Giant pop hits with chaotic lyrics, meet this week's feature artist
Emerging from Western Sydney, 22-year-old Sri-Lankan/Australian wordsmith Ama, is the latest voice breaking through the indie pop landscape.
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Ama's passion to create a deeply emotional, raw and powerful story via her music first bloomed in her formative high school years before Ama began performing as a cover gigs at the age of 17. Those covers gigs are still a part of her live experience with her performing most nights of the week and honing her craft with a mixture of covers and originals.
Whilst she loves to perform Ed Sheeran, the true inspiration in Ama's work come from Devon Again, Gracie Abrahams and Lizie McAlpine - influences which you'll hear shining through in her breakout single 'Employee'.
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Ama places singular emphasis on meaningful songwriting. 'My way of storytelling is always consistent, but I go the extra mile with the concept of each song.'
In 2023, with only three songs released, Ama ambitiously reached out on TikTok and Instagram with a callout to open for Sam Fischer, an early success that she says was manifested through pure force of will.
'Anything can happen if you want it bad enough.'
Ama credits her connection to her online community as another driving source of inspiration to continue to release music. After many shows she would head straight to socials for hours on end where she would engage with fans and continue performing online.
Ama's upcoming EP Julie's House explores the complexities of an online 'situationship.' Ama wanted to dedicate an entire project to the experience and while the relationship might not have been as deep as it felt, the connection was real and impactful. 'This person really saw me for who I was and inspired me a lot.'
The EP navigates the emotional whiplash of wanting to meet in real life but coming to terms with another's reluctance. It's these lived experiences that make her relationship fuelled songwriting feel so earnest and raw as those moments transcend the songs to make paradoxically unique but relatable songs.
Currently Ama is focused on building their catalogue and as her audience grows, so too do her ambitions but with a voice and songs like these we're confident they'll be shortly fulfilled
AMA - on your triple j and Unearthed airwaves all this week or her Unearthed page.
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