The Best Uncovered Artists From SXSW Sydney 2025

From the 15th – 18th of October, the third annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Sydney took over the streets of inner-city Sydney.

Across four days, over 150 emerging musicians from around Australia and the world descended upon venues scattered throughout Chippendale.

Restricted to thirty-minute sets, these bands played to intimate rooms of audiences mostly made up of other artists, or music industry professionals — each hoping to catch the eye of someone who might assist in their career.

Yet, despite the underlying corporate motivation, SXSW is also a showcase for some of the best, most boundary pushing new music being created today.

Sprinting between venues I was consistently floored by the range of music on show. From club beats to electronic jazz to searing post-punk, I repeatedly found myself immersed in the performances, broadly grinning and reminded of the magic of live music.

These are the acts that most reminded me of this magic.

Birdsnake – Melbourne
Everleigh Hotel

Tucked away in a small room above the Everleigh Hotel, the Melbourne-based instrumental four-piece Birdsnake conjured sweeping layers of rhythmic electro-acoustic jazz.

Composed from modular and standard synthesisers, soundscapes swam through the space, carried by the reliable heartbeat of bass and drums innately in touch with the groove.

Deep rhythms were dusted with lo-fi spacey echoes, and occasionally a flute or saxophone would emerge to spiral through a heavily distorted microphone.

By the time their set concluded, each musician seemed to emerge from a self-induced trance, as disappointed to stop playing as we were to see the music end.

Convenience Store – Melbourne
The Barrie

On the raised pavilion of The Barrie, Convenience Store approached their set with a stark emotional sincerity.

Eyes clenched, frontman Nick Baker placed his gravelled poetry in the air before him, allowing it to descend like rain upon the audience below.
Meanwhile, with a distorted guitar clutched in his hands he orchestrated gusts of bass, rolling drums and orbiting synth samples to blow in from the three members behind him.

Over thirty minutes, emotional builds led to devastating payoffs, culminating in an epic ten-minute rendition of ‘Ghost Stories’ — a slow, building track full of twists and turns which concluded with Baker — lost within himself — desperately screaming to the heavens.

Stamps – Fremantle
Sneaky Possum

On arriving at the Stamps’ performance above the Sneaky Possum, I was warned by the usher that — though they were not yet at capacity — it would be hard to find a space.

She wasn’t wrong — as I wormed my way into the tiny room, I was submerged in a shoulder-to-shoulder audience struck statue still and silent by the Fremantle trio’s enchanting harmonies, complicated rhythms, and joyous grins.

Standing on stomp boxes at the front of the crowd, band members Sofia Hourani, Rubina Bertolini, and Scarlett Graham all shared the roles of both vocals and rhythm.

While delivering heartfelt lyrics, the three women clapped, stamped, shook, and strummed, creating rhythms which echoed through the small space.

As these rhythms mixed with the expert beat provided by the drummer standing behind them, an infectious energy was added to the stripped-back folk.

Whether it was this rhythm, the mutual awe felt through the crowd, the heartwarming harmonies, or everything combined, it was impossible to leave the space without a grin.

KyoYoko – Beijing
Goodspace Gallery

Crammed into Goodspace Gallery, Beijing-based electro-punk outfit KyoYoko’s music fizzled with electricity.

A snake-pit of wires curled around the four-piece, connecting synthesisers, drum pads, samplers, a computer, a projector and a multitude of effects pedals to the scarce power points throughout the small space.

Yet, it wasn’t only these devices that leapt to life when the band fired into their set.

As thumping techno pulsed through the booming speakers, joined by gritty guitar riffs, alien-like synth, circling samples, and distorted chanted lyrics, electricity seemed to find a way to course through the members of the band themselves.

They each shook with urgent energy. Eyes bulged. Grins widened. Limbs flailed.

Their excitement swept through the audience before them, eliciting wild shouts of joy for the entire thirty minutes.

Swapmeet – Adelaide
Chippendale Hotel

If any one thing must be said about Swapmeet – the dynamic Adelaide post-punk four-piece – it’s that they have mastered the art of the breakdown: that spine-chilling, fist-pump inducing, ecstasy-charged moment where a song implodes in on itself.

The moment where every instrument lets loose. Where drums become a blur, and guitars — strummed or ignited — soar. Where, within the noise, a harmony appears which cuts to the heart of the audience.

Time and again, in consistently fresh and unpredictable ways, Swapmeet brought this mastery to their performance in the basement of the Chippendale Hotel last Thursday night.

Rotating lead vocalists, and members swapping between instruments throughout the set, the band delivered slow-building, emotional, forward-thinking music which reliably amounted to moments of extraordinary catharsis.

Deservedly, Swapmeet were named as this year’s ‘Justin Cosby Best Emerging Artist’.

With a stunning EP under their belt, and a debut album in the works, they are certainly a band to watch.

e4444e – Newcastle
Goodspace Gallery

Newcastle four-piece e4444e’s performance at Goodspace Gallery felt like watching a faded photograph.

Every tone which rose from the synthesisers, guitars, vocals, clarinet, and even drums had a distinct softness to its edge. Each instrument joyously crackled, hummed, and swirled, echoing not only off the walls of the room but off the awe-struck audience filling the small space.

Yet, beneath this cloud of mesmerising lo-fi electronica lay a distinct emotional weight.

Frontman Romy Church’s lyrics wove between the crackles. His strung out, searching voice shifted with each strum of the guitar, consistently adding urgency and reality to the songs as they progressed.

It was as if, as he delivered his poetry, the songwriter constantly reignited, remembered, and projected the emotions these words conjured up.

Ultimately, the faded photograph e4444e presented was one worthy of a gallery wall.

Maia Toakley – Sydney
Goodspace Gallery

When Maia Toakley and her band took the stage at Goodspace Gallery on Saturday night as one of the last acts of SXSW, there was a clear casualness to her demeanour.

Car keys dangled from her belt. Cigarettes and a lighter stuck out of the back pocket of her jeans. Yet, as she launched into her music, supported by a rocking beat and catchy riffs, the lyrics she belted from behind her guitar were resonantly sincere.

Themes of insecurity, fragility, and unshakeable pessimism soared from her deep, wavering voice. Every ounce of her heart was placed upon each syllable, then delivered like flowers to the open arms of the heaving audience before her. They were lyrics which spoke to feelings every one of us had felt at some time in our lives — perfectly capturing the tribulations of young people today.

Witnessing the thrill of this music flow through the room — adoring fans singing Toakley’s poignant lyrics back to her — I could not help but think that ‘Maia Toakley’ may soon be a name added to the ever-growing list of female singer song writers to come out of Australia and take the world stage.

Higgins – Barnett – Jacklin – McMahon – Toakley.
A name to keep your eye on.