One of our favourite parts of heading to Perth – especially for WAM Festival, which is kicking off next week – is that we know we’ll get a chance to catch one of Australia’s finest live talents hit the stage. That’s none other than Tomás Ford. We caught up with Tomás – who’ll be hosting the WA Music Awards on Thursday night – to find out who he though were the picks of the litter for this year’s nominees – listen up, you might just discover something new along the way:
Kučka
Nominated For: Best Electronic Producer, Best Electronic Act, Best Experimental Act, Best Pop Act, Best EP
Kučka seemed to come out of nowhere; they were fully formed even at their first gigs, all tripped out 90’s R&B, filtered through modern production and a ketamine haze. Unconditional should be a billion-selling, stratospheric international smash hit that even your sister knows the words to – I’ll take the fact it’s not as proof that the music industry is not a meritocracy. The live act includes the producers Catlips and Tobacco Rat, whose EP’s this year were also delightfully far out on their own trip. They’re going to be at Fremantle Arts Centre on the sunday of the festival, with a killer lineup – I will be there nursing my hangover in the sun.
Our Man In Berlin
Nominated For: Best EP
These guys were a slow burn for me – I was DJ’ing at the Rosemount when their singer Haydn was tending bar there, and he seemed mad organised but it seemed like he was heading somewhere folky. A few years later and their first EP slowly became my go-to sonic cuddle blanket when I’m on tour. It’s a kind of melancholy you can just slide into on a low-energy day, trying to find a shop selling obscure piece of equipment in a country full of folk who don’t want to sell it to you. The textures on their records must be a bitch to recreate live, but they make it look super-easy. They’re on the Block Party lineup, which is the center of the Saturday Spectacular.
Statues
Nominated For: Best Punk Act
Statues seem to be taking a bit of a break at the moment, but I saw a show they played at Hyperfest last year and it has stuck in my mind. I hadn’t seen a hardcore show that intense, physical and dangerous for a long time. Their vocalist is mental – he was jumping all over things and people and the crowd were protective of each other in that way you only get with a kickass punk band. You need to see them. It’s important.
Diger Rokwell
Nominated For: Best Electronic Producer
Diger Rokwell’s beat tourism EP’s really captured my imagination – he went to Sri Lanka and Cambodia to stock up on vinyl and samples, took them into his studio and busted them out into kickass instrumental hip hop. His stuff has continued in that epic-mix-of-every-beat-in-the-
Joni In The Moon
Nominated For: Best Female Vocalist, Best Keys/Synth Artist, Best Pop Act, Best Single
I’d seen this band play a couple of times, but when this single came out earlier this year, my reaction of the “WOAH WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?” variety. I get PROPERLY EXCITED when the various bits of this drop in. When that big-ass synth drops in around the one minute mark! When she’s all up in my shit screaming about a bonfire! That great singalong breakdown! The final build! They are playing at the WA Music Awards, so I get to screw up their introduction and start a mosh pit to them there. You are, of course, more than welcome to join me in the mosh.
We’ll find out the winners of the WA Music Awards next Thursday night, November 5th. For more details on the event head HERE. Public voting for the awards closes at 5pm Perth time today!
And to get a bit of a taste of what we might expect from Tomas’ hosting duties, here’s a look back to what happened last year this this exclusive video:
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