Introducing: You Don’t Sound Asian, a Soundcloud by Peril

 

Guess what!? Peril has a brand new, shiny Soundcloud channel. You Don’t Sound Asian is a celebration of Asian-Australian bands and artists – and more broadly, Asian musos worldwide – who are absolutely killing it.

Music often gets left out of the ‘arts and culture’ bracket – which is interesting, considering it is one of the most pervasive art forms present in our day-to-day life. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who does not hear some form of music every day, even if they haven’t actively sought it out: music is everywhere. And this is just one of the many reasons that when it comes to cultural representation, music is ever so important.

Within Australia’s music industry, there’s a gradually increasing conversation around diversity of race, gender and sexuality. We’ve finally gotten past the point of denial, and many people in the industry are sheepishly beginning to admit that yes, there is a major problem here. In award ceremonies like the ARIA Awards and APRA Awards, people of colour tend to only make an appearance in ‘hip-hop/urban’ or ‘world music’ categories. To gauge an idea of where our festival scene is at in terms of representation, Pilerats just published a great read that shows the direness of the matter. It’s safe to say we have a lot of progress to make.

But we out here! You Don’t Sound Asian aims to shine a light on musicians making some truly incredible music. Our debut playlist is titled ‘in bloom,’ and it’s a dive into springtime. These songs feel like nostalgia, dancing, introspection, extra sunlight hours and flowers in the neighbourhood. Have a little boogie to them!

Stay tuned to You Don’t Sound Asian for both regular Peril playlists featuring new discoveries and the odd classic hit, as well as some exciting special guest mixes from some of the most bad-ass movers and shakers in Australian music right now.

Tanya Ali

Author: Tanya Ali

Tanya Ali is a Sydney-based writer, who makes music and dabbles in doodling. She is the host of Monday Arvos on FBi Radio. Along with music, her interests lie in art, culture, race and politics. She tweets @tanya__ali.

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