Starting off at a young age can be difficult, especially in this generation. The world has changed, especially for up and coming musicians. 18 year old Sydnee Carter from Perth, Australia, lives in the so-called YouTube Generation where YouTube is the most popular online tool for discovering new musicians.
Young independent singer-songwriter Sydnee got her first guitar when she was six but didn’t take lessons until she was 11 years old. However, she didn’t find the lessons as beneficial as she had hoped. She explained, “I decided to take it upon myself at the age of 12 to teach myself through YouTube tutorials, and that’s where I picked up singing and playing the guitar.”
Her guitar inspired her to sing. She used to make her parents smile by strumming her guitar around the kitchen acting like she was Michael Jackson. But the influence to her music was mainly from Ed Sheeran. She believes that he is very recognisable if you hear him on the radio and he has his own style compared to other artists.
“Ed Sheeran also inspired me to be creative in the way I write songs and relay experiences. See I was influenced by the ‘YouTube Age’, where the likes of Justin Bieber and Cody Simpson were being discovered, and I thought: why can’t I too? That led me to putting up covers and starting my own YouTube Channel before progressing to writing my own songs.”
Her favourite song soon became Youth by an indie folk band called Daughter. This was because it was a song she discovered when going through a hard time at school. “I was trying to find my friends, figure myself out and who I wanted to be. It reminds me of memories that made me the person I am today.” She had covered it on her YouTube Channel and used it when auditioning for the X-Factor, “It was a song that I took the time to practice and practice each and every day till I got it perfect, and to this day I still try to perfect it.”
She auditioned for the Australian X-Factor in 2014 when she was only 16 years old. She gained attention from people all around the world as she progressed to boot camp, making it to the live shows and making the final three under-25 girls. She survived five weeks based on the public votes, finishing the show in ninth place.
Now she’s become a strong, motived musician who wants to become a big successful name in the music world. She hopes to one day be ‘big’ and expand her fanbase worldwide, “Within five years I would love to be successful in the sense that I have hits in the top 10 on iTunes and Spotify. I hope to be writing and collaborating with small and major artists, and I hope to have new artists like myself who are in the same position as me at the moment on my record label.”
She released her debut self-titled EP in February 2015 and is releasing her next EP within the next month, not yet released the name, and it will include five songs. “These songs are all very important to me and take a different vibe to my current EP which is about love, friendship and having someone to talk to. This new EP is based around the idea of growing up and becoming an adult and reminiscing on old times when being a child was so easy.”
Reminiscing, she recalls when she was younger she was a keen football player so her dad took her to a football game and purchased a mascot package which meant she could walk out onto the pitch with the team. “As my dad is originally from England and a passionate Birmingham City fan, on one trip to the UK in 2009 he surprised me by taking me to a soccer game. It was a great day and they won!”
When she first started playing to the public she was playing in a pub and she found it hard to concentrate on what she was doing because she got side tracked by the intoxicated people dancing to her music. Now when she is playing and gets nervous when performing she gets really open about herself. “as I talk about the weirdest stuff, I once told the audience that I had to stop myself from burping half-way through the song, then I immediately wanted to bang myself on the head and go “WHY!” but they loved it!
“I always loved making people laugh, happy, and smile and also being the centre of attention. I would do whatever it took to make someone smile, and even if that meant rocking out a completely fake and horrible air guitar rendition, then I would,” she enthused.
With just finishing school and starting university at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts five days a week she does insist she has a normal life aside from her musical fame. “Honestly, my life is extremely normal! If I’m not at university, then I’m trying to catch up on driving lessons so I can finally get my license. If I’m not driving, then I’m attending my new part-time job at a hardware store called ‘Masters’. And in my free time I’m usually playing guitar, playing with my sister, hanging out with friends or playing on the PlayStation with my boyfriend.
“My family are all extremely supportive and I am very grateful to have them, my mum, dad and my two sisters.”
Keep up to date with Sydnee at http://www.sydneecartermusic.com/
Or visit her Facebook page for regular updates: https://www.facebook.com/SydneeCarterOfficial/
tamszphotography.com 