Spring in Launceston is set to bloom with creativity, connection, and colour as Junction Arts Festival returns for its milestone 15th year.
From 12–21 September 2025, the city transforms into a hub of immersive art, bold performances, and unforgettable experiences. With two weekends of programming and over 250 artists involved, Junction 2025 invites locals and visitors alike to explore Tasmania’s thriving creative scene right in the heart of Launceston.
This year’s theme centres on renewal and reflection—marking 15 years of Junction’s community-driven history while boldly stepping into new artistic territory. From large-scale interactive installations to intimate, thought-provoking works, there’s something for everyone to discover.
One not-to-miss highlight is the Tasmanian premiere of Airship Orchestra by internationally renowned studio Eness. This interactive soft sculpture installation is as much a sonic experience as it is a visual one—expect to be fully enveloped in light and sound. It’s a first for Tasmania and a shining example of the kind of immersive contemporary art that Junction is bringing to this year’s festival.
The program also celebrates local stories and artists, with reflective works honouring the festival’s journey and its deep roots in the community. Whether you're attending the anniversary celebrations on the first weekend (12–14 September) or catching the city-wide buzz from 18–21 September, Junction offers a multi-sensory adventure you won’t want to miss.
Tickets go on sale 7 August at 7:00 am, and with the program now live, now’s the time to start planning your festival experience. View the full digital program [here].

Amaya Laucirica’s latest single “Time It Takes” is a neon-lit detour into glittering pop confidence — and it slaps. Known for her introspective dream-pop sensibility, Laucirica flips the script here with a track that is bold, self-assured, and undeniably danceable.
Built on a pulsing Rhodes bassline and driven by krautrock grooves, “Time It Takes” blends shimmering synths and polished production into a track that lands somewhere between vintage Kylie and Broadcast on a disco bender. Producer James Cecil pushes the boundaries, sculpting a slick, kinetic world that Laucirica commands with charisma. She’s playful, she’s present — and she’s having a blast.
The song is a confident preview of The Blue Hour, Laucirica’s upcoming album (out September 2), and if this is any indication, we’re in for a record that’s equal parts introspection and sparkle. This one’s for your late-night drives and pre-party pep talks — hit repeat.

Electric Guest is done playing it safe. Their new single “Stand Back For You” is not just a song—it’s a signal flare for what’s to come with their upcoming album 10K, due out October 10. And if this track is the bar, the rest of the record is going to be something special.
Written over several years and carried through emotional limbo, “Stand Back For You” hits different. Asa Taccone’s vocals blend heartbreak and acceptance, set against a sleek, soulful groove that feels both intimate and expansive. It’s still undeniably Electric Guest, but more stripped back, more raw. The hooks are still sharp, but now they come with weight.

Taccone says he couldn’t touch the song for long stretches because of how personal it was. That honesty bleeds into every lyric. “If you want a plant to flower, you must give it the sun it needs,” he reflects. “Sometimes in love, you must take the second stage.” That line alone could define the track—and maybe the album too.

​10K—named after a loan Taccone received to pursue music full-time—is shaping up to be a manifesto of creative freedom. The duo ditched label pressure and built the record with friends, collaborators, and instincts. Guests include The Weeknd, Carly Rae Jepsen, Kacy Hill, and a sprawling cast of over 30 artists and creatives. It’s a return to the hunger and heart that built Electric Guest in the first place.
With “Stand Back For You,” they haven’t just dropped a single—they’ve opened a door. And we can’t wait to hear what’s on the other side.

With Take Me To The Water, Byron Bay-based singer-songwriter Ally Palmer delivers an album steeped in vulnerability, renewal, and emotional honesty. Across its genre-spanning tracks, Ally draws from personal experience and her deep connection to nature — particularly water — to craft a record that feels both intimate and expansive. We caught up with Ally to talk about the emotional heart of the album, the story behind its standout collaborations, and what it means to launch this body of work back home.
“Take Me To The Water” is such a raw and moving title track. Can you take us back to the moment of writing it?
That song came from a place of intense loss and shock. It was a really heavy writing process because I was pulling from real, personal experiences — I’d lost someone very special to me, and writing it became a way of releasing some of that pain. I knew early on that this track needed to lead the album. It sums up the overall message of the record so clearly — letting go, healing, and finding peace.
You made an interesting choice to split the song and its outro into two separate pieces. Why was that important?
During production, it became clear the outro had such a different energy to the rest of the song. The title track felt powerful on its own, and the outro worked better as its own moment. It’s like a deep exhale — a release after carrying so much emotional weight. That shift in tone almost represents a sense of relief or calm after the storm.
The album moves between soul, folk, and even touches of jazz. How did you approach blending such a diverse palette of sounds?
I really focused on creating a natural flow — something that feels good to listen to from start to finish. The record starts off quite soul-heavy, then gradually leans into a more folky sound. That transition felt organic to me, and reflects my own musical influences and the emotions I was moving through while writing.
One of the standout moments is “Let The River,” a collaboration with Dusty Boots. What brought you two together, and what’s the story behind that song?
We’ve been collaborating on each other’s music for a few years now. When we got together for some writing sessions, we ended up writing a song inspired by our local river. Both of us are really connected to nature — especially water and the ocean. The river is a place we go to for peace, for inspiration, for grounding. That shared connection really shaped the song and gave it this spiritual depth.
“A Change Is Coming Soon” moves from despair to hope. Did that emotional arc come naturally, or was it influenced by what was happening in the world?
It happened quite naturally. I started writing it on acoustic guitar and from the beginning, I could hear the full arrangement in my head. It begins in a place of disillusionment — losing faith in humanity — but I really wanted it to build into something more hopeful. That sense of wanting change, of believing in something better, is a big part of the record.
You don’t shy away from themes of grief and personal loss on this album. Was there a particular song that felt healing to write?
Yes, Never Stop Loving You was especially meaningful. I wrote it just after my grandmother passed away. Her loss was still so fresh, and writing the song was a way for me to process that. It was tough, but also really beautiful — a way to honour her memory and find a bit of peace in the process.
You’ve mentioned being inspired by artists like Norah Jones and Leon Bridges. What draws you to them, and how do you feel their influence shows up in your music?
What I love about those artists is how honest and authentic their songwriting is. Their music feels like a true reflection of who they are. With this album, I really wanted to do the same — to show a more vulnerable side in my lyrics and make music that feels like my true self. I wasn’t trying to fit into a particular genre — I just wanted it to feel real.
And finally, you’re launching the album with a hometown show in Byron Bay. What does that moment mean to you?
Byron has such a rich creative energy. Being surrounded by so many artists here has helped me grow — not just creatively, but personally. It’s helped me become more open, more vulnerable in my songwriting. I feel so excited to be sharing this album and this new sound with the world, and it means a lot to be starting that journey right here at home.

To celebrate the release, Ally will launch the album with a special, free hometown show at Electric Mermaid Barbershop in Brunswick Heads on Friday, July 19.

There’s a moment when you hit play on Clear As Mud Pt 1, and it feels like you’ve just stepped into someone else’s world—messy, muddy, raw—but familiar in a way that catches you off guard. That’s the gift Maddy Jane offers on this new EP: a deeply personal, sharply crafted body of work that doubles as an open invitation into her most self-assured era yet.
The Tasmanian singer-songwriter has always worn her heart on her flannelette sleeve, but on Clear As Mud Pt 1, she’s wielding that vulnerability with new intention—and power. Across six tracks, Maddy explores identity, queerness, trauma, healing, and the strange comfort of not having everything figured out. It’s deeply Australian storytelling—unfiltered, grounded in place, and delivered with that unmistakable Maddy Jane twang that somehow sounds both weathered and wide-eyed.
Opening track It Can’t Be Heartbreak If It’s Not Love is an immediate emotional sucker punch. Slide guitars sigh beneath Maddy’s quietly devastating vocals as she parses the complexities of queer longing and emotional wreckage. It’s country in its DNA, rock in its delivery, and unmistakably queer in its soul. There’s a rawness to the way she sings that feels like a friend letting you in on something they haven’t said out loud before—confessional but never contrived.

The heart of the EP lies in its centrepiece: A Woman Is A Woman and its poetic follow-up Pt 2. These two tracks together form a powerful manifesto of self-reclamation. The first is electric—full of witchy imagery, roaring guitars, and the kind of lyrical honesty that could shake loose the dust of decades of societal repression. The second part is a bold, spoken-word continuation that leans into abstraction without losing clarity. It's one of the most boundary-pushing moments in Maddy’s catalogue to date—a reminder that she’s not just writing songs, she’s casting spells.
Elsewhere, the EP roots itself in the land that shaped Maddy’s perspective. June captures the grey weight of Tasmania’s longest, coldest month with eerie accuracy—bittersweet and beautiful in equal measure. It’s where her influences (think Crowded House, Neil Finn, and Paul Kelly) quietly surface. There’s a certain warmth that cuts through the melancholy, a soft assurance that the darkness doesn’t last.

And then comes Thylacine—perhaps the EP’s most anthemic moment. Named for the mythic Tasmanian tiger, the song is less about extinction than endurance. It rages with a sense of place, of belief in what others say is long gone. Musically, it’s a controlled storm: urgent, punk-tinged, but still country at heart. “It’s hope. It’s rage,” she says of the creature—and that could just as easily describe the track itself.
Closing with Dishes in the Sink, Maddy brings things full circle in the gentlest way. It’s a warm, slow exhale after the emotional weight of what’s come before. There’s a kind of grace in its ordinariness—acknowledging the chaos but choosing comfort anyway. It’s a fitting conclusion to an EP that never shies away from life’s messiness but still manages to find clarity in the mud.
With Clear As Mud Pt 1, Maddy Jane proves that evolution doesn’t have to mean shedding who you are. Instead, she leans into her roots—sonically, geographically, emotionally—and emerges with something entirely her own. This is an artist in full command of her vision. A little wild, a little worn, but clearer than ever.

It’s been nearly six years since Electric Guest graced us with new music, and in that time, the indie pop landscape has shifted considerably. Trends have come and gone, but the emotional core of a great pop song remains timeless—and that’s precisely what Asa Taccone and Matthew Compton deliver with their new single “Play Your Guitar.”

From the moment the track opens with a quietly pulsing four-on-the-floor beat and an intimate acoustic riff, there’s a sense that Electric Guest are inviting you into something personal. And they are. Inspired by a devastating moment backstage—when Taccone’s guitarist received a call that his wife was leaving him—the song unfolds like a whispered letter to grief, catharsis, and the solace of sound. “He really played with all of himself,” Taccone recalls. And in a world as fractured and overstimulated as ours, that kind of vulnerable performance feels like a quiet revolution.

Sonically, “Play Your Guitar” is a masterclass in restraint and release. The production is clean, feather-light, and deceptively complex. Soft synths weave in and out of the acoustic textures, while Taccone’s voice—gentle but laced with emotion—drifts over lines like “synthesize it, multiply it, advertise it over,” capturing the digital-age disorientation many of us feel. Then comes the chorus, a weightless affirmation that sometimes clarity doesn’t come from answers, but from the act of expression itself. Just play.

Electric Guest’s strength has always been in making sadness sound euphoric, in wrapping bittersweet ideas in hook-laden bliss—and “Play Your Guitar” does exactly that. It’s no surprise given Taccone’s far-reaching pop credentials (from Feel It Still to Charli XCX to The Idol) that this song feels simultaneously like a personal diary and a chart-ready earworm.

The accompanying iPhone-style video adds a sense of real-world grounding, featuring a parade of friends (HAIM, Jordana, Portugal. The Man) and unfiltered joy. But don’t be fooled—this song isn’t just feel-good fluff. It’s a tender reminder that when the world makes no sense, art can still anchor you.
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Electric Guest aren’t chasing trends. They’re playing from the heart—and that, in 2025, might be the most radical thing of all.

From the depths of Tasmania’s tangled coastline comes a howl of identity, rage, and resilience. Maddy Jane’s new single “Thylacine” doesn’t just growl — it roars.

A genre-defying, poetic powerhouse of a track, “Thylacine” lands as the first release from her upcoming EP Clear as Mud Pt 1, and it’s as untamed as the extinct creature it’s named after. Produced by Alex Burnett (Sparkadia) and Oli Horton, the track fuses elements of country, indie-rock, and folk-punk into something uniquely raw and modern.

Driven by charging drums, distorted twangs, and Maddy’s unmistakable vocal edge, the track captures a visceral feeling of belief in something intangible — the mythic, the maternal, the fury beneath the surface. “Even if you’ve never seen one, you still believe,” she sings, using the Tasmanian tiger as a potent metaphor for female rage, spiritual wildness, and generational identity.
“Thylacine” arrives alongside previous singles “A Woman Is A Woman” and “It Can’t Be Heartbreak if It’s Not Love,” rounding out a trilogy that positions Maddy not only as a songwriter with guts but one unafraid to wade into murky, muddy emotional terrain.
There’s a rare clarity in her contradictions: witchy and worn, rural and queer, fashion-forward in a sheep shearer’s jacket. The result? A sound as rugged and beautiful as Bruny Island itself — unpredictable, magnetic, and ferociously alive.

If this is just a taste of Clear as Mud Pt 1, we’re in for a wild, wonderful storm come June 27.