Interviews
Tash Sultana – A Musician Writing Her Vibes
Jemima Hunter
July 6, 2021
Multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Tash Sultana, releases the new single ‘Greed’ as she surpasses a mighty 1M followers on Instagram. The Melbourne born, one-person band that plays alternative, acoustic tunes, started her journey on YouTube and has since won over five awards and been touring worldwide.
Sultana has always possessed a talent for instruments, since she was gifted with a guitar at three years old from her grandfather. As a young child, right up to her teen years, Sultana learnt up to twenty different instruments. The twenty-six-year-old began busking on streets as a teenager, to earn some money after she was unable to attain a job elsewhere. Eight years later, Sultana posted a video on the internet, after splitting from a band several years before.
The singer racked up to a million views on her video ‘Jungle’ under a week and a couple of months later won Unearthed Artist of The Year for her two singles. The same year, Sultana created her own independent record label ‘Lonely Lands Agency’, an arts and entertainment recording studio that also promotes festivals. Sultana then released her tunes from her own label, making it to eighth place in the charts.
The singer tries to keep a constant balance of work and life and she takes great pleasure in performing her music. Her other hobbies on the side include poetry, surfing, cooking and tinkering with her tunes, ‘Chilling, just cruising through.’
Sultana suffered with drug induced psychosis in her late youth and recovered due to several months of therapy and treatment. So, it is apparent that Sultana is a determined and single -minded individual who persists in progressing her career and overcoming the past trauma of self-prescribed drugs.
Now the songwriter tries to keep her own sense of self and not get caught up in the celebrity lifestyle. ‘I’m the least rock’n’roll motherfucker that you ever see. I’m all for nine hours sleep and vitamin infusions and meditation and all of that type of stuff. Even a coffee can send me over the edge.’
Sultana believes practise is the approach every musician should follow in order to succeed in the music industry. ‘So, on a Monday I would practise piano scales, for example, and I’d do vocal warmups every day just to keep my voice nice and strong. Because singing is kind of like running a marathon: you can’t just get up and run a marathon and expect to not do any damage – you’ve gotta keep training.’
The milk and honey of her released singles led Sultana to performing sold-out worldwide tours, a constant flow of psychedelic tunes and the ability to raise funds for bush fire charities.
‘An album is just an extension of yourself as an artist; every time you make a new song, you’re just further extending your capabilities as an artist.’ In 2020, Sultana recruited some extra band members, extending on from her one woman show. She enlisted band members from social media platforms to release a single.
The entrepreneur singer-songwriter is riding the new wave, ready to release some new unexpected tunes. ‘It can go in whatever which way, and that’s the cool thing about it.’
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