TaniA Kyllikki: “Growing up, music wasn't a hobby; it was the only place where I could completely safely pour out an ocean of raw emotions”

manuka: “I remember listening to my mixtapes on my boombox as a young teenager, shouting out the lyrics to Lauryn Hill’s I Get Out”

Vidura Barrios: “Even without humans, you will find music everywhere. Nature is full of music—the birds singing, the rumble of the ocean”

Ben Lester: “My six favourite artists are The Beach Boys, Yes, Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, Prefab Sprout and The Flaming Lips. It’s been that way since I was 15, and will surely remain so until I die”

Mark Cee: “I don't chase polish for polish's sake…I record until a take feels true, not until it's technically perfect”

AJ Gilmore and Steve Simms of Rumour Den: “The music industry as we knew it and tried very hard to break into when we were younger is gone, and it won’t be coming back”

Rusty Reid: “Maybe my music combined with my essays (and books if I ever get off my ass on those projects) might bemuse somebody down the line”

Martin Maudal of Baldy Crawlers: “Refinement comes when I sit down and focus. But the inspiration nearly always comes when I'm not looking”

Jason McKee of ReeToxA: “We are a modern version of Pearl Jam/Radiohead that covers every emotion you need for the current state of your life”

Harry Kappen: “It’s hard to say to what extent my music has evolved. It has perhaps become a bit more mature. More personal”

Amanda Emblem of The Amanda Emblem Experiment: “I've been told my sound reflects my geography, so it's rural Australian-influenced...whatever that means”

The New Citizen Kane: “I don't think I ever decided to become a songwriter—it's simply how I've always processed the world”

C'batch: “What I'd like to see today is a music industry that's more willing to embrace originality instead of simply following established trends”

Roy Souaid of John Lebanon: “I do not think you ever fully get used to the idea that something you make in a very personal space ends up reaching people you will probably never meet”

Finlay Birch: “If someone tells me a song helped them through something or became part of their life in some way, that means far more to me than any statistic”

Miss Ashley Jean: “Being able to create with my own hands, record it, and collaborate with people I deeply respect and admire—yeah, what a treasure for me”

Lucian Fhor of The Whispering: “We have no interest in the changing music trends. A wise sage once told me, “If you don’t feel it, nobody will”

Makhyli: “My nugget of wisdom is to create every day. No water can come from a faucet that’s never turned on”

V.E.N!: “It doesn't make sense for me to create or produce against my own taste. Plus, I don't think I could pull it off”

Haïfa Melliti: “Everything becomes music…when you are listening deeply”