Bigsound amplifies Brisbane’s unique role in shaping Australia’s music future
Bigsound is Brisbane’s live music scene at its best.
Every year for three days in September, music industry professionals and artists from all over the country flock to the Fortitude Valley precinct for the largest music conference and showcase in the southern hemisphere.
This year’s Bigsound included keynote addresses from international artist and author Kelis, Amyl & the Sniffers lead singer Amy Taylor, and singer-songwriter Tones & I, as well as panel discussions and live performances by more than 120 Australian artists across 17 venues.
Amy Taylor of Amyl and the Sniffers is a keynote speaker at this year’s Bigsound. Credit: Getty Images
Conference programmer Tom Larkin said it could only happen in Brisbane.
“Brisbane as an environment allows for those discussions to actually flourish because it’s outside those two main capitals [Sydney and Melbourne], which allows people to take the time out of their lives and make it a destination to commit to the event,” Larkin said.
“That’s a real advantage to Brisbane.”
When he began as Bigsound’s conference programmer in 2019, Larkin could not have foreseen the events to come.
“It has been possibly the most dynamic five years in the music industry,” he said.
The pandemic, combined with shifting consumer habits and technological changes, has altered Australia’s live music industry, hitting festivals and small venues particularly hard.
Locally, that has resulted in beloved venues such as The Zoo closing their doors and the loss of iconic music festivals Bluesfest and Splendour in the Grass.
Despite the challenges, Larkin is determined to leave his last Bigsound festival on a positive note.
“Bigsound is a platform for positive change, and continues to be,” he said.
“It’s for artists to build their voice, and for the people around them to be supported and effective on a global stage.
“It’s about the process of how we operate as an ecosystem – as a community with each other – and making that better.”
On Wednesday morning, Larkin joined five other panellists for a discussion on Australian music and how local artists could be protected and supported.
Of particular note were the successes being enjoyed by local artists elsewhere, and how Australia’s industry might learn from them.
“One of the outcomes, stream-wise, is that there are several countries that are experiencing a renaissance in local artists achieving global platforms. That’s very visible in K-pop, for instance, but this is also occurring in Latin America, in India, and in countries in Europe,” Larkin said.
“We want to investigate how we might find our own version of that here.”
For Larkin, the most important element of this year’s Bigsound is the focus on the cultural importance of music.
“I think we are in the middle of a generation shift. We’ve seen a once-in-20-years movement around music right now,” he said.
“We want to have that discussion about how we elevate [music’s cultural importance].”
Bigsound runs from September 3-6. See the full program, including the schedule of live music.