We Went To The ARIA Awards To Ask Musos For Their Advice For Students

By Haydn Hickson

We asked a whole bunch of musos if they had any advice for students who are trying to balance work-life, uni subjects and expressing themselves creatively through art. Here’s what some of them had to say. 

TKAY MAIDZA

“If you love it, just do it... You don’t have to do everything in one day, you know? Like, if you really love it, you can take your time and get it right. That’s literally it…. Keep going. Believe in yourself. It’s cheesy but it’s literally what you have to do. Put in the hours, believe in it and be true to yourself.”

BENEE

“I dropped out of university second week. Not saying that! But like, the biggest thing for me was not wanting to do anything that I wasn’t fully loving. I think a lot of my friends are kind of realising that now, that they don’t have to go straight into it, they can take time and all that cheesy stuff! Just like what you’re doing because you’re gonna do it for a long bloody time, that’s why I’m doing music!”

WHATSONOT

“You do have to find a really good balance. I think that the key is to find some sort of work that you can do that is still within the field of your craft. That’s not the ideal thing you want to do, but it pays you good money for the amount of hours you have to put into it. You might be an artist, but you also know how to use photoshop or you’re good at graphic design…”

KWAME

“Without trying to use the word balance, I think the best way is to just make those sacrifices. One of the things that I did was, I did 8 to 12 (instead of 8 to 4), literally ran to the bus stop, back to the studio and back into it… Sometimes I would give two weeks or three weeks away of shifts of work. I didn’t bother me if I was losing money or whatever… I knew that this is gonna be the thing that really pushes me to excel.”

MURRAY FROM THE WIGGLES

“It sounds like a cliche, but I think following your dream is really important. I read something recently that said, “If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not worth pursuing”. You know, you need to challenge yourself! If you’re persistent and keep with it, eventually it’ll pay off”

TRIPLE ONE

“I think if you really want it, you’ll find time for it. That’s it. Go hard because it is f*ckin’ hard. And you’ll have heaps of hate at the start, always, until you get some momentum and then everyone gets behind you, but that first little two or three year’s is shit.”

We out!