MusicMakers019: Wallace

MusicMakers is an interview series from Adafruit that explores the intersection of the DIY music and maker communities. We’ll be talking to some of our favorite musicians about art, tech, DIY, gear tips and more. Along the way we hope you’ll find some great new music as well as some ideas and inspiration for your own projects.

This week we talk Spice Girls, beaches, with disco with Sydney based songstress, Wallace.

We’ve come across her most recent single, Pantone Home, and are excited to hear a bit more about the influences and creative approach behind this track.

Pantone Home is produced by Danny Barwick (also not to be missed!)

Wallace’s performance is fantastic, laid back but simmering with a distinct energy. It’s a captivating intertwining of classic and contemporary technique. There are flashes of TLC, Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano, and the timeless vibrato of Sarah Vaughan. Her delivery is perfectly complemented by Barwick’s soulful and intricate production.

Most remarkable is the place she has built for herself at the center of this collage of style and technique. Every detail in her music offers a pathway to some other time and some other dusty pile of brilliant albums, but when they are taken all together and wrapped up in her creative vision the result is something new and wonderful, and decidedly unique.

If you are in the area, don’t miss her upcoming performances in Australia and New Zealand

Where are you based?
Sydney at the moment but I’m getting very itchy feet and thinking about making the most of my British passport…

What was your introduction to music?
I grew up listening to my dad’s extensive record collection. Blues, soul and jazz were the soundtrack to my childhood.

What have you been working on?
I’ve been away for a couple of months in Europe working hard on my second EP. I’ve got a new track called Pantone Home dropping soon in the meantime.

How have you seen technology change the creation and consumption of music in your lifetime?

I’m a 90s baby so I’ve seen a huge change in the consumption of music. I had the coolest multi coloured boombox as a kid with all my favs on cassette (Think Spice Girls + D Child) My first EP Pole to Pole is actually only available on Cassette or online in homage to my earliest memories of owning music. I definitely remember carrying around a Walkman as well though plus about 10 CDs which were painstakingly chosen in the morning before school.

I’ve been a pretty analogue girl when it comes to music making for most of my life but I’ve learnt heaps working with various producers.

Describe your recording or production setup:
I always jump in a little studio down by the Beach in Coogee, Sydney with Simon Cohen to record all my vocals.

What’s one song everybody should hear?
I’ve been on a disco train lately so I’m gona say Relight My Fire by Dan Hartman

Who do you think we should ask these questions next?
Milan Ring

You can learn more about Wallace on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Twitter, and her website.

Check out more MusicMakers Q&A’s (feat. Frankie CosmosHaiku Salut, The Ophelias, Benjamin Shaw and more), TrackTalk and the Adafruit Artist Spotlight for DIY tips and music discovery.


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.