Geneve back in spotlight at SOTAstream

The COVID-19 crisis has been a humbling experience for Albany-born-and-raised indie-rock artist Carla Geneve.

Not being able to play live shows has reminded her how much she loves what she does.

Geneve has helped put Albany on the map in the past two years, dominating the 2019 WAM Awards and quickly gaining momentum on the international scene after her maiden US tour last year.

She plans to recapture some of the live performance rush at SOTAstream this long weekend.

The annual WA Day SOTA Festival is going online this year — and Geneve is one of the acts lined up for a concert which will be streamed across the State.

She will take to the stage with a raft of other recognised WA artists including San Cisco, Drapht and Abbe May.

She said SOTAstream would be the closest thing people had experienced to a real major concert since restrictions cranked up.

“There are obviously a lot of live streams happening at the moment but it is hard to get the quality sound and production,” she said. “People are really missing out on experiencing music in the fullest way online, so this will be a proper sound and lighting crew — like a bigger concert but live streamed.”

The show will be live streamed from Perth music venue Freo.Social — a place Geneve knows well.

Geneve released her new track Don’t Wanna Be Your Lover earlier this year and she is keen finally to play it live for a crowd.

“There is obviously a downside to this and the way we have had to adapt, but it has made the world a much smaller place,” she said.

“Someone in the house next door is the same distance as someone in another country.

“It is pretty cool in that way.”

Tentatively, she has started to think about how the future could look for Australian musicians and where she could be performing.

She said she hoped Albany would get more live music as WA acts travelled regionally in the near future.

The free SOTAstream concert will stream on Monday from 2pm-8pm via Facebook, Perthnow and RTRFM.