New Music Ixaras advances With exhilarating single 'This City' - May 2025

Artist Name: Ixaras
Release Name - This City
Release Date - 16th May 2025
Genre - Indie Pop
Label - Anti-Dismal
Meanjin/Brisbane-based DIY artist ixaras has just shared her genre-bending new single 'This City' – produced by Roeith Geraghty.
'My City' is an exhilarating, sweeping track that uses exquisite percussion, digeridoo and soaring synths to build an idiosyncratic, evolving soundscape. Tension and anticipation are moulded as arpeggiating synths crescendo and drive the song, expertly led by ixaras and her captivating delivery and hook-laden falsetto.
ixaras talks about the inspiration behind 'This City':
"'This City' is a portrait of self-reinvention in a world where survival demands transformation. Inspired by the novel Jekyll and Hyde, the song explores the psychological toll of killing off your past self to succeed. The refrain, 'This City Knows My Name', is manifestation, declaration, and lying all in one. It's about the pursuit of ambition, acknowledging what parts of yourself you've sacrificed along the way, such as the paranoia of being perceived, a love letter to the version of you that had to disappear so the world would take notice."
Accompanying the release is the elegant music video – directed by Mellow Minh. Shot in Eora/Sydney, the clip expertly uses black and white to extenuate the light and emphasise its film noir influences. The track's themes are front and centre in its storyline, using strobe lights to choreograph the central fight. Minh explains, "Ixara and I met a while back when I was out on tour with Skeggs — I instantly knew as soon as I heard her play, an exhilaration that I never heard before. So, as soon as I finished the leg, I dm'd her, wanting to work with her. As manifestation has it, while in Vietnam. She hit me with this track, and it blew my mind. I knew I wanted to make something out of it — the idea instantly came to mind, and we never looked back."
ixaras was recently announced as the fourth annual recipient of Good Intent's independent artist initiative 'Greater Good', a package that includes a cash grant totalling over $30,000 AUD and in-kind services with partners Forbes Street Studios, Jungle Merchandise, The Music, PHILTER, Zenith Records, Media Arts Lawyers, Billy Zammit, PLAKKIT, White Sky and Ben Mitchell.
In the live arena, ixaras has sold out headline shows (350 tickets), supported luminaires Grinspoon, Skegss, Tyne James Organ, Esha Tewari, and Aleksiah, and played festivals NYE On The Hill, Great Escape Tasmania, Sweet Relief Festival, Valley Fiesta and Happy Feet - Anti Dismal Festival.
In November 2024, ixaras released her debut EP 'full lover fake friend', with her releases receiving over 1 million streams in her career so far. She was named a finalist in triple j Unearthed's Unearthed High (2023) and has seen extensive support from the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, SiriusXM (USA), triple j, Double J and Australian community radio.
Alongside her melodic earworms and thought-provoking lyricism about the complexities of growing up and young love, ixaras epitomises the meaning of youth, inclusivity and accessibility today with her all-ages, DIY event management and record label 'Anti-Dismal' - throwing gigs in backyards, skateparks, community halls and houses. She also belies her age, having spoken at conferences BIGSOUND (2024), Indie Con (2024), The Push (2024) and Creators Summit (2025), the latter of which was about 'How To Hold Your Own Gigs As A DIY Artist And Start A Record Label White You're At It'.
'This City' is available worldwide now.

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