Meet Priscilla, the Aussie Electropop Act All About Staying Authentic
"Your music should be a real representation of your own experience."
Perth duo Priscilla are taking the electropop world by storm.
Despite only releasing their first tunes in 2018, they have already supported bands like The Presets, San Cisco and ALPINE, just to name a few.
Now gearing up for their upcoming single launch for "Circles" on 29 November at Rosemount Hotel in Perth, frontperson Priscilla Gardner is feeling increasingly reflective. As they tell Student Edge, the song’s initial unveiling wasn’t exactly celebratory.
(Gardner identifies as genderqueer and uses the pronoun 'they'.)
"The last release day was super dark for me, because it was a really personal song," they admit.
Gardner, who makes up one half of the duo alongside Luke Minness, has poured a whopping amount of vulnerability and heart into the track.
"It was written about two years ago when I was scared to come out to my parents, my friends and my family," they explain.
"When you talk about something really personal, you don’t know whether the people closest to you are going to reject you or not."
Fortunately, the people in Gardner’s life were more than accepting of their coming out as gay. However, as they highlight, not everyone is as lucky.
"I’m very grateful for the experience I had, because I know a lot of people don’t have it the same way I did," they say.
"There’s still a lot that needs to change for people to feel like they are equals. There are a lot of little things that are not where they should be."
This message of empowerment comes through in "Circles", which boasts punchy drums, synth and Gardner’s gliding vocals. It starts off mellow and broody, transforming into a shiny disco-pop party by the chorus.
Gardner and Minness have even pulled off a synchronised dance sequence for the track's music video, which premieres today.
Listening to the song, you would never guess that both Gardner and Minness studied jazz music at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). Although, Gardner says the transition from jazz to pop occurred naturally.
"The first stuff we started writing, you could still hear a bit of jazz influence," they say.
"But after doing our own modern jazz songs at uni, we realised our writing styles were quite similar."
Even though Gardner had to summon a great deal of emotional strength to write "Circles", they highlight how important it is to create music that is authentic to your life.
"Maybe the biggest thing we’ve learnt since we started is that writing music should be what is most genuine to you.
"Your music should be a real representation of your own experience, and what you say, as opposed to what you think other people want you to say."
Gardner has not always felt comfortable expressing this level of authenticity. In fact, when they were at university, they struggled to compose songs at all.
"It was really hard to think of things that are genuine when you’re not being genuine. All through uni, I didn’t know what to write about," they explain.
"After I came out, it was really fun and I could think of things, because I didn’t have to worry about not being true to myself."
Despite the music industry being notoriously tough to break into, the singer believes that’s not their main challenge. Gardner instead points to how testing they find being a musician in the social media era.
"I’ve been finding that I’ve had to redefine what success means; it’s hard when you release a song and define how successful it is by how many people like the post on social media," they say.
"I’ve had to work out how to define success without basing it on numbers, or how successful the campaign was. That stuff is important, but it’s never going to be enough.
"That’s a human issue."
Instead, Gardner opts to let their fans decide what is successful.
"Someone I’d never met came up to me and said that they really loved the song we’d just put out, and it was the nicest thing ever. It made me cry.
"And so I thought, that’s success."
You can buy tickets to Priscilla’s single launch to be part of a complimentary beerfarm keg on the night.
Header Image: Supplied.
