Alice Cotton

Growing up in Australia’s tropical Darwin, Northern Territory, Alice Cotton would write songs as a child about her everyday world; mouldy pillows and fly-screen doors. Her family encouraged her, with her father marking his daily routine by the schedule of radio shows, her mother showing her to write poetry as Tracey Chapman had.

She left for Melbourne to study classical flute, and then, as an academic way to process her childhood experience of her mother dying, music therapy. Whilst studying music therapy, she took on a belief in the value of creative expression, identifying as an artist and singer. She returned home seven years later and embedded herself in her community, landing a residency performing originals and faciliating community singing through Big Community Sing!, airing her film-clip at the iconic Deckchair Cinema, and producing a sell-out LGBTQIA+ event for Darwin Fringe Festival.

The singer-songwriter is known as a lyricist, transforming stories with spacious drums, layered harmonies and shimmering strings. Nkechi Anele (triple j) writes:

“Cotton has the quality that Paul Kelly and Stella Donnelly have whereby it seemingly feels like she's narrating the mundane moment in life and relationships that we've all been through and then - POW - you're hit with the depth and breadth of her storytelling.”