Since bursting onto the scene in 2019, Ungrained has been doing incredible work covering the latest in local music. Ungrained stays at the forefront of the local music scene to offer up reviews, photography, interviews, merch and events. Ungrained’s new monthly event series ‘The Butterfly Effect’ will celebrate and support Queensland’s up-and-coming female and non-binary musicians. The first event will be held at Tomcat on May 1st with a stellar line-up including EUCA, Lucy Francesca Don and Mum’s Tennis Friends. Grab your tickets here to help support a more diverse, inclusive and supportive Brisbane music scene. We had a chat with Darcy Goss, the founder of Ungrained, about her journey launching this exciting project.
What is your vision for The Butterfly Effect? What mark do you want to leave on the Brisbane music industry?
"So at its core, The Butterfly Effect has been created support, celebrate and showcase QLD’s up-and-coming female, non-binary and minority artists. Despite the increasing awareness of gendered, sexist, misogynistic and equality issues, women, non-binary and other minority groups alike are still being under-represented in our music scene. They are still in need of the support and respect they deserve from our industry. This disparity is not only seen in Brisbane’s music scene but Australia’s as a whole and erasing these deep-rooted, systematical issues can be a painfully slow process."
"I truly feel there is and can be change on the horizon – though this change is only attainable through action. Through our monthly event series highlighting Brisbane and surrounding’s stellar female/non-binary acts we hope to set in motion our own kind of ‘Butterfly Effect’ which sees a more diverse, inclusive, respective and supportive music scene."
"I believe the biggest things start small. One seemingly small action can lead to significant moments and lasting change – this is The Butterfly Effect, and this is where the change begins."
Can you tell us a little about your background and what inspired you to start Ungrained Mag?
"So I’ve been a music photographer for just over 4 years now, before Ungrained I was shooting for 6 different publications on a contributor basis. Photography is my main passion, it’s what I love to do more than anything so I was saying yes to every show I could get to, but after a while I couldn’t see the bigger picture anymore. I was really lost and being halfway through my journalism degree, completely overworked. I knew I had to cut back and be picky about what opportunities I took if I wanted to keep doing this. This is where Ungrained started. Ironic, because whilst trying to cut back and not overwork myself I created an entire publication on my own – cutting out even more work for myself (something I still do to this day). Ungrained began as a way for me to apply for photo passes to the shows I wanted to shoot and to help other photographers and writers I’d met do the same. Essentially, I just wanted to help people like me get the experience they needed and wanted so that they could excel. Since I started UG in late 2019, we now have 8 photographers and 9 writers contributing to the publication – with Ungrained being some of their first publications to contribute to." What's been the highlight of launching Ungrained Mag and The Butterfly effect?
"The highlight so far would have to be our 1st Birthday Party event last year in December at Tomcat. We had Asha Jefferies headline the event alongside The Baby Breaks and The BattleCat. It was our first ever physical event and had been postponed twice due to COVID, but it was just so surreal for me. The venue capped out within an hour! For me it was the moment when I realized Ungrained was more than just an idea. Seeing so many people come out and support the publication was a huge feeling."
How have you moved past the challenges of trying to build your brand during COVID?
"It was pretty difficult at the beginning, we were really in our prime at that time. I had so many gigs lined up for my photographers and writers which all got canned. We just turned to a huge online focus, we started creating playlists, writing articles on how people can help artists/venues, and pumping out heaps of reviews. Things were pretty quiet for a while, but it allowed me to really knuckle down on our design side of things – I re-designed the website, created some merch and began thinking about bigger things for Ungrained."