In five years, Perth singer-songwriter Sydnee Carter has transformed from talent show hopeful into one of Western Australia's most promising rising stars.
She may have had her start on 'The X Factor' in 2014. But in 2019, Sydnee has built a strong musical identity of her very own, well removed from her days on reality television. “It was a better thing that I was so young at the time,” Sydnee says.
“I think if I had gone on it at my current age of 21, it would have been quite difficult for me to re-establish myself as a brand and my music.
“Because that's how I got started – I didn't have a brand or an image; I literally came fresh out of my bedroom writing songs and playing covers into TV life and being quite naïve and going with the flow.
“Then coming off that and still being quite young, I think it was a good opportunity for me to have had, especially being so impressionable as well and being able to grow from that and make my own decisions about where I want to go and where I find myself being.”
Where Sydnee finds herself at the moment is in the midst of intense creative and professional development, primarily focussing on making music that reflects how much she has matured as an artist.
“When I was younger [the music] was definitely based on life experiences, and when you're 16, 17 there's only so many life experiences that you've already had,” Sydnee says.
“My experience from 16 to 21 is probably a bit different for most 16 to 21 years olds; I guess I was thrown straight into the music industry and finishing school.
“The end of last year and the start of this year, I really wanted to look at how I can improve the creativity side, so I spent hundreds of dollars on books because, one, I absolutely love books, but two, I was like 'if I'm going to read, let's have a look at other people's biographies and how they did it, how they overcome creative blocks and how they approach writing'.”
Sydnee will be performing at the Hidden Treasures event as part of the 10 Nights In Port celebration at Fremantle Festival, with artists such as Doctopus, The Chevelles, Fuzz Toads and more.
“I'm really excited. To date, some of my best gigs have been in Freo so I'm really excited to go back. I absolutely love performing in Freo.
“I'm going to try and do more acoustic versions of my stuff, some covers will be in there that I'll try to make my own but generally a lot of it will be new music that I've been writing for the past couple of months.”
