Artist Profile: Cantrips

Cantrips, the genre-transient indie artist based in Melbourne, has been at work perfecting his approach to music as a craft for years, and, now, he has announced his entrancing arrival as a solo artist with the release of From a Darebin Cave: eight tracks that serve as an introduction to the pure idiosyncrasy of his creative mind.

Growing up in Hong Kong, Cantrips was primarily surrounded by his sounds that stemmed from his father’s taste in classic rock; artists like Tom Petty, Elton John and Dire Straits bounced around the walls of his childhood home.

As he grew older, however, and picked up a guitar for the first time, it was pop-punk music that originally caught his ear. The first CD he ever owned was blink-182’s 2001 record Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, and, for years, his taste was largely formulated by that genre’s unique zeitgeist.

Yet, as he grew, his tastes expanded exponentially and along with it, his interest in music as an art form.

When he moved back to Australia for the first time since he was a child to study sound production, there was a sort of identity shift that took place: a realization of a strange liminal space between cultures.

“The first time properly coming back and meeting other kids that had grown up in [Australian] culture, I kind of realized I knew nothing about it, which was also a really strange thing because a lot of my identity… [was tied up in being] an Australian kid growing up in Hong Kong. But, moving back to Australia, it was like ‘Oh sh*t. I don't really know… what I am anymore in that context.”

This sense of uncertainty was compounded by the fact that, after just a couple months of formal studying, he realized that, in order to get anywhere with his own music, he would need to focus on learning his craft on his own terms.

Yet, throughout this time, it was his earnest love for music, in both creating and listening, that gave him a place of comfort. As his tastes spread into more and more genres, his own compositions simultaneously became more esoteric and more grounded. Moreover, he entered the local DJ scene, rapidly gaining an affinity for crate digging and acquiring a keen interest in the annals of music history.

His first album, 2022’s Dark Age Martial Arts under the name Dune Castle, represented the culmination of his interest in psychedelic and garage rock: a project that also spawned the creation of his record label of the same name.

Yet, on his first album under the name Cantrips, the budding artist stripped down his entire creative approach, resorting to writing songs on just a nylon string guitar in his self-built garage studio. While he would note down chords and certain lyrics, almost nothing was recorded until the whole album was written; he figured that, if he couldn’t remember the song the next morning, it probably was not meant to be given a concrete manifestation.

From these sessions a solo, acoustic-guitar driven version of From a Darebin Cave was born. Yet, as Cantrips sat with the songs for a while, he realized the potential value in returning to them with a full band by his side. With a hand-selected group of musicians, including acclaimed drummer Hudson Whitlock, the songs took on new lives, extending themselves outwards into the nooks and crannies of their creator’s eclectic tastes.

Across the project’s 25 minute runtime, hip-hop drum breaks, funk-driven bass lines, and Leonard Cohen-esque progressions peek out their heads from behind the album’s general atmospheric forefront, crafting a wide-ranging sonic world for the listener to immerse themselves in.

Now, as he works toward cementing the release process for his next album, which has already been recorded, he looks forward to revolutionizing his sound yet again.

“I think I'm blessed that I'm not kind of pigeonholed into [being] the guy that makes psychedelic rock… and I think that's what the people that do listen to my music and enjoy it have kind of come to realize is that I'm trying to build these these sonic worlds… these places or spaces for people to hopefully be able to connect with the music as a means to connect with themselves on a deeper level. That's what I definitely get out of music, and the [songs] that make me feel that are the ones that have kind of stuck with me throughout my life.”