Introducing our Demos from The Wheatbelt artists!

Georgia McAlpine is a young singer-songwriter from a small Wheatbelt town called Buntine. In primary school, Georgia picked up guitar lessons and began writing her own songs before honing her creative  style and skills when away at a Perth boarding school, where music became more than just a passion, it was an outlet for coping with being away from home. Through her emotive lyrics and raw acoustic  melodies, Georgia openly tackles personal issues that enable her to connect with listeners. In 2018, she released her first EP, Asunder – meaning “apart” – which reflects on times of losing someone, something or  even parts of oneself.

 

Gracie Stancic is a young rhythm guitarist putting her own spin on indie, pop-punk, and rock styles. She independently recorded and released her first single, which picked up airtime on community radio station Voice of the Avon 101.3FM, and was featured on Triple J’s Unearthed High. In early 2016, she performed at the new Halls Head Central Shopping Centre Grand Opening, was a semi-finalist at last year’s Laneway Lounge’s Open Mic competition, just missed out on the semi-finals of last year’s National Hotel Fremantle Open Mic competition, and played at Dowerin Field Days, Lancelin Busker’s Festivals, and Toodyay Music Festival.

 

Hayden McGlinn is an artist engraining folk, blues, rock, country into his acoustic music. He plays live venues all over the Wheatbelt ranging from pubs, clubs, taverns, bars and private house parties. He has achieved a nomination for WAM Country Song of The Year with his song “Utes n Dogs” in 2004 while completing his Cert II in Sound Engineering at SAE in the same year. He has played festivals such as Boyup Brook Ute and truck muster, Narrogin Big Bash, Taste of Dumbleyung festival and Cuballing music festival. 

 

Kelly Gardner (aka Kelea) is a formidable and versatile music artist. After completing Law and Commerce degrees early in life and performing in various musical genres, Kelly went on to study at WAAPA, the VCA and NMIT.  Kelly has been performing as a vocalist for over 20 years and moved to the Wheatbelt in 2014. Her 2017 electronic single Evolution is a testament to her continuing growth as an artist. She has been performing for WAM since 2015 (vocals, piano and looping) and is also a member of Women of Music Production Perth. She is currently hard at work on her debut EP in her rural based studio.

 

Polly Medlen is a Wheatbelt artist with deep country roots. Her debut album Easier to Run earned multiple wins in the WAM Song of The Year awards, as well as a WAM Awards nomination for Country Artist of the Year. These days her music sways more towards alt-country indie-rock, with her EP Hotel Loves featuring heartbreak tales of love gone wrong, screwing things up and wearing the scars to prove it. Polly and her band have played gigs all over WA and have teamed up with Perth faves such as Abbe May, Ruby Boots and The Ghost Hotel, and supported acts like Kasey Chambers, Troy Cassar-Daley and The Waifs.

 

Refractory Road is a West Aussie brand of gritty, full-blooded, beer-soaked, pub sweating rock and blues. Leading the resurgence in rock throughout Wheatbelt WA, Refractory Road presents a full-throttle guitar-driven sound with big, clear, clean vocals. The group writes and performs music that relates to the Australian way of life and champions personalities and events in our country’s history.

 

Sue Munns grew up with no TV and a musical father who encouraged Sue and her brothers and sisters to play and sing. Every evening the family would sit together, play guitar and sing, it’s just what they did. Sue first sang on stage with her father at age 14 and has since played many weddings, won Muka Idol, backed Alex Watt (Window Down) in Tamworth, and supported Adam Harvey with her daughter, Amber.

 

Tim Beckingham grew up in the North-Eastern part of the Central Wheatbelt and draws upon the more reflective moments to create acoustic drive tunes with a poetic lyric. Inspired by genres of country (thanks to his dad), gospel (from growing up in the church) and grunge (thanks to the ’90s), the songs tend to sit on the more melancholy side of things. He’s played various open mic nights in Perth as well as Northbridge Festival and a battle of the bands at the now-defunct Saltbush Festival. Tim is also currently playing bass and providing backing vocals for Hayden Sprigg in the band, The Eastern Line.

 

Tom Caughey is a talented multi-instrumentalist from north of Merredin. He first picked up the guitar in highschool and since then has taught himself drums, bass, guitar, vocals, ukulele, mandolin and keys. Since starting guitar he’s written plenty of his own songs, which he recorded at home. Tom’s music is influenced by alternative rock, psychedelic rock, grunge, folk, acoustic, and surf rock. Aside from his solo work, Tom also plays in two cover bands and one experimental band call Spoonful.

 

The Primary Collective are a four-piece rock band from the regional town of Merredin, Western Australia consisting of Jayden Crook (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Neil McFarlane (lead guitar), Paul Madaffari (bass guitar, vocals) and Duane Ratima (drums, vocals). They first came together in 2016 as a vessel for the original tracks Jayden had been working on for the upcoming Road Safety WAMbassador Program. This quickly developed into fleshing out and writing new tracks as a band, drawing heavily from their indie rock influences while working hard to maintain a melodic style with pop sensibilities. Primary Collective have played gigs around the state and been involved in a number of WAM programs including the Wheatbelt Touring Circuit and WAMFest 2016 and 2017. As well as being selected to be part of the upcoming WAM Demos of the Wheatbelt Project, Primary Collective is currently working on material for their first EP, being recorded this March.