We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: it’s not easy being a musician in this day and age. It’s especially difficult to do it in Australia where the infrastructure and economy is smaller than in other markets like the US.
But occasionally there is a fluke story that makes you feel like the humble muso still has a fighting chance to achieve success and what’s more, this time around it happened by using the most unlikely channel.
Specifically, Channel Seven. Sydney singer Roshani Priddis recently appeared as part of the audition rounds for the latest season of The X Factor, defying convention by choosing to sing an original song titled ‘Paid In Ink’.
“I wasn’t ever going to do a show unless I could sing an original,” Roshani tells Tone Deaf. “So I said I would audition if they let me sing an original and they were like, ‘No.’ So I told them I wasn’t going to do it.”
“I was ready to throw it all in, but then they approved it and they’re obviously trying to change their format a little bit by letting original artists to their own work. So I gave it a crack.” In hindsight, it was a smart decision.
When Roshani and her partner awoke the next morning, Roshani’s original song had soared to the top of the iTunes Blues Chart. “That was aired on Sunday night. So on Sunday night it actually went to Number 1 at about 10pm. It’s pretty crazy,” she says.
“We are actually living in our car at the moment. We’re living in a rooftop tent and we literally got up at 4am to go to the bathroom and my partner checked his phone and was like, ‘Oh my God, you’re at the top of the iTunes Blues Chart!'”
“I think I cried for about six hours, until the morning. It’s pretty amazing,” she adds. “It’s a dream come true, really. And to do it off the back of a reality TV show as well, where a lot of musicians tell maybe a negative story about reality TV.”
However, Roshani’s experience with reality singing contests has instilled her with optimism about the format. “I think it’s got some worth, especially since they let me sing an original, so I really can’t complain and it’s a platform for 10 million people,” she says.
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“It was pretty divisive between Chris Isaak and Guy [Sebastian]. Guy sort of took the new school route of thinking you could remix the song and put some hooks and loops and stuff in it to deliver it to a commercial music. And then Chris Isaak was like, ‘Piss off man, don’t touch it. Just leave it as it is.'”
It’s a rare and unique triumph for an independent artist, especially one who happens to be living in her car. “I was working as a singing teacher and I was teaching over 40 students a week and I was just buggered and feeling really uncreative and pretty stifled,” Roshani recounts.
“So my partner and I, we sold our house and we moved into our car and we’ve got a rooftop tent and we literally Gumtree’d all of our possessions and we can fit our whole lives into seven black boxes we got from Bunnings.”
“We live so simply and it’s incredible how much freedom you feel when you do that. People are like, ‘What the fuck? You live in your car? What’s going on?’ But it’s actually beautiful. We’re literally beachfront.”
“We look at the sunrise every morning and watch it set every afternoon. You realise how little you need to get by.” Right now, Roshani is looking to the future and is planning a follow-up single and video for the coming weeks and a forthcoming album.
