Author: Branden Zavaleta

West Australian Writer & Photographer

Live Review: Frank Turner + Emily Barker + Mom Jeans – The Astor, Perth (28.11.23)

November 30, 2023

The AU review has a long history with Frank Turner, but I have to admit that despite loving punk rock–like A Day To Remember, The Bouncing Souls, and The Story So Far– I hadn’t heard of him until this tour crossed my desk. But after my night at The Astor, I’ve heard of him alright, […]

Read More

Translating a 100 year-old Japanese Master – an interview with Ryan Choi

November 22, 2023

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa inspired Murakami and Kurosawa, but what’s it like reading his work today? The Akutagawa Prize is one of Japan’s most prestigious literary prizes. Kurosawa’s beloved 1950 film Rashomon, was inspired by Akutagawa stories, and Haruki Murakami counts him as a favourite. But what would today’s readers think? And what about translating it? Ryan […]

Read More
lara villani stop 2

Aussie Indie Artists: Lara Villani on singing cover songs and songwriting

November 2, 2023

Aussie Indie Artists is a series of interviews with lesser known Aussie creators across all forms and fields. The goal is to share exciting new works, find new angles towards the art, and peek behind the scenes.  Lara Villani’s music journey began at age 6, when her big sister started singing lessons. Like all little […]

Read More
Woody Samson

Aussie Indie Artists: Woody Samson’s debut single, process, and trumpet

October 20, 2023

Aussie Indie Artists is a series of interviews with lesser-known Aussie creators across all forms and fields. The goal is to share exciting new works, find new angles towards the art, and peek behind the scenes.  Woody Samson has been a musician ever since the first tan-ta-ra-tan of his trumpet at age 7, but he […]

Read More

Aussie Indie Artists: Leon Holmes on the life of a travelling oil painter

September 21, 2023

Aussie Indie Artists is a series of interviews with lesser known Aussie creators across all forms and fields. The goal is to share exciting new works, find new angles towards the art, and peek behind the scenes. You’ll never see dull, grey gravel in a Leon Holmes painting, it’ll be flecked with mint, royal blue, […]

Read More

Aussie Indie Artists: Tania Malkin on her abstract aerials, artistic inspirations, and Fujifilm project

August 31, 2023

Aussie Indie Artists is a series of interviews with lesser known Aussie creators across all forms and fields. The goal is to share exciting new works, find new angles towards the art, and peek behind the scenes. You could easily mistake the brilliant swirling colours, and twisting alien shapes of Tania Malkin’s photos for abstract […]

Read More
Mo Louie Hold Me Cover Art

Aussie Indie Artists: Mo•Louie on “Hold You”, game soundtracks, and that little dot

August 29, 2023

Aussie Indie Artists is a series of interviews with lesser known Aussie creators across all forms and fields. The goal is to share exciting new works, find new angles towards the art, and peek behind the scenes.  Mo•Louie’s singing vibrates between soulful, jazzy and poppy. She’s sometimes Charli XCX, sometimes Dorian Electra, and sometimes Sia. […]

Read More

Album Review: Georgia Mooney delivers a lovely, luxurious soundtrack in Full of Moon

August 24, 2023

Georgia Mooney, vocalist and mandolinist of All Our Exes Live in Texas, has taken a bold and beautiful step towards a solo career with her debut album. Following EP Another Year On, released back in 2012, new release Full of Moon is light years ahead and a treat to listen to. Full of Moon is […]

Read More
Eliott

Aussie Indie Artists: Eliott talks her debut album, her mother, and her muses

August 11, 2023

Aussie Indie Artists is a series of interviews with lesser-known Aussie creators across all forms and fields. The goal is to share exciting new works, find new angles towards the art, and peek behind the scenes.  Singer/songwriter Eliott’s lovely, powerful singing voice has often been likened to Adele, James Blake or Florence Welch, and her […]

Read More

Aussie Indie Artists: Poppy Rose on music, muses, and her lost song

August 3, 2023

Aussie Indie Artists is a series of interviews with lesser known Aussie creators across all forms and fields. The goal is to share exciting new works, find new angles towards the art, and peek behind the scenes. Singer/songwriter/producer Poppy Rose is a self taught artist who has gone from singing to Garageband in her bedroom […]

Read More
Four paintings by Belinda Wiltshire.

Aussie Indie Artists: Belinda Wiltshire on her painting and pottery

July 17, 2023

Aussie Indie Artists is a series of interviews with lesser known Aussie creators across all forms and fields. The goal is to share exciting new works, find new angles towards the art, and peek behind the scenes. The colour and light in Belinda Wiltshire’s oil paintings turn the mundane into the magical. The soft glow […]

Read More
John McPhee's Tabula Rasa

Book Review: Anecdotes, accidents and antecedents fill the page in Tabula Rasa

July 14, 2023

If you’re not familiar with John McPhee, he’s considered “a pioneer of creative nonfiction” and won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1999 book Annals of the Former World. That book is the complete collection of two decades worth of road trips he took with eminent geologists, through which he tells the history of North America’s […]

Read More
Roanna McClelland

Aussie Indie Artists: Roanna McClelland talks The Comforting Weight of Water

July 13, 2023

Aussie Indie Artists is a series of interviews with lesser known Aussie creators across all forms and fields. The goal is to share exciting new works, find new angles towards the art, and peek behind the scenes. The Comforting Weight of Water is a spec-fic, coming-of-age story in a world of endless rain. Tools have […]

Read More

Aussie Indie Artists: David Chen talks about his Adventure RPG SPIRITWELL

July 3, 2023

Aussie Indie Artists is a new series of interviews with lesser-known Aussie creators across all forms and fields. The goal is to share exciting new works, find new angles towards the art, and peek behind the scenes. The adventure RPG Undertale starts with a kid falling down a hole into a fantastical world of silliness […]

Read More