“My dad was probably my biggest musical inspiration growing up,” says fresh faced Canberra singer, Jett Blyton. “He was in bands when he was younger and was always on the keys and singing around the house.
“I was a big theater kid and then I transitioned into opera and did a lot of classical voice stuff, especially in my early teenage years, then I transitioned into pop music. I’ve always loved pop music so it felt very full circle,” Jett says. “Growing up, I was all about the pop charts. It had to have been Kesha and Katy Perry, a little bit of Lady Gaga, some Taio Cruz, Flo Rida..”
Jett started recording his own music two years ago: “I’ve been writing songs for ages. Like, I was writing songs when I was 11 years old. Then when I was 16, I thought, ‘I want to put some stuff out’.”
He put out his first EP, Sleep on the Altar, in 2023 when he was still in Year 11. “That project was made entirely in Canberra in a little studio in Mitchell with a music producer called Keo. I was running away from school to make music and it was very fun,” he says.
Then another EP, Double Vision (Vol.1) was released last year when he was in Year 12.
Its follow up, the Double Vision (Vol.2) EP is out this November. While Volume 1 was described as a daytime album, Volume 2, threatens to be its nighttime counterpart; a synth-pop project with sonically darker vibes. The EP features the breakthrough single, Needingabreak, the video clip shot around Braddon by Sean O’Gorman.
The new single, Landmine, has just also dropped and the video sees a huge jump in production values. “I partnered with Triple J and NIDA to create a music video with the NIDA students. There were 40 people on set one of the days. It was truly surreal!” says Jett.
Not done, Jett’s already working on the follow up to that, a mixtape.
“I make all of my songs in either Sydney or Melbourne now so I’m traveling a lot, which I love. I’ve been working with a few different people in Australia. I’ve got a really good collaborator and friend, Thomas Porter, who makes some really great stuff. I’m also collaborating with a guy based in America, Ryan Harvey.
“The process for writing music these days is always pretty different. Sometimes I’ll go into a studio with a producer and a topliner or a songwriter and we’ll see what happens on the day. I love co-writing.
“I think I write my best stuff on the piano in my garage, though. It’s literally a piano that we’ve had for over 100 years now and I feel most myself when I’m in there. I can be so honest and I can explore.”
Citing Kesha as his ultimate singer, Jett’s music and vibe is unashamedly infused with the ‘recession pop’ era of the early 2010s.
“The music of the early 2010s will always hold such a special place in my heart, like it was truly the music that made me fall in love with pop,” he enthuses. “I think that recession pop, at its core, is the music that’s all like, ‘We’re gonna dance, we’re gonna party’. After the GFC, a lot of the music was focused on just having a good night instead of anything super serious. I think it was more of a means of distraction. Needingabreak is kind of tapping into that but also totally tapping into the sounds and aesthetics of some of that early house music that was really popular throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s.”
“Double Vision is absolutely like my love letter to all pop music that I’ve loved throughout my life. Volume 1 was definitely more R&B inspired and this project is very much me taking it all the way back to 2012 when I was listening to pop music for the first time and hearing those blaring synths and thinking, ‘Ah, I love this so much!’ It feels very nostalgic for me. I’m so envious of the people who got to club when the Rihanna/Calvin Harris projects were dropping and Kesha was blaring at the clubs!”
While comparisons to fellow Aussie gay twink singer Troye Sivan seem inevitable, at least based on looks, Jett says: “I think a lot of people get that because we’re just both gay dudes in Australia. I think the music is probably not that similar but I love his songs. I think he’s great. I love Still Got It. It’s kind of a deep cut but it’s just so beautiful with the lush organs.
This writer thinks that—vocally at least—Jett has more in common with another gay Aussie singer, Sam Sparro, who had a huge hit in 2008 with Black and Gold. I could also point out that it took Troye Sivan until he was nearly 30 to appear in drag in the (hugely impressive) One Of Your Girls video, while Jett Blyton has already done drag before hitting 20, in his 44:44 video.
“I think an artist like him is really important, not only in Australia but in the global, cultural landscape. He was such a pioneer for people like me to come through and to be able to be so unapologetic.”
Does Jett Blyton think we are living in good times of gender expression, equality, LGBTIQA+ rights and all that jazz?
“I think it’s hard to say we’re living in good times, I think there’s a push and pull with culture and how other country’s landscapes affect ours and things like that.” he says. However: “When you live as a queer person, it’s so normalised to you. I think about it as just a fact about me in the same way that other things are facts about me. Like, I am a singer and also gay. Like, it’s not anything weird to me.”
You could almost say, We R Who We R.
Jett Blyton is performing at SpringOUT’s Fair Day in Canberra’s Glebe Park on Saturday 1 November, 11am-5pm. Entry is free. Get all the details at https://springout.com.au/events/fair-day-canberra-2025/
