Digital Cover: Budjerah

Photographer: Max Doyle

At just the tender age of 20, you’d be forgiven for thinking that singer-songwriter Budjerah might still be finding his feet as an artist. But don’t mistake the young Australian’s soft-spoken demeanour for timidity - he’s quietly ambitious, and only just getting started.

Through both his self-titled debut EP, and sophomore album Conversations, Budjerah has intuitively crafted a sound that’s both redolent of the R&B greats, and yet distinctly his own. His music is like a glorious, amorphous melting pot - a contemporary amalgamation of pop, soul and blues, seamlessly threaded together by his refreshingly honest lyrics and buttery smooth vocals. 

Budjerah explores and draws from the rich storytelling traditions of his Indigenous heritage, and a healthy diet of gospel music that soundtracked his adolescence while growing up in a family of church singers and musicians in Fingal Head (his seaside hometown on the east coast of Australia).

Being discovered and signed to Warner Music before he even finished his senior year of high school was only the beginning of a long list of achievements and accolades that have perforated the early years of his music career. In the time since, he’s brought home two ARIA music awards, and played major gigs at the Sydney Opera House, at sporting grand finals to crowds of more than 100,000 people, and is now preparing to support Ed Sheeran on his Australian stadium tour.

We caught up with Budjerah as he was rehearsing for the upcoming tour to talk about his musical upbringing, his philosophy toward music, and his newest single Therapy.

Hey Budjerah! How are you?

I’m good! I’m good! I’m awake. I’m in the middle of rehearsing with my band. We’ve been rehearsing all week, so after this I’m going to head straight there. 

Nice! So where are you at the moment? 

Do you know Tweed Heads?

It’s a beautiful spot! I know you grew up around there in Fingal Head. Did you have a particularly musical upbringing, or was that a passion you found yourself? 

Yeah! All of my family are musicians. They played in church, and a lot of my singing comes from church and family. There was a lot of gospel and country gospel, and my dad taught me how to sing. I could never afford to get any formal lessons, but then at the end of highschool when I first got signed to Warner Music, I went and learned a bit of jazz and classical guitar from a teacher here in Tweed. So that’s my musical background and where I got my training and everything. 

That’s very cool. So was gospel music the first genre you fell in love with, or was there a particular song or artist that made you think “This is what I want to do with my life”?

Yeah, gospel was it. Aretha Franklin. And Sam Cook is one of my favourite artists. I always sing A Change Is Going to Come in my shows, because that was something I grew up singing in church. And for Aboriginal people too, it’s a big thing, gospel music.

What kind of stuff do you listen to these days? I’m sure that your musical taste has grown and evolved over the years, especially being in the industry now. What kind of music inspires you now? 

Still a lot of gospel. I always come back to that because it’s the foundation of all my singing. And I really like Beyoncé. She’s one of my favourite singers - which is a very standard answer. I’m sure a lot of people would say Beyoncé.

I mean, for a good reason [laughs]!   

[Laughs] She’s one of the greats! But yeah, I didn’t realise how many different kinds of music there were until I started writing with heaps of different people. So there’s definitely a lot that comes in and out of what I’m listening to. 

You’re about to embark on a big Australian tour with Ed Sheeran, who you’ve worked with on your remix of his song 2Step. He also presented your first ARIA award a few years ago. I wanted to know a bit about how your musical journeys intertwined, and how you’ve ended up collaborating?

Well, I just got a phone call from my managers who were like “Do you want to write a verse for Ed Sheeran’s remix?”. Who’s going to say no to that? I was like “Alright!”. And uh, I did.

I thought that they had called a bunch of different artists and asked them all to write a verse, and that they were going to pick who had the best one. My friend Gretta Ray told me one night that she’d heard about this thing with Ed Sheeran and I was like “How do you know about that?”. I thought that she might’ve had the verse, so I wrote three different verses trying to outdo everyone. But…it was just me the whole time [laughs]. 

Did you have a favourite out of those three verses you sent through? 

I liked the first one the most, which wasn’t the one that was chosen. The third one was the one they liked the most. The first one had a lot of pretty harmonies and singing, but they said it wasn’t fast enough - because 2Step is a very ‘rappy’ song. But I don’t know how to rap, I’m a singer! So I got a bit frustrated and sat down in my car and listened to the karaoke version on YouTube to write it. And on the third one I just got the speed right. It just took a couple tries because it’s a very tricky song to nail. 

Do you have a favourite Ed Sheeran song besides the one you worked on together?

I really love his song Dive [singing] “Before I dive right into you!” [end singing]. I think that’s what it’s called.

I also know that you just released your latest single called Therapy, and an accompanying music video. Could you tell me a little bit about that song and how it came to be?

Therapy is about the frustrations that you get when you’re in a relationship. You know, everyone fights and sometimes you end up yelling at the other like “You need to go see a therapist!” or “You’re crazy!”. It was written by Sarah Aarons and the producer Stint, and when I heard the demo for it I was in a situation like that, where I was fighting with someone. So when I heard it I was like “This is exactly what I’m feeling. I need to sing this song.”

I wanted to know how you would describe your music and your approach to music. I know sometimes you’ll take on songs that are fully formed like this, but other times you’re much more collaborative in the process from the very start. 

That’s a good question. How do you describe my music? That’s always a tricky one to answer. I always try to do what’s fun. My dad said: “If you’re not having fun, don’t do it”. So if I’m working on a song or recording a song, if I’m not having fun when I’m doing it, I scrap it. I don’t even come back to songs most of the time. If a song is half-done and we could finish the whole song, it goes in the bin. Maybe someone else might pick it up, but it’s not for me. I like to challenge myself too. Even if a song is written super easy, and is in a super comfortable area of my voice, I always try and push myself to make it a little bit hard for myself.

So yeah, two things: it should be fun and it should be challenging. And that’s how I view all my music.

Was that an approach you had right from the very start, or was it something that developed as you went along? 

Yeah. Well when my dad was teaching me how to sing, he always made sure I was pushing myself. So now I’m in the habit of it - I’ll always raise the key like half a step to make it harder for myself. Or add a little run or maybe write a phrase that’s maybe a little bit too quick but I’m going to try and nail it. 

Do you find that’s tricky when you’re doing live shows because you’re like “Damn, I made all of these songs a little bit hard!”

It’s crazy because my first two singles, Higher and Missing You don’t sit in my comfortable range. They sit at the bottom and the top, and I have to jump. Missing You is like an octave and a third jump. It’s the craziest thing - I don’t know why I did that. But it’s a challenge and that’s fun I guess! 

You performed last year at Gang of Youths’ festival A More Perfect Union -

Oh yeah! That was actually my favourite show that I’ve ever done!

What made it such an amazing show for you?

It was good because quite a few of my friends were there, like Becca Hatch and Matt [Corby]. It was a really fun day with my band and my singers. I love having background singers. It was one of those gigs where we were all just like, “Holy moly, this is the craziest thing!”.

I remember we were doing one particular song where there was a pause in the song and I remember the crowd just cheered for like, a minute. I wasn’t sure if I should keep going, because the song kicks back into gear and I get the crowd to sing with me. But the crowd kept cheering and I was looking at the band. My cousin is the bass player, so I was looking at him. I was just like “Thank you!”. That was the moment where we were like “This is the real-deal kind of stuff!”. That is why we do it. So that was a really special day for me. 

The venues you’re about to play with Ed Sheeran around Australia are stadiums. Will this be the first time you’re doing gigs in venues of that size? 

I’ve done the AFL Grand Final with Ngaiire and The Temper Trap at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. I also did a half-time show at a cricket game there as well, but there were only about 8,000 people there because it was in the middle of COVID lockdowns.

It was different when I walked out for the AFL Grand Final with everyone there. I was shaking. You can’t even picture 100,000 people. When you’re in the stadium and you have to turn around to see all the people - it’s ridiculous.

Is there much that needs to change, or that goes into rehearsing your show in order to make it equipped for a stadium-sized stage and audience? 

Yeah! That’s part of the reason we’ve released Therapy now. Stadiums are so big that you need a sound that’s going to be punchy and that’s going to really hit everyone. In a smaller venue you can do cool little things that people are going to pick up on, but in a stadium you need to hit everything hard and intensely. Me and my cousins - my cousins are my band - we have been rearranging all the songs to be super high energy the whole time. It’s going well! I think it’s been more fun doing the songs this way.

You’re feeling prepared for it then! What’s the next year or so looking like for you? I know you’re about to go on tour, but beyond that point, what have you got coming up?

Just more shows. I can’t say what, but shows and some more music. I don’t think I’m allowed to say too much about any of it yet. But, that’s what’s coming!