Across a handful of musical projects and dozens of collaborations with artists from Australia and abroad, one thing has remained consistent in Alex Burnett’s music: Honesty.
Whether working with Thelma Plum on her critically acclaimed records Better in Blak (2019) and I’m Sorry, Now Say It Back (2024), Hockey Dad’s internationally applauded album Rebuild Repeat (2024), or collaborating with globally revered artists like DJ Snake, Cosmos Midnight, Elderbrook, Motez and Hayden James, that sense of honesty carries through Burnett’s music; it’s the animating force beneath his craft.
“I think the more that music becomes so present in the world, the only music that really matters is stuff that’s individual in its honesty,” he says. “The songs I love writing are the ones that only a particular artist can carry.”
This drive, and consistent emotional core, is what separates Burnett from the thousands of other songwriters whose songs are less clarified and less cutting in an increasingly crowded market.
From his beginnings as the brainchild of acclaimed alt-pop band Sparkadia, Burnett has stood out as one of Australia’s premier songwriters and storytellers, able to convey deep feeling and immense personality from the deftest, most tightly-stitched pop songs on a truly global scale.
With over 1.4 billion streams across his songwriting catalogue, Burnett is already one of the country’s best-known songwriters — even if many of the listeners who have fallen in love with his songs don’t know his name.
This kind of wide reach has always been Burnett’s goal, one which draws back to the idea that art can, and should, touch as many people as possible. He thinks about songs as a necessity as vital as water or air: “I always loved the concept of coming up with something out of thin air, and it changing your life and changing people’s lives, and it becoming a public good,” he says.
“I look back on things like the last Thelma record – that covered some big and important issues, I was so happy to be a small part in making those songs real.”
It’s this kind of music that Burnett has dedicated his life to bringing into the world: songs created in Australia that reach a global audience and might change the lives of the people in the audience.
It’s a lofty goal, but one that he’s reached continually in his career, evidenced by swaths of nominations for ARIA, APRA and Vanda & Young songwriting awards; the aforementioned billion-plus streams; and dozens of Hottest 100 placements. For Burnett, though, the reward of writing a great song is enough.
xanderburnett.com
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Whether working with Thelma Plum on her critically acclaimed records Better in Blak (2019) and I’m Sorry, Now Say It Back (2024), Hockey Dad’s internationally applauded album Rebuild Repeat (2024), or collaborating with globally revered artists like DJ Snake, Cosmos Midnight, Elderbrook, Motez and Hayden James, that sense of honesty carries through Burnett’s music; it’s the animating force beneath his craft.
“I think the more that music becomes so present in the world, the only music that really matters is stuff that’s individual in its honesty,” he says. “The songs I love writing are the ones that only a particular artist can carry.”
This drive, and consistent emotional core, is what separates Burnett from the thousands of other songwriters whose songs are less clarified and less cutting in an increasingly crowded market.
From his beginnings as the brainchild of acclaimed alt-pop band Sparkadia, Burnett has stood out as one of Australia’s premier songwriters and storytellers, able to convey deep feeling and immense personality from the deftest, most tightly-stitched pop songs on a truly global scale.
With over 1.4 billion streams across his songwriting catalogue, Burnett is already one of the country’s best-known songwriters — even if many of the listeners who have fallen in love with his songs don’t know his name.
This kind of wide reach has always been Burnett’s goal, one which draws back to the idea that art can, and should, touch as many people as possible. He thinks about songs as a necessity as vital as water or air: “I always loved the concept of coming up with something out of thin air, and it changing your life and changing people’s lives, and it becoming a public good,” he says.
“I look back on things like the last Thelma record – that covered some big and important issues, I was so happy to be a small part in making those songs real.”
It’s this kind of music that Burnett has dedicated his life to bringing into the world: songs created in Australia that reach a global audience and might change the lives of the people in the audience.
It’s a lofty goal, but one that he’s reached continually in his career, evidenced by swaths of nominations for ARIA, APRA and Vanda & Young songwriting awards; the aforementioned billion-plus streams; and dozens of Hottest 100 placements. For Burnett, though, the reward of writing a great song is enough.
xanderburnett.com
