Greater Western Sydney is making a name for itself as a rich and vibrant community that is delivering a wholly original and unique sound.

Greater Western Sydney’s thriving music scene is ever-growing, given it had a bit of a controversial start via the NSW Police’s attempt to try to restrict drill and Hip-Hop, it has shown no signs of fading into the background, or slowing down. Instead, the 9,000 square kms of sprawling landscape, from Campbelltown to Richmond that 2.5 million people call home, is continuing to give birth to some of the biggest voices of this generation.

Capturing the smell and sound of the streets of Blacktown via Big Skeez, or Quakers Hill garage rock antics of St Heartless, Gold Fang, A. Girl, B Wise, BLESSED, Manu Crooks, OneFour, and Lauren have brought forth a bold, loud and captivating contribution to the music scene.

We caught up with Big Skeez, whose talent for melodically-driven Afro Swing combined with the sounds of Western Sydney, is hitting it out of the park with his vivid and irrepressible brand of hip-hop.

Happy: What have you been up to today?

Big Skeez: Well, today I’ve just been working on some music in my studio all day. So I’ve just been out, got some sun and came back in the studio, and worked on more music. 

Happy: If you could collaborate on a track with any BIGSOUND act from this year’s line-up, who would you want to work with?

Big Skeez: Sound Ivaco collaborate on the track from the Big Sound axe will be Chinall, Sofia Malala, and Chanel. 

Happy: Where are you both from originally, and what city do you currently live in? What’s your favourite thing about the area you call home right now?

Big Skeez: Originally, I’m from South Sudan, Kenyan born, and I currently live in Western Sydney. Blacktown area. And my favorite thing about my area, I would say it’s just the people, you know, all different sorts of people you can see in my area and all sorts of different foods as well as the community. You can see a sense of community in my area. You can just walk down the street and say hi to your neighbour and have a little chat. That’s my favorite thing I like about my area. 

Happy:  How have your cultural backgrounds and experiences living overseas impacted your songwriting and creative processes?

Big Skeez: Well, while I create a song. Right. I’m able to implicate my cultural background and experiences from living overseas. You know, I’m able to tell a story and tell all the past relationships where I’ve been through all the bad times of experiences, especially all the stuff, our experiences overseas, like the wars and all the genocide and whatnot. And also, I’m able to 1s also just stick to my roots. I’m able to bring my African roots into my music as I do afrobeat and afro-fusion and all that, so, yeah, you helped a lot. Yeah. 

Happy: Your collaborative single, Where Yuh From, was released in 2021. How did you two meet each other and connect musically in the first place? And what’s it been like performing together at BIGSOUND?

Big Skeez: Me and Fang first met in the studio, at the Bodega studio. But I’ve been hearing about Fang. You know, one of my mates used to go to one of the Oregon events that used to happen in the city and he came across Fang before, but I just never met him before. And one time my boy Tom connected us together in the studio 1s and we did the song and the song came about. But yeah, it was just a great experience and just doing that song and being able to perform it live, a big sound and just seeing the crowd react to it and just having a good time, you know what I mean? Because, you know, Fang, that’s my brother. 

Happy:  You guys have released a few singles this year, can we expect any more new music to drop before the year is through?

Big Skeez: Yes, most definitely. Most definitely. I got plenty more music to release, and also I got an EP coming out, hopefully, end of this year or early next year. So everybody just keep a lookout. I got plenty more music.