I’ve been keeping an eye on Perth’s incredible music scene for a few years now. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I honestly believe the scene is an undiscovered gem, slowly on the rise to global standards. It’s not just artists doing their part, there seems to be this visionary culture brewing where entrepreneurial spirit meets creativity in the music studio. Platform is one of the newest brands that resulted from this.

Founded by DJ and entrepreneur, Jayson Brown via his record label and events management company, Dough Related, Platform is a revolutionary brand focused on the promotion of local artists in Perth’s music scene.

Jayson’s experiences in the music industry led him to see ‘pain points’ in the industry. “Being a come-up artist is expensive and [the artists] can barely get gigs, let alone paid ones,” he explained. “[He] wanted to create something where a city can notice its own talent, but also build a support structure for this talent.”

As the name states, it’s a ‘platform’ where up-and-coming artists can gain valuable exposure, stage experience and earn some money. Platform gives all the event proceeds to the artists that perform on the night. Event promotion was thoughtfully done through the artist’s online following. Organisers create and pass down high-quality marketing material for artists to post on their social media, increasing the artist’s online content and traction.

Artists also can tell their story on Platform TV, a YouTube video series hosted by radio presenter Dustin Skipworth and Jayson. To top it off, Platform curates a playlist for every volume, so punters can jam to some of the beats before and after the event!

Every Platform volume will be curated to have a different list of artists performing. For punters, it means we now have a ‘platform’ to discover and keep up with local artists via event showcases, online content and playlists.

Volume One was a five-hour event that was held in the Rave Cave at Badlands Bar on August 23.

Mowgli, a well-known DJ in Perth’s hip-hop scene, played an opening set that was of the highest quality. Soon after Dustin, the event emcee, officially announced the start of Volume One, giving the crowd a quick brief on Platform’s vision and the nights agenda.

Up first was Cloud DSTRCT, a guitarist and singer/rapper duo—Joel and Elijah—known for their incredibly produced hip-hop and indie inspired singles, and their 2018 mixtape, Delirium. While wasting no time on introductions, they dove straight into the guitar synths for the opening song of a short but energetic five-song performance. A crowd favourite, District, was up next, building up the energy with its bouncy drum samples.

Cloud DSTRCT then threw in a couple of tracks dedicated to those in love, with Die For You and Hate Love, a track that’s part of a soon to be released EP. Busy was the ideal choice to close the set, a crowd favourite that was received even better with the live guitar synths over the original track.

Known for his musicality and serious hype on stage, Tobias had a tracklist of bass-fuelled bangers and slower tracks to please any crowd. He was accompanied on stage by his drummer and support DJ but also called up fellow artists from the crowd to perform collaborations.

Tobias opened big, performing an unreleased collaboration with fellow artist Yung Buddah and followed up with spitting verses over Aminé’s Caroline instrumental. Keeping the energy going, he then performed Green Eyes and Jess, two catchy pop tracks that got the crowd singing along.

The second half of the set was dedicated to offloading crowd verified bangers, starting with Throne, a Tyler Rivers collaboration, promptly followed by Slayed and another crowd favourite, Mama. To top an already amazing performance, Tobias ended with Wake Up, a decibel-shattering track, leaving the crowd on a peak high.

One of the most exciting things to happen in Perth hip-hop was the formation of a rap collective called Tone Youth back in 2017. And after their initial breakout, T$OKO, Robb James, Jimmy Drones and Chu were back at it with some highly anticipated new releases over the course of 2019. The group was a great fit for Volume One’s line-up, giving fans a chance to see what was in store for them while first-time viewers got to see a new benchmark set in Perth’s hip-hop space.

Rollin’ was the opening track, and one of the only bangers that the collective released before the performance. Tracks that followed were again of top-quality and the crowd could not get enough of it. This is a group you want to keep your eye on!

Rapper and Producer 506, another well-known name in Perth hip-hop, was up next. He’s renowned for his seamless versatility between melodic tunes to 808 trap instrumentals and aggressive rhymes from one track to another. 506 put on a great show while shuffling between these two areas throughout the performance. Support from a guitarist and drummer gave the performance an added rawness.

506 kept his tracklist short consisting of his most popular singles to date. Notice Me, Cozy, Teacher and Bond were some that made the cut, an equal mix of Afrobeat inspired and 808 intensive tracks.

Tyler Rivers was tasked with closing off the first-ever Platform event. A singer and producer in his own right, Rivers is best known for his fusion of new wave R&B, pop and soul genres resulting in catchy and uplifting music. It’s the kind of feel-good music you’d find yourself listening to in the middle of a summer night. A perfect way to end the night on an emotional high.

Tyler Rivers started off with Take You, Young & Naive, and Praying, performing them back-to-back while the crowd sang along to his Warner Music distributed singles. To end his set with style, Tyler called up fellow artist Tawfeeq Francke to perform their latest collaboration, Better Than My Ex.

Find Platform on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date with all the latest content and event announcements.

Cloud DSTRCT, Tobias, Tone Youth, 506 and Tyler Rivers are all on Spotify and Soundcloud.