How Barkada Collective Is Rewriting the Rules of Adelaide’s Music Scene
Photo: Zane Qureshi
What is Barkada & What does it mean?
Barkada is a collective... It's a Filipino word for a group of friends. If you put it into Google Translate it means "gang" and we thought that was pretty cool. We're a group of people who have pretty similar goals and different walks of life.
Who is in Barkada Collective & what are your roles?
We are a collective composed of eight members, including Shi'LO, who serves as a rapper, singer, and producer; Vanz, a singer and rapper; EXTC, who contributes as a singer, rapper, and hook specialist; AbThirza, a producer; Escasinas, a singer; Jerry, who is responsible for keyboard instrumentation and production; Aaron, our manager; and Jason, who handles photography, videography, and creative direction.
How would you describe your style of music?
I don't think we have a particular style of music. We all have roots in R&B and hip-hop but we've also been working on new sounds too.
"IT'S EASY TO BE A CLONE IN THIS INDUSTRY. WE'RE TRYING TO BE ROLE MODELS TO PEOPLE THAT LOOK LIKE US."
What is the feeling & listening experience you want people to take away from your music?
We want them to take away the feeling of what we're saying. For all our fans and listeners, we want them to be able to relate to our songs and know they are not alone in this world.
How did Barkada form and start making music?
Vanz: ShiLO, EXTC and myself have all been making music collectively for a while now. We just kinda like working together, I guess. We're all friends here - we've been friends for a while. I think we met each other at different stages in life, and we all came together because we have similar interests. We all have the same sort of goals that we want to reach, so we figured instead of accomplishing them alone, why not do it as a group?
What does your songwriting & production process look like?
It's all about self discovery. Like when we start writing it all comes down to our emotions. At first we don't even know what to write about we kind of think on the spot, listen to a few songs and then go from there. Everyone collaborates on the production.
Who are other artists in the industry whom you'd like to collaborate with?
We'd love to collaborate with artists such as Rich Brian, NIKI, Joji, 88rising, 1300, Lucky Daye, Kanye West and Beabadoobee.
Going off that, who inspires your sense of style and fashion?
Tyler the Creator, ASAP Rocky, NIGO, Shia Lebouf, MGK, Lil Uzi, Avril Lavigne, Young Thug, Juice WRLD, Jonah Hill + anime characters and vintage fashion.
So this magazine is titled "The Kids Turned Out Alright". Can you describe your childhood and teenage years?
Vanz: Growing up, I was very family-oriented as a Filipino boy would be. Throughout my childhood, I was a bit of an outcast within my school community because, being a brown boy, I didn't fit in with the social norm. Coming into school and having containers of rice for lunch, people looked at me weird, but I stuck to my roots, and I guess here I am now.
Shi LO: I had that too in the beginning, but then I moved to an international school. But even there, I was one of two Filipinos in my year. It wasn't until I started kicking it with Vanz that I could discover what it was like to be a Filipino-Australian person and that it was okay to dress, talk and act like one. I was also really emo, so realistically I don't want to get into that haha.
EXTC: I was introverted. Like Vanz, I struggled to fit in. I tried, but then that always led to depression or feeling lost. So my childhood was a journey of trying to be myself and not trying too hard to please other people. I leaned into spirituality, and that helped me a lot. Now I feel like when I'm myself, life is better.r
Aaron: I come from an ethnically brown house like any other immigrant. We moved here when I was seventeen, and it was hard for me to fit in.
It worked out fine because I have a really good group of homies whom I look up to. They're what keep me going. One more thing I'd like to say for any brown kid who watches or reads this - it gets better.
AbThirza: I came from the opposite of not having family-oriented structures at home and stuff, so leaving that and meeting these boys was really good. I think that's what makes BARKADA so good, we all come from different walks of life, but we all have the same mindset.
Jerry: Growing up like Shilo & Vanz I was very family oriented. I had a lot of schedules.
Jason: I think they've covered most of the ethnic background stuff so far. It just feels better all of us coming together to do what we want to do, rather than doing what a typical Filipino kid would do.
Photo: Jason Oates
