Throw back to January 2021: A song appeared on triple j Unearthed that got tongues wagging and keyboards furiously tapping. A new artist called KANADA THE LOOP emerged - no info, no social media, just a blurry profile pic. All there was to go off was a song called ‘ZOOM IN’.
While the triple j detectives got sleuthing, the guy behind KANADA THE LOOP was alone in his bedroom having uploaded the song without thinking too much of it. Although no one knew at the time, it was Brice Young from the Adelaide band Pinkish Blu.
“It was in the period when we had talked about Pinkish Blu ending but it wasn’t known to the public. I had been doing a lot of music in the background, different genres that would definitely have not seen the light of day through Pinkish Blu.”
'ZOOM IN' was wild pop that felt exciting and different. Within days the song had multiple plays on triple j, his Unearthed profile was getting big attention and Brice was as shocked as anyone.
“It's very weird because I truly did not expect it, just uploading a track to Unearthed and from there I was just like, let's see what we can do with this.”
As you can tell, not a lot of thought or strategy had gone into the upload, Brice just wanted to get something out there and see if anyone would notice.
“I had all these songs banked up and I honestly wanted to get more into the producer world… No one knew anything about me, I had nothing about myself on the profile, it was just the song and that new name which no one knew was me.”
It was a choice fuelled partly by necessity, partly by laziness.
“If I were to put a face to the name, put visuals and all that kinda stuff, it was more effort than I was willing to go to, because I didn’t know if it was going to be anything at that point. I just wanted to put a song up.”
Then before you knew it, ‘ZOOM IN’ was gone. Only adding to the sense of mystery.
“I had to take the song down because of contractual things, people found out that it was me and I was like ‘oop’.”
But the love and interest for a track Brice says was at “the further ends of the dynamic I wanted to show off”, proved to him that the project had legs and that he could do it all from his bedroom studio.
“The weirdest thing was that I mixed and mastered it and y’all played it on triple j. And I was like oh wow! Ok, I can mix and master. It was cool!”
With the project now back in the shadows, Brice took some time with his new team and formulated a plan and vision for KANADA THE LOOP.
For the project’s re-launch, Brice remained relatively anonymous, a decision that ensured he could take time to explore what the KANADA THE LOOP project was, without losing this surprise momentum.
“It was me working out what this project was going to be. I had a lot of songs, but I didn’t know which ones were going to suit the project.”
A year on and with a handful of singles like 'JANUARY', 'LIFE ON MARS' and 'Nuh Uh' in 2022, Brice hasn't slowed down.
Embracing his identity through art
Figuring out and embracing identity was something that Brice had grappled with in his life only recently, proudly making it known that he is a Luritja man.
His Indigenous heritage wasn’t something Brice had always been comfortable with when he was younger, going through the stresses and pressures of high school and finding yourself.
“Luritja country is at the bottom of the NT / top of SA and I was living in Adelaide so I wasn’t near that much of my family. My Nana lived in Alice Springs, so we would go and see them pretty often, but to be able to delve into my culture it took me to grow up, travel there by myself and spend long periods of time there. It took for me to be able to do it on my own.”
Brice had known about his cultural heritage through his mother for his “whole life”, but embracing it was a step that took time.
“It’s definitely a thing that a lot of people can resonate with – having an Indigenous background and coming to it later in life. There’s a lot of different moving parts that make it hard for Indigenous people to be able to, first of all, identify, and then to embrace it… There’s also just a general thing of asking ‘Do I know enough about my own culture? My family history, the history of First Nations people?’”
And he says it was “a pretty big change” in his life that he’s been able to “actively accept it in an open-hearted way.” Music and art have strong cultural importance for First Nations peoples and communities and for Brice, doing dot paintings with his family is a special connection to his culture.
“It’s a cultural practice that is important to my family in particular and because a lot of culture has been lost, I think the few things that you can hold onto are pretty precious.”
His Nana also didn’t mind getting down to some KANADA THE LOOP and Pinkish Blu.
“My Nana has always loved my music, she passed away last year but before she passed, she was really trying to get into it. Being an older woman, it was hard for her to understand some of the music I was making, but she definitely tried to embrace it.”
“There’s a super wholesome video of me playing the guitar and her dancing with all my aunties there.”
And as you can see, Brice has ditched the anonymity in KANADA THE LOOP, mainly because he says he was “way too lazy to keep this up”.
Recently, he’s spent a few weeks in LA writing lots of music, been performing live shows including impressing at BIGSOUND and his debut EP Toyota Reckless is out this month – the title being an ode to “growing up in the Northern Suburbs of Adelaide, so shout out to them, if you know you know.”
He’s proven that it might take time, but embracing identity is a personal and powerful journey.