New Music

New For 2020

New Music: Pink Matter

We're shining a spotlight on the best new Australian artists set to dominate 2020. Welcome Brisbane neo-soul four-piece Pink Matter.

Check out the rest of our New For 2020 list!

Ticketmaster New Music is your one-stop destination to discover the best emerging live acts before they explode. These are the artists we’re expecting to make waves in the live music scene, and we want you to know about them first.

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If you’re ready to float away in a sonic dreamland, it’s time you wrap your ears around Brisbane four-piece Pink Matter.

Melding the worlds of neo-soul, pop and jazz with flourishes of electronic flair, in just three years they have become an absolute force to be reckoned with.

In their first year together, Pink Matter scored themselves the QUBE Effect People’s Choice Award, played Jungle Love Festival and released a stellar debut single in ‘Quicksand’. From there, they’ve played Bigsound, Laneway Festival, and the NLMAs, supported Mildlife, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Harvey Sutherland and The Internet, and turned the heads of tastemakers around the industry.

Since then they’ve worked tirelessly, honing their sound and refining their craft into the fresh injection of confidence and groove that is currently taking them around the country.

2019’s bittersweet jam ‘Wonder’ saw them team up with none other than Melbourne’s Harvey Sutherland (huge, we know!). It also welcomed a slightly new direction for the group. While their gorgeous blend of pop and soul still sits at the centre of the track, it was the introduction of electronic elements that signalled something brewing under the surface.

Their most recent single ‘Soul Fruit’ continues that rise. With its soft-hued production and West-Coast cool rhythm, it’ll have you under its spell in no time.

Slick, slinky, groovy, warm, and infectious – there is a lot to love about everything Pink Matter are putting down.

It’s hard not to be caught up in the woozy flow of Pink Matter, that’s why we’ve handpicked them as one of our New For 2020 artists to watch.

pink matter new for 2020

The Story

From the beginning

Pink Matter: ” We all met through university, and Kerry (Raywood – vocals) had been wanting to start an all-girl band for a while but hadn’t found the right people. It all sort of fell into place – we started jamming covers, then everyone brought songs to the group they had written and finally we starting writing collaboratively.”

What you’ll hear

“Our sound is a blend of neo-soul/funk with synth and electronic elements. I guess that would make it electro-soul, but we usually go with neo-soul primarily. We’ve really settled into our sound over the past year. It feels like we’ve come a long way from our first single ‘Quicksand’. I think the more you write and play with the same people, the more you’re willing to experiment and push the envelope a little. We always write what we want to write at the time, so I think the recent changes in sound reflect us maturing not only as musicians but also as people.”

Influences & inspiration

“We look up to artists such as Jorja Smith, HAIM, and The Internet and draw a lot of inspiration from their work and how they present themselves. Instagram is like an endless source of visual inspiration and we’re always finding new images and accounts that inspire us.

“We’re very visual in our approach to writing our music too – usually, the inspiration for a song will come in the form of a specific colour or an image one of us has found and how it makes us feel.

“Our sound is naturally very influenced by artists like Koi Child, KAYTRANADA, and The Internet, but I think during the writing process we’re mostly influenced by each other. We write all of our songs collaboratively, so musical ideas will come about while we’re playing and we’ll follow each other and go off on tangents until we find something we can use.”

For the love of music

“Live shows are so much fun. Playing alongside each other and sharing what we do with an audience who wants to listen to us is the best feeling. I mean, the whole process of writing, recording, creating it all is cool too. But live shows are where the fun is.”

Kicking goals

“We sold out our launch show for our debut EP, Human Error last year, and since then we’ve had the honour of working with Harvey Sutherland and supporting him on his tour, as well as supporting The Internet and Mildlife for their Brisbane shows. We’ve also played at Jungle Love, Secret Garden and Laneway Festivals.”

The hard yards

“To be honest we’ve been really lucky in the support we’ve received throughout Pink Matter’s musical life. We have really ambitious ideas for songs we want to write or shows we would like to play so scaling it back to something we can achieve has been the challenge.”

The year ahead

“We’ve got a body of work on the way, and we’re hoping to write as much as we can. Playing a few more festivals and touring outside of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney are goals for us too.”

When we chat in 12 months…

“This time next year we will hopefully have played shows in Adelaide, Canberra and Perth, and fingers crossed if Jorja Smith, Sza or Haim tour Australia they would be on our bucket list to support for sure.”

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Essential Listening

Pink Matter – Soulfruit

“This is our latest single, it actually got its name from our writing session where we drew what the song sounded like, therefore a pineapple was drawn.”

Pink Matter - Soul Fruit (OFFICIAL)

Pink Matter – Wonder

“Our first collaboration track. We worked with Harvey Sutherland in Melbourne to bring this one to life.”

Pink Matter - Wonder (OFFICIAL)

Pink Matter – Giant

“This is one of our favourite songs to perform live, it has a section where the timing changes so watching the crowd get a bit confused as to what is happening and how they interpret the beat is fun.”

Pink Matter - Giant (Official Audio)

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Pink Matter 2020 tour dates:

Pink Matter will perform as part of Nine Lives Festival coming to Brisbane’s The Tivoli on Sunday 1 March. Tickets are on sale now.

Check out the rest of our New For 2020 feature artists here.

Keep up to date with everything Ticketmaster New Music right here.