Miss Kaninna: the live powerhouse turning heads with outspoken anthems

Diamonds are formed through the application of an immense amount of heat and pressure – a process that Miss Kaninna understands all too well.

“[The pressure has] become bigger now that my reach is wider,” the rising rapper and singer reflects over Zoom on a cold winter’s day in her base of Melbourne, “and it’s more about self-pressure too.”

In the past year Miss Kaninna’s profile in Australia has skyrocketed thanks primarily to dynamite performances at festivals like SXSW and St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, and as support for the likes of Aussie drill pioneers OneFour. At Beyond The Valley 2023, she performed like a “star in the making”, delivering one of the most “incensed and important sets of the weekend”, NME pronounced.

Besides the growing crowds at shows, Miss Kaninna has borne pressure in other forms as well. Last May, the proud Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Kalkadoon and Yirendali artist burst onto the scene with the anticolonialist anthem ‘Blak Britney’, and has continued to be an outspoken voice on injustice and genocide on public platforms – most recently at her debut performance at the 20th National Indigenous Music Awards earlier this month.

Miss Kaninna’s upcoming debut EP ‘Kaninna’ opens with ‘Blak Britney’ and its fiery call: “Death to invader / and all the land takers / and all the treaty breakers / and all the dictators / and all manipulators.” But the project, which is out next month, is also an invitation to witness other facets of Miss Kaninna. Inspired by the ’90s/’00s R&B and pop she grew up with on the small island of Bruny in Tasmania, it aims to “show different parts of myself”, she says. That means making music that demonstrates her artistic potential, transcending tokenistic tropes that “put boundaries on what I can create”.

Miss Kaninna talks to NME about authenticity, the sonic diversity of ‘Kaninna’ and representing her community.

How important is live performance to you as an artist?

“I love live music. That’s where I fell in love with music. I’ve grown up going to festivals my whole life, and I feel like the live aspect of it is more important than the recorded aspect of it. I actually find recording and releasing music the hardest part of being a musician. I can do shows back to back and I just enjoy it.

“When I’m writing a song, I’ll get so into it and get tunnel vision. And then at the end there’s always 10 per cent of the song that you have to fix, go back, make sure there’s nice sounds in it, and then you’ve got to put it to PR, and do the back of house stuff. That shit annoys me.”

There’s a lot of online pressure to act a certain way as a Black/Blak woman. Have you noticed a change in how people interact with you now that you’re showcasing more of your music live and building your fanbase?

“I would say that it’s the same attitude, just on a larger scale. I feel like there’s more people who fuck with my music, and in saying the same, there’s now a lot more people who don’t fuck with it. I feel like the people who don’t fuck with it can sometimes be more loud.”

How do you deal with that pressure as a new artist?

“Being around people who care about me, and having people on the team who believe in the projects, and also being really particular about where I spend my time and energy. That’s been a good way of dealing with the pressure.

“We live in a pretty – I’m gonna say – sheltered country. So anybody that speaks out or is different is always cut down. I’m trying to be a positive person, and the music I’m making, I’m intending it with a positive outcome.

“I’d rather be hated for the person that I am than be someone I’m not. And I feel like when people show me hate, I’m just like, ‘Well, it’s because I’m being myself.’ People are scared of authenticity.”

Your music has a strong anti-colonialist message but you’ve said that you also want to showcase that you can make different music. How important was that on the EP?

“Oh, it literally drove the whole project. I think I really want people to know that I don’t want to stick to one genre. I don’t want to be labeled: ‘Oh, you’re an Indigenous artist because you make this type of music’, or ‘you’re obviously a female singer from Australia, because you make this type of music’. I don’t want that to hold me down or stop creative flow. [The process of making the EP] was Jacob [Farah, aka YAOB] and I sitting in the studio and whatever beat we felt was good on the day is what we worked with. I feel like it will show the diversity of music that I like and can make.”

“People are scared of authenticity”

What was your creative relationship like with Jacob Farah?

“Deadly. He has a studio at home. With all the tracks on the EP, we started from scratch, and Jacob would be like, ‘What are we feeling?’ We both work really fast, and we got to a point where we weren’t even verbalising. The lyrics will usually come within the first hour and a half. We see how we feel and vibe it out. If I’m getting a little bit stuck, we’ll just move on. And I think that’s what makes for a quick work environment, because you’re just getting out all your ideas, and you don’t get bogged down too much on the specifics of the song. When I write a song, it’s about how the whole song fits in together, and how the whole song makes you feel.”

‘Blak Britney’ is the first song on the EP, but also the first song you ever released. Why have it as your introductory song in both cases?

“The reason why we chose ‘Blak Britney’ at the start is because I wanted to remind everybody who you’re dealing with before you go into the music. I wanted to remind everyone this is what we’re dealing with. This is what’s going on. This is who I am.”

I understand that there’s an important story behind latest single ‘Dawg in Me’…

“It’s a response to some of the things that I’ve been experiencing – the pressures of society on someone who’s now public. And it’s just a way of reminding Blackfellas – because we say ‘dog’ as in ‘dawg’ – and incorporating them and making sure they feel seen in the song, and just reminding people where I come from, the people I come from. It’s not the first time we’ve had people push against us and we will keep fighting. That’s what the song’s about.”

How do you see yourself progressing as an artist, after this EP?

“I’m just really excited to hear what people have to say about the EP – if they like it or not. I really just want to make people feel good. And I want to know if people’s experiences are the same, or if I’m representing my community properly. I rely on my community and the people around me’s opinion to make sure that what I’m doing is right. I am representing a group of people, and so it will be led by the community, and by the feedback that I get from the EP. We have so much music lined up.”

Miss Kaninna’s EP ‘Kaninna’ is out September 20 via Soul Has No Tempo. Her Dawg In Me Tour of Australia takes place November

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