By THERE ARE PLENTY of reasons to be excited about the local music scene in 2025. Now that the pandemic is safely in the rearview mirror, music venues all over Australia – and further afield in New Zealand – are once again pumping, with audiences eager to experience performances by new and exciting artists. And that climate has done wonders to elevate the next generation of homegrown superstars.
Support acts today, headliners tomorrow; their genre is genre-less, their inspiration varied and, most of all, their live shows will leave you wondering just how far these talented young musicians will go (this issue’s cover star, The Kid LAROI, is proof anything’s possible). So, for Esquire’s music issue, we’ve chosen to highlight eight emerging artists set for a colossal 2025. Read on, and listen up.
IF YOU TYPE ‘xmunashe’ into Spotify or Apple Music, you’ll come up empty. This is because the experimental Botswana-born, Perth-raised, Sydney-based musician hasn’t technically released any tracks. And while he’s performed at major venues – including the Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid Live 2024 – all of his shows are improvised. “Until now I’ve been sharing music on YouTube and social media, as videos from my live shows, because that’s been my focus – to grow my audience in real life first,” he says.
It’s a distribution method at odds with the modern music landscape – today, it’s not uncommon for young artists to put out countless tracks online before playing their first live show. But this guerilla element has seen 23-year-old xmunashe cultivate an underground following of fans who line up to experience his eclectic, multi-instrumental sound live, at locations as diverse as the artist’s own studio to the Sydney Observatory.
“Rehearsed shows bore me. I’d hate to sing the same songs in the same way over and over again. Improv brings a risk to the live show that I’m addicted to. I test and strengthen my musicianship and abilities as a songwriter every show,” he explains.
Having established his artistic language, xmunashe has recently finished work on his first full-length album, which, he informs us, will be available on all streaming platforms, “so people can hear [my] art wherever they are, whenever they want”. He won’t remain a secret for long. – Amy Campbell
IN HER 2023 BREAKOUT HIT, proud Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Kalkadoon and Yirandhali woman Miss Kaninna gave the world the only introduction they needed: “I’m a deadly bitch / a Blak Britney Spears”. That song – ‘Blak Britney’ – now boasts over one million Spotify streams and earned her three ARIA nominations, making Miss Kaninna the first independent Aboriginal woman to be nominated for a debut single. (Since the release of that track, she has reclaimed the word ‘Black’ as a way of “collectively referring to Black and Indigenous people globally, rather than setting Aboriginal people apart and diluting their blackness”.)
In September last year, she released her self-titled EP, which flows between swaggering hip-hop tracks like ‘Dawg in Me’ to the more sensual R&B tune ‘Friends’ and the dancefloor-ready, Afrobeats-inspired ‘Push Up’. “I would describe my art as a blend of genres,” she says.
Her upbringing in Tasmania “definitely influenced a lot of my rock punk sounds,” says the artist, but “growing up Black in Tassie was hard because I didn’t get to see people like me”. “Watching my community and the wider Black diaspora on the TV be so unapologetically Black really empowered me and motivated me to be the same.”
That empowerment shines through in Miss Kaninna’s live performances – whether that’s opening for international stars or performing on festival lineups. “I’m inspired by artists who aren’t afraid to push against the norms of music. I look up to the people before me who have paved the way for Black music in the country.” – Dani Maher
BROTHERS HENRY AND PIERRE BEASLEY are the multi-instrumentalists and dual vocalists behind Balu Brigada, a band that has crafted a sound that defies categorisation. “We like to pull from a bunch of genres and then boil it all down to something that we affectionately refer to as groove rock,” the New Zealand-born, New York-based duo explain. “It’s essentially dancy indie rock – something you can bop to with a gnarled face or stomp along to on an aggressive power walk.”
Their sound is at once danceable and lyrically touching, a fine balance that can be attributed to their melting pot of influences, ranging, they say, from the deeply immersive electronica of Gorillaz and Daft Punk to the emotionally charged indie rock of The Strokes and Tame Impala. “A lot of indie rock from the 2000s and 2010s has inspired us, especially artists who manage to get some emotional depth into dancy rock,” they shared. That balance of grit and groove – or what they call “a bit of sass” – is the foundation of Balu Brigada’s sound.
Growing up immersed in Auckland’s low-key music scene helped shape Balu Brigada’s emphasis on self-production and experimentation. “Because the live music scene is relatively small, it’s been a great place to cut our teeth and experiment with the type of energy we want to bring to a live set,” they say.
Their big breakthrough came last year, when the band opened for American alt-rock act Twenty One Pilots on their world tour. The gig brought with it wider attention, and solo shows across South America and the US to open 2025. Watch this space. – Cayle Reid
THERE IS A CINEMATIC feeling to everything Maina Doe produces. Leafy apartment blocks, graffitied underpasses and rolling green hills with tall transmission towers colour her music video for ‘Don’t Worry ’Bout Me’, which is shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio for visual impact.
“There’s a certain tinge that films I like have, which inspires a mood, a way of feeling, thinking, an energy to romanticise the mundane,” says Doe. Drawing on movies like Moonlight, Kill Bill and The Dreamers, there’s an ambient intimacy to her brand of R&B, which she describes as music for “people who love love, feel a lot and are equal parts melancholic and joyful”.
Born in Bandung, Indonesia, Doe as a kid was a self-proclaimed “rugrat”, playing on the city’s volcanic land, “burning things and exploring all day when [friends and I] weren’t at school”. Although the West Java capital is vastly different to the suburbs of Sydney she moved to at the age of eight, Doe isn’t nostalgic for the remote, simple lifestyle of her youth. Coming from these two worlds and being exposed to Sydney’s multicultural communities, she offers, “has shaped a very eclectic way of approaching my music”.
“The things that inspire me most are the connections I make in the world and the ideas I explore with people,” she says. An early collaborator was past Esquire Australia cover star Genesis Owusu, who featured on Doe’s 2020 single ‘Unwritten Laws’, a track that sees the two artists craft soothing soundscapes with vocals of contrasting depths. That play on lightness and darkness is something that informed her debut EP ODIWAMS, which dropped last year. In addition to ‘Don’t Worry ’Bout Me’, standout tracks include the ethereal ‘Lucid Dreams’ and sensuous ‘Witness’. Listen, and it’ll leave you wanting more. – Tyler Dane Wingco
BRAE LUAFALEALO, the R&B artist more commonly known by his stage name Boy Soda, doesn’t look far when searching for inspiration. “My music is inspired by the relationship I have with myself,” he says. “A song is usually the result of me documenting something I learnt or want to remember. I’m so inspired by music’s innate ability to reintroduce me to myself, continuously.”
Hailing from the NSW Central Coast town of Terrigal, Boy Soda grew up in and out of karate studios – his parents ran two, and he trained in the sport. “It was influential to the way I carry myself and see the world . . . Being on the coast allowed me the space to learn how to write songs, which was extremely important when I moved to Sydney and started doing songwriting consistently.”
He dropped his first single, ‘Time For That’, in 2019, following it up with his first album, YC-TAPE: Vol. 1, in 2022. A true slow jammer, Boy Soda’s vocals are smooth, sultry and sexy, dancing over vibey instrumentals, with horns featuring across many of his tracks. Earlier this year, he ushered in a new era of the Boy Soda project by dropping the catchy, jazz-infused track ‘Lil Obsession’ – and there’s more new music where that came from. Stay tuned, and expect big things. – Amy Campbell
KAYTETYE DJ AND PRODUCER Rona has fewer than 10 releases to her name, but that hasn’t stopped her from catching the attention of Australian EDM royalty Rüfüs Du Sol, having signed to the group’s record label and opened for their Australian tour in 2022. That same year, she released her first EP, Closer, which shot her onto the Australian festival circuit. But this February, she played her biggest festival stage to date, performing on the same bill as Charli XCX, Clairo and Bicep at Laneway.
In recent years, innovative producers have brought a spectrum of new flavours and subgenres to the EDM scene, and Rona marks a unique addition, with dreamy tracks she aptly describes as “ethereal yet grounded, weaving punchy, dynamic elements of electronica with a sense of connection to place”. “My work is deeply inspired by my experiences as a Kaytetye woman and the stories, knowledge and strength of my community,” she says. “I grew up in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), surrounded by the stunning red desert, mountain ranges and expansive skies. That backdrop has shaped my understanding of rhythm, silence and space, which I try to echo in my music.”
Nowhere is that influence clearer than on tracks like the energetic ‘Aperleye’, dedicated to her grandmother Freda, and ‘Burn It’, a pulsating call to address systemic racism that was released on the one-year anniversary of the failed Voice referendum. “[It’s] about capturing moments of joy, healing and resistance through sharing sounds, stories and energy on my own terms.” – Danielle Maher
EMERGING FROM MELBOURNE’S underground scene, five-piece band Gut Health thrives on being sonically and thematically uninhibited. Their music is a sharp-edged collision of post-punk urgency and mesmerising rhythm, something frontperson Athina Uh oh describes as “energetic, angular and hypnotic”. The band’s sound is a floor-filler, as much a product of raw emotion as exacting talent, blending rage with softness in equal measure.
Deeply influenced by queer rave culture and historical moments of genre overlap, Gut Health draws inspiration from the late ’70s and early ’80s, when punk, dub and experimental sounds coalesced in New York and London. “While the circumstances that shaped those artists were vastly different from my own, I connect with the cross-pollination of scenes,” Uh oh says. For Uh oh, growing up and living in Melbourne is another key influence.
“The city’s live music legacy, from iconic venues like The Espy to shadowy corners like Hellfire, has been really interesting to learn about. Spaces like the Clifton Hill Community Centre, where artists like David Chesworth performed, have also left a mark on me.”
Beyond musical history, Gut Health is inspired by Australia’s past more broadly. “I tend to look at and critique contemporary Australia – like how it’s a colony with a shameful past, or how modern buildings overtake native wildlife,” Uh oh explains. That sharp observational lens, paired with a refreshing approach to inclusivity (the band offers free tickets to shows for First Nations and transwomen of colour), makes Gut Health one of the most exciting new voices in Australia’s alternative music landscape. – Cayle Reid
“AT THE AGE OF NINE, I told myself I’m going to become the biggest star in my universe,” says Vv Pete. “And we’re on a mission to get there.” Vv Pete, or Veronica Peter, speaks with the panache of a seasoned rap diva; the ‘we’ she’s referring to are her Varvies, the doll name for her fanbase. One might come across Vv Pete on radio station Triple J or by sweating it out in Sydney’s hottest clubs. More recently, Varvies gathered at the Sydney Opera House for the rapper’s Vivid Sydney appearance. Her sound is high tempo, flowing and building in rhythm until it bursts at the end of a verse – and then we dance.
Born and raised in Western Sydney, Vv Pete was surrounded by the powerful women in her South Sudanese family, whom she would draw on when penning her anthems of confidence, unity and authenticity. “My work is inspired by my life story; I love to story-tell,” she says. “My lyrics paint a picture of everything that is me and captures both club and rap worlds.”
Since debuting in 2022, Vv Pete has been enjoying a rapid ascension; her string of singles, from the bombastic ‘Bussit’ to ‘Jordan 1s’, and collaborations with other Sydney-based creatives like composer Utility, place Vv Pete at the forefront of an exciting new wave of Australian rap. In her newest EP, WASSA, featuring Formation Boyz and Utility, Vv Pete claims her turf in the music scene to the bop of, “I’m the queen of Sydney / Open the gate!’
For the uninitiated, the rapper comes with a warning: “Brace yourself when connecting your Bluetooth device as you enter the Varvie World”. – Tyler Dane Wingco
