Sydnee Carter is a 19-year-old singer-songwriter from Perth.
Recently she has collaborated with Slumberjack writing the lyrics and singing the track 'Afraid Unafraid', which she flew to Sydney to perform live on-air for Triple J's Like A Version.
And just last month, Sydnee was crowned the 2017 WAM Song Of The Year winner. You go girl.
Who is Sydnee Carter... I started songwriting and performing at 10. At 16 I auditioned for the X-Factor 2014. And my last single release, ‘When We Were Young’, won the 2017 WAM Song Of The Year award taking the grand prize and the pop category, which I am very humbled to be the recipient among such great nominees.
I sound like... Ed Sheeran, Lorde, Sarah Blasko.
My first gig was... If you don’t include primary school performances as gigs haha then my first ‘proper’ gig was my EP launch at The Fly By Night club in Fremantle in 2015.
When did you settle on the group's name, and was it a unanimous decision... Well it was a hard one I'll give you that. Just kidding. I’m not very inventive to come up with a stage name and we thought my name was different enough that I would be easy to recognise or look up or whatever. But then I realised my name is spelt ‘Sydnee’ and not ‘Sydney’ like people assume, so I have a few different Google searches, hahaha!
In the studio I usually... Dance and make jokes into the mic; half of my vocal takes are me talking or laughing or even coughing. At the start of ‘Life Raft’ you can hear me say “MMkay” hahaha and we just decided to keep it in there. I end up mucking about to keep the energy up 'cause you can end up being in the studio for hours just singing and writing, which can really take it out of you.
If I could tour with anyone... I think Imagine Dragons would be wicked to tour with. They’ve got such a good vibe and their music is always amazing. Absolutely love it. I think they would have such a cool atmosphere to be among. I love learning new things and meeting new people so I’m sure we’d all have a fun time.
Social media is... Complicated. It is changing every two seconds like with new updates and controls etc. it’s a whole, different world. It’s great when it's used in a positive way, but can be devastating when used for bullying etc. However, it makes so many things so much more possible in this day and age than before. For that I am so grateful.
My favourite app at the moment is (why?)... Uber Eats. It is my go-to app at the moment, it’s just so perfect. Food at the press of a button. They should sponsor me 100 per cent. I’d give them such a good wrap, hahaha!
To date, my most embarrassing moment was the time... I always talk way to much when I’m on stage because it’s how I handle my nerves, which is good but it can also lead me to divulge secrets and random thoughts I have while I’m performing. I once told the crowd at a gig that I had to burp halfway through a set and I was fighting it off the whole time. I literally couldn’t believe I let those words out of my mouth.
Life on the road can be... Well I haven’t experienced too much to be honest. Because I’m a solo artist I generally have to be accompanied by one of my managers, which is always a good time anyway. I do prefer to have company, I’m not too big on travelling independently believe it or not. Although I enjoy my own company and time to myself to read a book or listen to music or play Kingdom Hearts on my PlayStation 4, it is still always good to have someone with me for the ride.
If you'll have me on your bill, all I ask is that our rider contains... MMM. I haven’t actually thought about it! I would love Tim Tams at my disposal or even Krispy Kremes. But I generally don’t eat before a gig. I'll demolish everything after all the nerves are gone. So let's say Tim Tams, water and Krispy Kremes. What a combo. Maybe some good, old cheddar shapes too. That is if I can have all of that stuff. If not, I'm cool with whatever! Hahahaha.
The most scary scenario I've found myself in, was... Hiking the Bibbulmun Track late June last year (hiking track down south of WA) with my partner. We got lost and finally found our way after like three hours of walking in a circle. It's pouring down with rain in the pitch black at about 7pm in the middle of the bush and we see headlights, so we move to the side and stop to fix our backpacks. The car went past and as I was fixing my bag my partner just looked at me and said “Syd, look” and I looked behind me and the car had its reversing lights on and was reversing all the way to us. We just looked at each other and sprinted into the bush with 20kg backpacks on, absolutely terrified that this car was coming all the back to two hikers alone in the middle of nowhere with no reception.
What celebrity/ famous person would you love to be spokesperson of the band (why?)... I don’t really know to be honest. Maybe I’d go Macklemore and Ryan Lewis! Have you seen them accept and award, their speeches are insanely good. They are so well spoken and have a lot of love for the world. I think they’d do me justice representing me.
Three people you'd like to invite around for a dinner party (why?)... I hate this question because it changes every time. Okay it’d be hard. But I'll try mix it up so I'd probably have Ed Sheeran, Rebel Wilson (absolutely love her) or maybe even Melissa McCarthy from 'Bridesmaids'. They’d be a good laugh I reckon. To spice things up why not have Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, although I think I’d have to buy a lot A LOT more food.
If we were coming over to your place, what would you cook us? Well I work at a barbeque shop, so I get to learn how to cook/ smoke different foods. My personal favorite is smoked pizza. I'll cook the meat on my charcoal bbq beforehand, then chop it up put it on the pizza and then put my smoker box into the bbq and WOLAAA smoked pizzas.
No matter the expense, send me a case of... Chocolate-coated digestive biscuits (must be McVities). I don’t know if you can even get a case of them, but they are like my biggest weakness besides ‘hazed and confused’ Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.
The last time I saw the inside of a gym was... Every day. I try to stay as active as possible. But if last week was anything to go by, I skipped it at least three times hahahaha!
What's the one chore you dislike the most? Emptying my dishwasher. It is such a big dishwasher and it takes SOOOOOO long to empty. I don’t even care if I have to feed the cats and the dog or pick up the dog poo, I just hate the dishwasher.
Do you have any phobias... please explain? I used to really, really, REALLY hate clowns for some reason. I'm scared of a lot of things. You know the generic spiders, snakes, bugs, heights, tight spaces, the whole SHABANG. But I don’t know if I’d say they’re 'phobias'.
Would you ever partake in a reality show? If so, what type?
Well on I was on X Factor 2014; that gave me a taste of how it all works. Not sure I could handle something like that again, but what a crazy experience.
If you could prank any of your friends, who's your target, and how are you bringing them down? My good friend Steph. We were at a baby shower the other day and we had this peg game where if you hear someone say the word “baby” you could take their peg off them. Whoever had the most pegs at the end of the day was the winner.
Sounds silly but it was so challenging and Steph absolutely annihilated me! I have no idea how I’m gonna take her down; I’m still brainstorming, but I think it will involve Krispy Kremes and Tim Tams in some shape or form.
