Meet Your New Favourite Art-Pop Queen, Montana Sharp
Montana Sharp’s Instagram bio reads “The Main Character ✨.”
We reckon that’s a pretty on-point way to sum up the emerging Naarm/Melbourne artist’s unique, cinematic sound that she’s coined as ‘epic pop’ (she says it’s like pop, “but the mood is like, really extra.”)
After a string of single releases spanning three years, her EP Blood Moon comes out on 11 February. It’s a magical exploration of youth, change, personal development, and self-love.
We caught up with Montana ahead of the release to chat about it, and to get to know her better.
Blood Moon was three years in the making.
Montana says the EP is “basically just a snapshot in time.”
That time is a period most of us can relate to — growing up, and “realising things”.
“I think there's such a pressure for young people to feel like they’re in the best time of their life, and in reality it can be really confusing, so I wanted to kind of draw on that”
Montana started recording Blood Moon in early 2019, but like most things, got delayed because of COVID. It even copped some extra vocal treatment due to her voice aging since recording.
Ultimately, Montana feels super relieved to finally be putting it out.
She says there’s something for everyone on Blood Moon. “the tracks are really diverse, so there’s more upbeat stuff than more ballad-y and low key acoustic stuff, too.”
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How her dictionary app’s ‘word of the day’ became her single’s title.
Her latest single, “Way of the Whiffler” has a funny origin story. In case you don’t know, ‘Whiffler’ is an Old English term that describes someone who’s constantly changing their mind.
Montana uses the term to describe youth, specifically the period during the early 20's when phases pass and no trend or opinion stays stagnant for long.
Montana came across the word through the dictionary app that she was using because she “wanted to be a cool and different songwriter and use words that people hadn't heard of.” She says that’s a pretty standard “baby songwriter” thing and has a bit of a laugh about it now.
She was essentially born to be a muso.
Montana’s dad was big on the Melbourne music scene in the ’80s and ’90s. That’s what influenced her early training in classical piano when she was seven years old.
That’s what led her to ditch the classical stuff she was focusing on but didn’t really love, and instead study Pop Voice at Monash University when she was 18.
Her music degree was “very Glee.”
Montana says taking that path was a really good decision. She loved her experience at Uni and says it was heaps of fun.
She also hilariously likens it to Glee, “I just thought I was in a TV show, people would like get up and sing a song and start crying and then we'd be like, 'yep, that was great,’” she says.
Iconic.
She’s already planning the next EP.
She’s stoked that Blood Moon is out in the world, but she’s already thinking about the next step. “I'm gonna start a new EP and hopefully not wait three years to release it!”
She’s passionate about making sure the live music scene is back up and running, and hopes to book more gigs and do more work as a session musician (helping out other musos with backup/lead vocals).
Montana hopes her next round of stuff will still be epic, cinematic, and “just more badass.”
Blood Moon is out on all platforms on 11 February, and she’s got an EP launch in Melbourne on 16 February.
“I’m really fun and approachable. So, you should totally stream my music and follow me on Instagram,” Montana says.
Go on then, you heard the woman!
Header Image: Supplied.
