Meanjin/Brisbane-based DIY artist ixaras has just released a single ‘This City’ and indications are this is a prodigious rising talent.
Using percussion, digeridoo and thundering synths, ‘My City’ is a vibrant slice of danceable pop with ixaris’s vocals soaring in the ether, ranging from delicate velvet to urgent exhortations over instrumentation that blisters with vivacity. There is a exhilarating sense of movement and a pop sensibility lurking in the delivery.
ixaras talks about the inspiration behind ‘This City’:
‘This City’ is a portrait of self-reinvention in a world where survival demands transformation. Inspired by the novel Jekyll and Hyde, the song explores the psychological toll of killing off your past self to succeed. The refrain, ‘This City Knows My Name’, is manifestation, declaration, and lying all in one. It’s about the pursuit of ambition, acknowledging what parts of yourself you’ve sacrificed along the way, such as the paranoia of being perceived, a love letter to the version of you that had to disappear so the world would take notice.”
It is exciting, thrilling stuff and is accompanied by an immersive video shot like a full feature film in the Mission Impossible style, directed by Mellow Minh. Shot in Eora/Sydney, the clip expertly uses black and white to extenuate the light and emphasise its film noir influences.
Minh says of the video:
Ixaras and I met a while back when I was out on tour with Skeggs — I instantly knew as soon as I heard her play, an exhilaration that I never heard before. So, as soon as I finished the leg, I dm’d her, wanting to work with her. As manifestation has it, while in Vietnam. She hit me with this track, and it blew my mind. I knew I wanted to make something out of it — the idea instantly came to mind, and we never looked back.
‘This City’ is out now and available to stream and download here.
Since the age of fifteen, ixaras has been organising all ages, DIY event management and set up record label ‘Anti-Dismal’ – throwing gigs in backyards, skateparks, community halls and houses. She also belies her age, having spoken at conferences BIGSOUND (2024), Indie Con (2024), The Push (2024) and Creators Summit (2025), the latter of which was about ‘How To Hold Your Own Gigs As A DIY Artist And Start A Record Label White You’re At It’. World domination beckons.
As a sign of her growing reputation, ixaras was recently announced as the fourth annual recipient of local music promoter Good Intent‘s independent artist initiative ‘Greater Good’, a package that includes a cash grant totalling over $30,000 AUD and in-kind services with partners Forbes Street Studios, Jungle Merchandise, The Music, PHILTER, Zenith Records, Media Arts Lawyers, Billy Zammit, PLAKKIT, White Sky and Ben Mitchell.
