Be/Hear_Now 21 was a celebration of our local musicians, sound engineers and the weirdest and most wonderful places scattered throughout our city. A select group of eight Ballarat individual performers, groups and musicians were paid for their contribution to BHN21. The fees supplied will be based on industry best practice and informed by the recommendations of the Musicians Union of Australia.

All BHN21 artists received a pack of assets to be used to market themselves including high resolution copies of their professionally filmed performance, coupled with a short interview.

BHN21 artists were given access to professional mentoring from industry professionals that will help give them an opportunity to progress their professional careers.

THE FINAL PRODUCT

The final product was a 25 – 30 minute professionally filmed collection of live performances, with a short intro by each artist.

juno mamba

Space as inspiration. Considerations and exploration.Foundations and obliteration; it’s all relative. Life, death, decay and beauty; it’s all consciousness. This is the foundation of Vinci Andanar’s project, Juno Mamba, in which it has been led by and built upon.

A relatively new artist to the uninitiated, Juno Mamba creates dystopian soundscapes that pull the listener in with each listen. Conceived from uncertainty and wanting to be embraced, Juno Mamba is as much about experimenting with the unknown as it is about finding purpose with the familiar. It’s not from a controlled setting, it has no limitations, it’s unrestricted, there is no predisposition and it’s ready to be consumed. The ambiguity can seem vast or obscured, but the feeling is with the listener. If it’s life or death, new or old, beginning or the end, let it take you on a journey and see where it ends

skyscraper stan

Skyscraper Stan is a songwriter and band leader best regarded for his lyricism. His first album “Last Year’s Tune” gave Australia a taste of his image rich poetry with crowd favorites like “I Fell Over” and “Woody Guthrie”. His follow up album, Golden Boy Volumes I and II further cemented Stan’s reputation as a unique songwriter on the Australian scene.

A veteran of the touring circuit; prior to the apocalypse he would perform upwards of 100 shows a year, both solo and with his band the Commission Flats. He has performed at festivals and venues in every state and territory of Australia and, as an expat kiwi, enjoys a strong following on the other side of the Tasman. He’s been lucky enough to share the stage with such alumni as the Animals, the Troggs, Marlon Williams, James Reyne, Ian Moss and many more.

FLOC

Driven by jagged beats and layered synths, Floc will capture your attention vocalising their thoughts, fears and feelings. Living on Wadawurrung Land, Floc weaves field recordings of the local surroundings inside their tracks, adding an experimental essence among the sound. Watch Floc live at Be Here Now for a unique music experience.

GROVE

Grove is a folk-rock band based out of Ballarat, Australia. Influenced by regional landscapes and the importance of connection. Grove is an intimate glimpse into a collaboration by friends with the intention of exploring music and learning from one another.

Formed out of spite for elitist cis-het boybands, it’s an act of defiance at the least.

nO MAN’S LAND

Established in 2019, No Man’s Land is a duo of Pippa Bainbridge (vocals, guitar, loop pedal, effects) and Swiss van Kalken (bass guitar, found percussion,effects). Together they make atmospheric drone,audioscapes and performance rituals, drenched in Australian folklore and inspired by the landscapes surrounding their home in the Central Highlands of Victoria.

Pippa is a theatre-maker, performer, musician and creative producer. Swiss is a bass player, having played in Melbourne bands (BODIES, Shit Tatts, The Adults) for more than 20 years.

Under the moniker of No Man’s Land, Pippa and Swiss have performed improvised sets at Make It Up Club and La Mama Musica, as well as in music venues across Melbourne and regional Victoria. They have also created live and recorded sound design for performance (Row 13 Theatre, Kyo-Mu-Kan) and multichannel audio experiences (Withheld). No Man’s Land have a number of shows booked over the next three months and are currently preparing material for their first album to be recorded in December.

MOONLOVER

Moonlover made his first record Thou Shall Be Free in his bedroom in Footscray. It was full on one-of-a-kind psychedelic journeys, melancholy ballads and whacko rockers. In 2021, he decided to make a tree change andcan now be found in Bungaree experimenting, twiddling knobs and laying down tracks for his much anticipated record number two.

LASHES

Yohanna Bright bubbles with a vivacious energy, crafting bold electro-pop anthems under the moniker LASHES. Fusing sweetly sincere vocals with a tenacious and daring approach to production, LASHES is the symbol of two juxtaposing definitions – from delicate eyelashes, to the raw and real emotion of lashing out. The artist stumbled upon her love for song writing at just seven years of age, and finding she lacked the patience to learn musical theory, became a self-taught instrumentalist.

“I’m influenced by my own personal experiences and am writing constantly. I find it very therapeutic to sort of purge out my thoughts and feelings onto paper.”

In early 2020, LASHES unveiled her bold debut single ‘Treason’, met with praise from triple j Unearthed music director Dave Ruby Howe as a “sizzling start” and Home & Hosed’s Declan Byrne as an “emphatic pop force”. LASHES returned later that year with ‘The Island’ – a conceptual glimpse into the solitude of a seemingly one-sided relationship, and a signal of an exciting journey for the Ballarat newcomer. Her next brilliant installment arrived in early 2021 in the form of ‘Luv Is Blind’, a co-write between Northeast Party House’s Mitch Ansell and herself. Now, LASHES returns with perhaps her most refined work yet in ‘Heavenly’, with more to come throughout the year.

SAM BOON QUINTET

The Sam Boon Quintet comprises some of the most sought after session musicians in Aus. Having all met when studying together at institutions such as the VCA and NMIT around 10 years ago, each member has forged a strong individual career in their own right with members having toured and studied extensively including in New York and the USA, Europe, The UK and Asia

With over a decade of professional experience as a multi-instrumentalist, musical director, composer and arranger, Sam Boon has forged a diverse sound, collaborating with some of Australia, and the world’s great acts. After several years of touring nationally and internationally as a founding member of Melbourne’s own Saskwatch, Sam was invited to arrange and lead the horn section for platinum-selling artist Guy Sebestian’s first ever stadium tour of Australia. Since then, Sam has played for the likes of TLC,

The Rubens, Vance Joy, Big Words, Fulton St, Mia Wray, The Damien Ellis Quartet and Adam Simmons’ Creative Music Ensemble. As an arranger, orchestrator and composer Sam has had works premiered at the Melbourne Recital Centre as part of the Melbourne Festival and his original orchestrations and arrangements forming the entire program of the 2019 Ballarat Carols by Candlelight.