A.GIRL has been taking Australia’s R&B and hip-hop scene by storm. At the age of 23, the singer, songwriter and rapper has already snagged an FBi SMAC Award for Next Big Thing, performed at 2019's Listen Out festival, given an acclaimed performance on triple j’s Bars of Steel, and most recently, established herself as the face of New Balance at JD Sports.
Born and bred in Western Sydney and of Māori descent, A.GIRL started out in music when she was just 10-years-old. Thanks to her mum, A.GIRL became the lead singer of her family’s reggae band, One Love. After performing at clubs, pubs and festivals with her uncles, she decided to retire from reggae and tap into pop. Eventually, she found her way to R&B and hip-hop when she was 16-years-old.
These days, A.GIRL has a slew of hit songs in her discography, including her debut single “2142,” “The Block,” and “Do It Again." In conversation with Complex AU, A.GIRL speaks on the origins of her love for rap, how she thinks the country’s R&B and hip-hop scene has grown over the years, and what she has planned for the rest of the year.
For those who aren’t familiar with your work, can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you broke into the music industry?
I was born and raised in Granville, but I’m Māori, so I’m from New Zealand. I’ve been back and forth [between both countries] enough over the years to have culture, know about my background, my people, and where I’m from. I absolutely love that, but I definitely feel more Aussie than Māori.
I got into the music industry through my mum. I was really passionate about music at a young age. I came home from school one day and just vented to my mum about how I wanted to be a singer and wanted to do music. My mum just did the next best thing and got all of my uncles and anybody she knew together that could play, sing and write music. She basically formed a reggae band for me. I became the lead singer of that reggae band at 10-years-old, and by 11, I was gigging all over Sydney. It was mad just experiencing live music at a really young age, which is why I love performing live now because it’s been in my blood since young. I moved on from that and my mum was very supportive, my whole family in fact. I slowly got into songwriting and making my own music after that.
Other than pop, R&B, hip-hop and reggae, are there other genres that you take inspiration from?
I definitely take inspiration from jazz and blues. There’s this one particular bar that I go to all the time here in Marrickville called Lazy Bones Lounge. It’s this little jazz lounge with contemporary sort of music, live bands all the time—every hour, every night. It’s just a really nice place jam out, sit back and listen to chords and notes and scales. I do like a little bit of rock. I used to be into rock when I was young and loved this band called Flyleaf. Another weird one would be opera—I got into it because of Freddie Mercury when he transitioned to opera in his solo career. I just thought it was so interesting that he could move from the genres that he’d done into something like opera.
You’re both an extremely very talented vocalist and rapper. Is there one you prefer more than the other?
Rapping was way more natural for me than singing was. When I first started writing, I would always rap everything. I used to write a lot of poetry—still do here and there. I used to not be able to make my poems into songs, if that makes sense. I couldn’t turn my poems into a chorus or melody. So they would always start off as raps. I think naturally, for me, rapping is so much easier than singing. But trying to merge the two—when I discovered that I could do both—was really hard to do. I fucking love rap, I bump rap more than I bump any R&B track to be honest.
Who are some hip-hop artists you look up to?
That’s such a loaded question. Like it ranges from absolute old artists to new ones—like Ms. Lauryn Hill, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Tupac, LL Cool J, Ice Cube and J Cole.
On the topic of R&B and hip-hop, how would you describe Australia’s R&B and hip-hop scene? In your opinion, has it seen progress over the years?
Fuck yeah. I think the Australian scene is growing like crazy. In the past five years it’s been widely accepted that Australia is making music that actually fucking bumps. I know there’s people in the UK, the US, and even in South Asia that are really getting into our music. But more importantly, I feel like it’s been accepted here in Australia. We’ve got this thing where artists aren’t supported until they make it, and then we try to claim them [as our own] when they do.
I think one example of that is The Kid LAROI. He was on the come up for so fucking long. He'd been at it since 12 or 13-years-old, dropping proper mixtapes and music videos, and no one was really backing him. When he blew up Australians were like, “Yeah, that’s our guy,” and I’m like, where were you guys when he was coming up?
I feel like in the past five years it’s been widely accepted in Australia and worldwide that we’ve got some really dope homegrown artists and people are getting behind them. It still does need a lot more work. People really need to pull up to the shows, sell out the merch, share the music around and stuff like that. But I do see the progress—I think it’s exciting and so fucking cool to be on the front line of all of it.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
There’s lots of little different ones that only make sense to me. There’s ones that are super family-based. I remember the first time I won a proper award at the 2019 FBi SMAC Awards. I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone this story in an interview. I got nominated for the Next Big Thing Award and I found out on the day. I just carried on with that day and didn’t even know that they were holding a whole ceremony for [the Awards] that night. My manager told me about it and asked if I wanted to go. I looked at my mum and asked if we could but we were literally so broke. We had no car and no way to get out there. So I rang my auntie and she gave us her car. We put the last 20 bucks we had into petrol and made our way to the city. I got there and I was enjoying my time because I genuinely didn’t think I was going to win. I was getting way too lit way too early. Next thing I know they call out the nominees and they said I won Next Big Thing. I stood in the back for about two whole minutes in disbelief. My mum had to literally drag me to the stage to accept the fucking award. I got up and I was just tripping out. The second that I got off stage, I ran to the car park and I just remember calling my brother and sister crying.
I think another one was when I did the 2019 Listen Out Festival, which I won through triple j. Just having that whole backstage experience, meeting Doja Cat, Triple One, and just seeing how those festivals run—it was real surreal.
Speaking of achievements, you recently starred in the latest JD Sports x New Balance campaign. How did that come to be? And what was it like working with JD Sports?
I love working with JD Sports. I’ve done a lot with them in the past but this one came along because I had just recently done the New Balance brand deal—I’d just been over to the States for the first time for them. It was really mad, I got to have a lot of say in the creative process, hence my family being in the ad. I had worked with the creative team before on a music video of mine, “Do It Again,” so it was super easy to talk to them and give them ideas. It’s one of the first A.GIRL things I got my family involved in.
You also just appeared on SXSW panel. For those who weren’t able to make it in person, can you share what you discussed with your fellow artists on the panel?
It was a mad panel. It was curated by a lady named Annabelle Herd from ARIA, and K-Sera was the moderator. I was with Hau Latukefu, triple j and Bliss from Bliss n Eso. It was just a conversation about hip-hop and there were a lot of questions surrounding the come up of hip-hop from back in the day. Hau and Bliss shared their experiences of what hip-hop was like back in the day. They were telling stories about how they went on tour, had full press CDs and how doing that would take a whole day. I just thought to myself how much effort they had to put in—all I have to do is fucking upload my shit to a distribution company and Bob’s your uncle. People of this generation and of this time are super lucky and fortunate to be able to have the platforms we have. It was cool getting that insight. I was also asked about the scene and how it is now, being a female MC, the challenges that I face, and the things that I’ve had to overcome being in this industry. It was really cool to have the chance and opportunity to speak about that openly to a group of people.
What else do you have in your schedule for the rest of the year?
I have new songs coming out that are leading up to a mixtape of mine. I have a few feature songs as well, and some music videos for those feature songs. A few festival gigs lined up too. But to be honest, I’m just trying to work on releasing music because I haven’t in the longest time—all for good reason. I’m just trying to figure out the sound and make everything cohesive because if there’s anything that I’ve learned, it’s to not rush the process. I’m currently trying to drop around my birthday, which is in January.
Will you be performing those new releases at the Woodford Festival this December?
I’ll be performing a few. I’ll have my live band with me, so it'll be a great opportunity to perform an unreleased track.
