Bertie Anderson
Perth, Western Australia, Australia | Established. Jan 01, 2010
Music
Press
Q&A with Perth Artist Bertie Anderson
For Rappfox readers, who aren’t familiar with Bertie Anderson, tell us a bit about yourself. What made you get into music? And in particular R&B music?
I've been into music since childhood. From as early as I can remember, I've been amongst music and performing. My Father (dec.) was a touring performing reggae artist with a band called Brokin Inglish throughout the late 80’s/early 90’s and my Mother was part of the background singers for that band. I was mainly raised around the genres of Reggae, Blues, Gospel, Hip Hop, Rap, Pop and R&B.
R&B obviously stems from the Blues sound but I was drawn to R&B because of the melodies driven by the beat. I love to dance so R&B captured my heart and soul like it was meant to be.
I stumbled across your track Ice Cream on Spotify, which was released in November last year, and instantly liked it. It has a great vibe to it. Tell me about the process of making the track.
The process of creating Ice Cream is quite a funny story. I work with an artist by the name of Arian Anderson (A.J Lyriq) who is also featured on Ice Cream. Together we created the production duo The Andersons under a movement called #GreenTeam Music Australia. In one of our writing sessions I brought along an unfinished beat idea that was literally a 4 bar loop with a drum beat and bass line that I created one day just beat boxing.
We played it over and over and started to write. It was in the peak of summer and in the home studio set up we use, there was no air conditioning at the time. So as we're writing and coming up with ideas I said to Arian “bro, it's crazy hot today I feel like ice cream”. We started to have a conversation about ice cream and as we're talking we're both writing and humming tunes at the same time. Within minutes, I started singing “you got that little ice cream cone” to the melody of the bass line and before you know it we had the hook. The rest came very naturally once we decided it was gonna be a metaphorical song with sexual references. The whole song bar James Elmer's third verse was complete in a matter of an hour.
The music video is pretty funky too, tell me about shooting it and what you had in mind when you created it.
I work with a very talented videographer from my hometown Cairns, Queensland. His name is Roger Green who runs Roger Dat Films. We grew up dancing together, so I trust his creative process and vision. At the time of coming up with the concept he was networking with another talented videographer from here in Perth, Western Australia, Andrew McIvor who runs under JustPlay Media. I had already seen a lot of Andrew's work through fellow Perth artists so when Roger said they were both thinking of a future collab project, I suggested Ice Cream and they jumped at it. Together we came up with the concept of using a lot of bright vibrant colours to give the visual the feel of different flavours of ice cream. We actually went out and bought a lot of lollies, desserts and props to use for B Roll footage which ended up making the process so much fun to be shooting and eating junk all day haha.
I've always been hugely influenced by Michael Jackson and artists that sing and dance so there was a lot of work that went into rehearsals and scouting dancers and performing so that we could get it right. I have to give mad props to everyone on set that day because they all took on the project as if it were their own and everything ran so smoothly. Such a great memory.
You’ve released a couple of singles here and there, any chance of a full-length project?
A full length project is definitely in the works and will be coming soon. There's obviously a lot to invest in a bigger project to help it be as successful as possible so I've been holding off until I feel the time is right. My fanbase is on a slow rise and with the amount of live performances I plan to do this year, an EP or album would definitely feel worthwhile.
What else do you have planned for 2019? Any shows?
Definitely a lot more performing for 2019. Last year I was very much focused on honing in on production and writing and learning about the process of creating great music. You never stop learning. Because I've had a lot of feedback regarding performing since releasing the Ice Cream I feel it's the right thing to do and I definitely enjoy performing a lot. Gotta give the people what they want. I'm also in plans to create a monthly event for local and interstate artists to showcase their sound and original works so that's something to look forward to this year as well.
Thanks for your time. - Rappfox
Bertie Anderson, R&B Singer-Songwriter, has been making headway since a push to take his career to the next level in 2016. Originally from Cairns on the Far North East Coast of Queensland and now based in Perth, Western Australia, his production and vocal style forms a unique sound manifesting from his musical influences (from New Age Alternative R&B to R&B from the 90’s) and this transgresses to smooth, high-energy live performances.
Bertie Anderson's latest single Toxic gives listeners an insight into a slightly different production style, forged by the musical influence of Michael Jackson. Lyrically, Toxic depicts the emotional and mental state an individual encounters whilst in a tumultuous relationship. The track serves up an energetic chorus aligned with a punchy, driving bass line that compliments the sound of live instruments to transition into a more electronic sound throughout the verses.
The release of Bertie’s previous independent single Ice Cream has attracted positive reviews from multiple platforms including BBM 98.7FM, Coast2Coast Live Radio, Alex A’s New Music Fridays, Spotify’s Deadly Beats and Triple J Unearthed.
Bertie has gained a significant amount of interest in the international market in North America with radio play, positive reviews and feedback from industry professionals at major record companies.
“It has always been on the cards to relocate and try to penetrate the US market but I feel there's more for me here still in Australia” - Bertie Anderson
Bertie Anderson is always eager to work and collaborate with other similar artists and is ready to perform live locally and abroad whenever it see fit. The writing process happens continuously everyday, so it's always the usual process to record new material in the very near future.
As true live performer, Bertie Anderson is endeavouring to develop his art form and transgress to play at more venues and to give audiences that wow factor. The recording and production experience was thoroughly enjoyable for Bertie and his co writer and producer A.J Lyriq and moving forward, they are avid to record new material, which is constantly in the works.
Bertie Anderson’s production experience and musical influences has provided a sound that is ‘radio ready with lush vocal harmonies’ and provides ‘something sure to make you dance … but at the same time … an emotional statement.’ Bertie looks forward to sharing this and many more tracks with others. - Graffiti Vibe
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Bertie Anderson is an Australian singer/songwriter/Producer with a sound melded from the genres of R&B;, Alternative R&B;, Pop, R&Bass;, Rap.
Bertie was born in Cairns, Queensland, on October 10, 1988. He began writing songs, singing and performing with dance crews as a young teenager. He gained attention as one of the pioneers of the premier hip hop dance crew "Three Six Five".
EARLY BEGINNINGS
Bertie William Erra Anderson grew up in Cairns city. His father is from the Torres Strait Islands, as is his mother. Bertie's parents split when he was 3 years old, after which he and his brother lived primarily with their mother. Bertie listened to R&B;, funk, hip-hop, and reggae as a child, mostly due to the musical tastes of his parents. By the age of 14, his sound was evolving independently, and he was writing his own songs, recording and making beats.
CAREER
Bertie began his professional entertainment career upon graduating high school in 2005. He worked as a hip hop dancer and choreographer, for various shows and companies for several years. Most notably, his work with Three Six Five which platformed him to feature on "So You Think You Can Dance Australia 2008" and "Xtreme Illusions" with Magician Sam Powers. In this time, Bertie constantly worked at perfecting his craft. He took it upon himself to learn every aspect of the music industry. From the production process to image and marketing, Bertie planned out exactly what it takes to become a successful recording artist. In 2010, Bertie decided to relocate to Perth, Western Australia. He felt he needed to be isolated to do some soul searching to discover who he was as an artist. Doing so, made the stars align and in turn, took Bertie's music to the next level. It was then that he felt ready to launch an independent self-titled debut. The release of "Bertie Beetle" was an immense learning curve for Bertie in terms of promotion and engaging with fans- "There's much that I could've done better, but the whole journey was trial and error. Being an independent artist can be tough financially, all I need is a good team behind me for support".
In 2017, Bertie started working with the songwriting team #GreenTeam Music Australia, this sky-rocketed inspiration and creativity in order for each artist to take their music to the next level. Bertie is currently working independently releasing singles and mashups as an artist as well as a producer to build his fan base and later eventually release an EP project. With an evolving style, he promises to bring the best to the table for fans of his music. "A true triple threat, acting, singing and dancing!".
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