The Artists to See at BIGSOUND 2023

BIGSOUND takes over Meanjin/Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley from Tuesday, 5th to Friday, 8th September 2023. More than 140 emerging artists from Australia and New Zealand are set to showcase at the festival, performing at venues such as Black Bear Lodge, The Brightside, Stranded, The Zoo, Blute’s, Summa House, The Wickham and more.

This year’s program is full of artists who warrant your time and attention. To make planning for BIGSOUND a bit easier, we’ve selected 30 of our favourite acts on the 2023 lineup – find details of where and when to see them below.

30 Artists to See BIGSOUND 2023

1tbsp

1tbsp is the indie-house project of Maxwell Byrne, aka Golden Vessel.

Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside Outdoors @ 10.30pm
Wednesday, 6th September – La La Land @ 9.00pm

Ashli

R&B and pop artist Ashli was raised between New Jersey and Western Sydney and released her debut EP, Only One, in late 2022.

Tuesday, 5th September – La La Land @ 8.30pm
Thursday, 7th September – Wonderland @ 10.15pm

BAYANG (tha Bushranger)

BAYANG (tha Bushranger)‘s music sits somewhere on the spectrum between hip hop and punk. Recent collaborators include Kuya Neil, Behind You and Bract.

Tuesday, 5th September – Stranded @ 9.00pm
Thursday, 7th September – La La Land @ 9.30pm

Beckah Amani

Beckah Amani is a Tanzanian-born, Burundi-raised and Gold Coast-based singer-songwriter whose work is a deeply felt combination of folk, indie-pop and soul.

Wednesday, 6th September – The Brightside @ 10.30pm

Behind You

Behind You are hard to categorise – their songs encompass murky dissonance, rapped vocals, heavy riffs and post-punk irreverence.

Tuesday, 5th September – Wonderland @ 7.15pm
Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 11.00pm
Wednesday, 6th September – Superfly Studios @ 8.15pm

Chitra

Chitra makes hooky indie pop music that interrogates our emotional reflexes and gestures towards possible resolutions.

Tuesday, 5th September – Soapbox Beer @ 9.15pm
Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 11.00pm
Thursday, 7th September – The Outpost @ 9.30pm

Coldwave

Coldwave might be from Adelaide/Kaurna country, but the sextet’s busy take on post-punk sounds like it’s straight out of South London.

Wednesday, 6th September – The Zoo @ 8.00pm
Thursday, 7th September – Superfly Studios @ 9.15pm

Delivery

Naarm-Melbourne quintet Delivery make loose and raw garage rock with a lot of angles, a hint of jangle, and a more than modest amount of spiritual anguish.

Tuesday, 5th September – Black Bear Lodge @ 10.00pm
Wednesday, 6th September – The Brightside @ 10.00pm

Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice

Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice is the punk and new wave brainchild of Melbourne/Naarm musician Dougal Shaw, who’s also a member of Cash Savage and the Last Drinks.

Tuesday, 5th September – Superfly Studios @ 11.15pm
Thursday, 7th September – The Outpost @ 8.30pm

Dyan Tai

Dyan Tai has roots in the Sydney cabaret scene but has recently crossed over into vocal-oriented electronic dance music, drawing influence from the likes of Skrillex, Flume and Ninajirachi.

Tuesday, 5th September – La La Land @ 9.30pm
Tuesday, 5th September – The Wickham @ 11.00pm
Thursday, 7th September – Black Bear Lodge @ 9.00pm

ECB

ECB – aka East Coast Brotherhood – is the collective of sibling rappers Chiggz, Nate G and Will, who make hard-hitting posse hip hop.

Tuesday, 5th September – Summa House @ 9.30pm
Tuesday, 5th September – Stranded @ 11.00pm
Wednesday, 6th September – The Outpost @11.30pm

Elizabeth

Elizabeth matches a keen ear for pop melody with lyrics that pay attention to the little things capable of making us feel big feelings.

Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 11.00pm
Wednesday, 6th September – The Loft @ 9.15pm
Thursday, 7th September – The Brightside @ 4.00pm

GAUCI

Under the name GAUCI, the trio of Antonia Gauci, David Gauci and Felix Lush make guitar-oriented alt-pop music that you can dance to.

Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 11.00pm
Wednesday, 6th September – The Prince Consort @ 10.30pm

Gut Health

Gut Health‘s songs tend to be rooted in dexterous, elastic bass playing, which allows them to oscillate between post-punk and disco-pop, while vocalist Athina Uh Oh injects an element of tongue-in-cheek theatricality.

Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 9.00pm
Wednesday, 6th September – Wonderland @ 9.15pm

Hannah Cameron

Naarm/Melbourne-based guitarist and singer Hannah Cameron will be performing songs from her forthcoming album, Holding Pattern, due out on 22nd September. Cameron describes the album’s latest single, ‘The Wrong Way’, as “five years of therapy in song form.”

Tuesday, 5th September – Soapbox Beer @ 8.15pm
Wednesday, 6th September – Stranded Bar @ 10.30pm

Izy

Izy are the sharpest rhythm combo in Naarm, and possibly Australia. Ryotaro Noshiro, Maru Nitor and Warrigo Tyrrell specialise in groove-heavy neo soul with sweet vocal harmonies.

Wednesday, 6th September – The Wickham @ 7.00pm
Thursday, 7th September – The Prince Consort Hotel @ 8.30pm

Jada Weazel

Naarm via Woorabinda artist Jada Weazel makes R&B and soul in the style of H.E.R, Jhene Aiko and The Internet.

Tuesday, 5th September – La La Land @ 4.00pm
Tuesday, 5th September – Wonderland @ 9.15pm
Wednesday, 6th September – California Lane @ 10.00am
Thursday, 7th September – The Brightside @ 7.30pm

Jujulipps

Jujulipps comes to Meanjin from Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau to showcase what’s made her one of the rising stars of Aotearoa’s rap scene.

Tuesday, 5th September – Wonderland @ 11.15pm
Thursday, 7th September – La La Land @ 10.30pm

Kavi

Kavi is an indie artist with expensive taste in pop and retro-futurist electronic production. His latest single is the mirror ball club-pop song ‘SCANDALOUS’.

Tuesday, 5th September – The Outpost @ 7.30pm
Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 11.00pm
Thursday, 7th September – Black Bear Lodge @ 8.00pm

Kobie Dee

Gomeroi artist Kobie Dee makes passionate hip hop that pulls no punches in its truth telling mission. He’s signed to Briggs’ Bad Apples Music label.

Wednesday, 6th September – The Prince Consort @ 11.30pm
Thursday, 7th September – The Brightside Outdoors @ 11.30pm

Komang

Balinese-Australian singer and producer Komang has worked to carve out a niche within the contemporary neo-soul field, bringing “Balinese spirit” to her electronic productions.

Tuesday, 5th September – The Wickham @ 9.00pm
Wednesday, 6th September – The Outpost @ 9.30pm

Kuzco

Kuzco makes busy electronic music with a dash of psychedelic soul. Kuzco wants her music to “reignit[e] the self with fluid movement.”

Tuesday, 5th September – The Brightside @ 10.00pm
Wednesday, 6th September – Black Bear Lodge @ 7.00pm

Miss Kaninna

Miss Kaninna’s recent single, ‘Blak Britney’ – named for the lyrics, “I’m a deadly bitch / Blak Britney Spears” – is one of the most addictive hip hop songs released in 2023.

Tuesday, 5^th September – Blute’s @ 4.00pm
Tuesday, 5^th September – The Valley Loft @ 11.15pm
Thursday, 7^th September – The Brightside Outdoors @ 10.30pm

Platonic Sex

The unfiltered, guitar-led earworms of Meanjin’s Platonic Sex are unsparing in their honesty and dynamically unpredictable.

Tuesday, 5^th September – The Wickham @ 11.00pm
Thursday, 7^th September – The Zoo @ 10.00pm

POOKIE

MC and producer POOKIE signalled the onset of her drill era with new single ‘TALKIN DIS DAT’, demonstrating the confidence and style that made her a crowd favourite at last year’s Meredith Music Festival.

Tuesday, 5^th September – Stranded @ 11.00pm
Wednesday, 6^th September – The Outpost @ 10.30pm
Thursday, 7^th September – Wonderland @ 9.15pm

PRICIE

PRICIE’s immediate, melodic pop songs are encased in grooves borrowed from West African highlife and Afrobeat.

Wednesday, 6^th September – Soapbox Beer @ 9.15pm
Wednesday, 6^th September – La La Land @ 11.00pm
Thursday, 7^th September – The Wickham @ 10.00pm

REBEL YELL

REBEL YELL’s Grace Stevenson is a school teacher, but there’s nothing child-friendly about her dark, industrial techno productions. REBEL YELL makes body music with a strong emotional undercurrent.

Tuesday, 5^th September – La La Land @ 10.30pm
Tuesday, 5^th September – The Wickham @ 11.00pm

The Slingers

The Slingers call their brand of new romantic soft rock, “motel pop”, paying attention to “the lives of ordinary people living and struggling through our current age of loneliness.”

Tuesday, 5^th September – Blute’s @ 9.15pm
Thursday, 7^th September – The Sound Garden @ 8.00pm

Yawdoesitall

ARIA-nominated hip hop artist Yawdoesitall is a charismatic MC and deft producer, whose cinematic, club-influenced productions recall UK grime and Kanye and Jay-Z’s Watch the Throne.

Tuesday, 5^th September – The Warehouse @ 7.00pm
Wednesday, 6^th September – Wonderland @ 11.15pm

Yirgjhilya

Wuthathi and Mirning woman Yirgjhilya specialises in classic soul music, placing her evocative voice and ancestral language at its centre.

Wednesday, 6^th September – Press Club @ 7.15pm
Thursday, 7^th September – Press Club @ 10.15pm

Zheani

Zheani makes club-oriented hyperpop that isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers. Her single ‘BRING WET CUNT’, for instance, implores listeners to act on the request of its title.