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Thompson recalls being at a singing competition where he was told he sounded too similar to Missy Higgins, who sings with a strong Australian accent.
Seaforth has now amassed close to 500,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
Mitch Thompson, who performs as Seaforth, sings with an American accent. Source: Getty / Michael Hickey
“The accent and how I sing is just purely based off the music I was listening to,” Thompson said.
There’s been a significant drop in local acts making it into Australia’s top charts, partly due to the rise of streaming services such as Spotify with algorithms that favour US and UK acts, according to music researcher and former record label manager Tim Kelly.
“Now it’s deemed that there isn’t enough money in the Australian market and you’ve got to have two other markets as well as Australia.”
When the accent doesn’t fit the song
“And that can be a hindrance while you’re singing. So it’s easier to do an American vowel instead of an Australian vowel to be able to actually get to the note and not have your tongue move.”
“You lose the rhymes in certain words that in an American accent would rhyme with the next [word] — you can make it rhyme,” he said.
‘You’ve got to sound more like us’
“And the industry supports that pressure because managers and record labels and agents and everyone else is going: ‘We want you to sound like the stuff that’s doing well.'”
Music researcher Tim Kelly says Australian artists are having to compete with the US and UK markets more than ever. Source: Supplied / casimaria
Algorithms within music streaming services are how many people now discover new artists; it also plays into the demand for Australian artists to adapt their sound.
“There’s this pressure to get on the algorithm, to sound like other people, to be able to appeal to international markets by leaning into what works in those markets,” Kelly says.
Do Australian musicians have to change their sound to find success?
“Then you’re just seen as an Australian artist.”
“An Australian accent would actually stand out more than anything in this market.”
