b8a00ea7de43c.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
Luckily, they managed to moonwalk back to each other, and nine years on the couple - in life and music - are one half of the music powerhouse which is Joan and the Giants. Despite having been playing together for almost a decade, the duo formed Joan and the Giants in 2019 with Riley Sutton and Liam Olsen. But just as they were getting going, everything, well, stopped.
“Looking back it was probably a blessing because a lot of things we had in the works I don’t think we’re quite ready for as a band,” Birch says of the COVID-induced pause button on the band’s plans. “We had a couple of years break where we developed our songwriting. We used to host this thing every Sunday night called Cozy Down Lockdown, which was just us on Insta Live playing songs. We used to write new songs to try out on Instagram so it was really good. It forced us to sit and write.”
That enforced incubation period paid off for the band. They recently won the WA Music Award for Best Rock Song for their track Cool Kid. They have just wrapped up their first nationwide headline tour in support of another single, Sleep Alone, and are revving up for a big year - they have spent the past month in the studio recording new music and are one of the most-buzzed-about acts performing at Brisbane’s Bigsound, an annual showcase of the best new music in the country. And Newton-Wordsworth says they have a “bunch of plans” for next year as well.
Songs to stream: Cool Kid, Sleep Alone, Slow Motion, Home Song
Angie Colman is ready to party
For one of the hottest artists in WA, Angie Colman’s origin story has the kind of whimsy you might find in the lyrics of a, well, of a Angie Colman song.
“I kind of grew up writing songs,” Colman says of her start in the music industry. “About four years ago I played a song for a friend of mine who was running a backyard festival. And he said, ‘oh, that’s awesome. You can you can start, you can play the first slot’ and I thought, ‘oh my God. OK, fine.’ And ever since then, that’s how I’ve been, like playing music.”
![Angie Colman](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-11394615/3a344ad42a431e976b18059c532c76dd3da18fd2.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
The formation of her band seems equally serendipitous - she met her bass player at a party, and her drummer while working behind a bar. She was running an open mic night and recruited a guitarist, and then with the addition of a keyboard player last year, the band was complete.
“Things just fell into place really beautifully,” Colman says.
![Angie Colman’s Band: Miles Gilbert (drums), Jamie Turner (keys), Angie Colman, Kieran Barnes (bass), and Sarah Curran (lead guitar)](https://images.thewest.com.au/publication/C-11394615/86260ecc25963ea7da50b0221d557c3208285f09.jpg?imwidth=810&impolicy=wan_v3)
Her lyrics, compelling voice and knack for a catchy hook have been attracting fans across the country. Her first two singles, 2021’s Maths and 2022’s Who Are You After Me? showcased her songwriting chops but her latest single, the catchy No Party! which dropped in March, is Colman’s most assured release yet - and indie-pop bop perfect for a, erm, party.
“It’s been great, it’s a really fun song. It goes really well at live gigs because people know the words,” Colman says. She says working with the band has meant an evolution of the Angie Colman sound.
“Now that I work with a band I think we have developed a more cohesive sound. I would say more alternative rock. There are a lot of folk and songwriter stylings in there, but I would say alternative rock with pop and folk.”
Colman is releasing a new track, River Song on August 31, and has plans for a bigger release in November when there will almost definitely be a party to celebrate.
Songs to stream: Who Are You After Me?, No Party!, Maths
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