From the south-west coast of Western Australia comes singer-songwriter/ producer Askya, otherwise known as Tom Boerema, who blends his acoustic, folk roots with a passion for electronic production.
“I'm an artist and producer from Margaret River in Western Australia,” Tom says.
“It's a project that I started late last year and it's the result of the production that I've been doing. I come from a folk, acoustic, singer-songwriter background and then I discovered music production, which I found I'm obsessed with. Askya is just the result of that; it's a combination of the acoustic folk and electronic music as well.”
Tom locked himself away for a year to teach himself the skills of production and to hone his craft, mostly by watching YouTube tutorials. “It's really cool these days that you can potentially learn anything off the internet,” he says.
“It's such a valuable resource we have, you just have to be focused. The main thing is a lot of hours; I come from more of a technical background, I studied mechanical engineering for a few years then decided, 'why not give music a crack?'.
“I prefer more of an entrepreneurial lifestyle; I think that's what music is these days, it's like running a business or a company as well as being creative. For me, it's the best of both worlds and I'm really happy with the way things are going.”
Though Tom has embraced electronic production, he hasn't lost the songwriting sensibility that underpinned his work as a folk artist.
“There's something really special about playing a song just with the guitar, and if you can capture people that way that's awesome,” he says.
“The production stuff I find fun; endless creativity, so many different options. You can just find a sample and that can inspire a whole song. It's a different approach to music I think.”
Tom brought Askya to the WAMFest regional showcase last week (that included Blue Child Collective and Emjay Angeni) at Settlers Tavern. Though he says he's more excited about getting out of Margaret River and up to Perth for a metro WAMFest performance in early November.
“I don't get to play in Perth a lot and it's quite hard,” he says.
“Margaret River is quite remote… I'm really trying to break out of this region bubble, so to speak, so I'm looking forward to playing a few more shows in Perth.”
Being both a folk artist and an electronic producer, Tom says his shows tend to walk the line between both worlds and that his WAMFest performances will demonstrate his versatility as a songwriter.
“I'm not sure if I'll do acoustic or electronic, I kind of do both,” he says.
“I still have a love for both styles, so I think a song is a song and you can communicate that song in different ways just through having an acoustic guitar or if you have full production behind it. I think it's cool showing the same music in a different light.”
