Jess Kent and Tash Sultana. Picture: Supplied

JESS KENT

IT’S just a big busking gig. That was how Jess Kent tried to wrap her head around performing on Coldplay’s colossal stages for the final leg of their world tour.

How did she find herself here, her band beside her, the crowd trickling through the gates 45 minutes after they opened and almost two hours before the main event starring those awe-inspiring English stadium slayers?

“It was so much fun, we just went out there all guns blazing. Someone you look up to gives you that support, it’s special and you want to do it justice,” Kent says.

Singer Jess Kent performs at the Launch Moment during Vogue American Express Fashion's Night Out in Sydney, Australia. Picture: Caroline McCredie/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images

Like all overnight successes, Kent’s breakthrough was an entire young life time in the making.

By the time her family immigrated to Adelaide, her musician father had kicked off her guitar instruction at the age of seven and she continued studying at school.

Her Adelaide busking days started as a child with her drummer brother and the pair were soon scoring gigs at pubs and parties and fairs.

At 18 she headed to Sydney with her guitar and a suitcase, deciding to abandon her communication studies at college to give music a shot.

Then came the starving years, writing music, playing wherever she could get a gig, paying the rent with retail work.

Like all savvy millennials, she decided to share her works in progress on social media, uploading snippets of songs onto Instagram.

One was spotted by Australian hitmaker Andrew Klippel, who was also instrumental in developing the early career of The Veronicas, and he took on her management and teamed with the young singer songwriter with producer Nicky Night Time.

Jess Kent scored a gig playing Coldplay’s colossal stages for the final leg of their world tour. Picture: Jeremy PiperSource:News Corp Australia

They worked up a bunch of demos which fused hip hop vocal styling, alt-pop sensibilities, reggae and dancehall flavours and beat-heavy electronica, the sum of a reservoir of influences stemming from her father to the sound of now.

To test the waters, Kent uploaded Get Down to Triple J’s Unearthed cavernous new music hub where 500 new songs are offered up every day.

“I uploaded Get Down at midnight, woke up at 7am to an email from Unearthed telling me they were going to start playing it straight away,” she says, still incredulous at the immediacy of the reaction. “Four weeks later, it was No.1 on the site.”

And then things really started moving. Kent won an Unearthed competition and landed the opening slot on the Field Day festival in Sydney’s Domain on New Year’s Day.

She was signed to Capitol Records in America, recorded her debut EP This Is Jess Kent which was released in December.

In the months in between, Coldplay heard Get Down and booked her for their Australian and New Zealand concerts and took over Tove Lo’s vocals on Say It for Flume’s all-rising-star Splendour In The Grass triumphant set.

And then she opened the boutique Newcastle festival This That last month and Kent was left in no doubt she was winning hearts, minds and lungs with her music.

Jess Kent is poised for a watershed 2017. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

“We were opening and I was worried no one was going to rock up (early). People kept coming into the tent, it was full and they started chanting, singing Get Down, Waltzing Matilda and doing that slow clap,” she says. “I had never had that before.”

After her run on the Laneway Festival — and an inevitable strong finish in Triple J’s Hottest 100 poll — Kent heads to the US to record her debut album and promote whichever of the excellent five songs including current single The Sweet Spot and Trolls the Americans decide to release.

With her label enjoying considerable success at home and the US for other world class Australian artists including Troye Sivan and Seconds Of Summer, Jess Kent is poised for a watershed year.

TASH SULTANA

One of the most played artists on Triple J Unearthed this year, the 21-year-old musical prodigy who has taught herself more than 10 instruments is primed for a global breakthrough in 2017.

Music helped Tash Sultana overcome a nine month drug-induced psychosis. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

The music is undoubtedly strong enough: her single Jungle is a strong contender to finish in the Hottest 100, her expressive voice and hypnotic guitar hooks making the song an irresistible ear-worm which has been played more than four million times on Spotify.

A close second in popularity is the title track of her six-track debut EP Notion, a song whose soaring guitar atmospherics and her heart-string plucking voice recalled Jeff Buckley.

Sultana sharpened her skills busking on Melbourne’s streets after recovering from a drug-induced psychosis which lasted nine months when she was 17, rekindling her love for music ultimately helping her to get back on track.

Anyone who has seen Sultana perform can testify to the transformative power of music. The young artist becomes the music.

“I have an incredible experience when I play my music; it goes through my whole body,” she explains.

“I get a bit shocky sometimes because of the surge of adrenaline, it’s like an electric current going through my body.

“That’s why I play sober so I can feel that.”

Sultana recently enlisted We Are Unified supremo Jaddan Comerford to join her management team with the primary mission to spearhead her assault on America.

Before we lose her to foreign shores, Sultana will be one of the biggest drawcards at this year’s Laneway Festival which kicks off on Australia Day at the Brisbane Showgrounds before heading to Melbourne on January 28 and Sydney on February 4.

Tash Sultana working her magic on stage. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied