IN terms of impact Newcastle indie band Camino Gold have garnered quite the following with just three singles inside 10 months.
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The tracks Signs Of True (49,800 streams) and A Heart Like Yours (71,500) have both found an audience on Spotify and earned high praise on triple j Unearthed, alongside the song Moon.
The COVID-19 pandemic arrived at a devastating time, curtailing plans the four-piece had to take their summery brand of indie on the road to Sydney and Wollongong. However, once the lockdown restrictions eased they reconvened and last month recorded their next single Standing Still with Jack Nigro in Coogee.
"We've been lucky, that's for sure," bassist Jerad Schultz said. "Spotify playlists have helped us out a lot.
"It's pretty cool checking the stats and seeing that people from other countries are listening to you and just how many people."
Camino Gold formed in early 2019 when former Hunter Valley Grammar students Claude Bailey (guitar, vocals), Marcus Velarde (guitar) and James Bowman (drums) teamed up with Schultz, who had moved to Newcastle from Tamworth.
The boys pooled together various influences of blues, jazz, hip-hop, country and heavy rock to deliver a chilled and melodic indie vibe with an obvious nod to Sticky Fingers and Ocean Alley.
On Saturday Camino Gold perform their first show since COVID at the Lass O'Gowrie Hotel with punks Microwavejohnny.
Standing Still is out September 18, followed by a launch show at the Cambridge Hotel on October 2.
DAVE PODCAST
FRESH from releasing their debut album Slob Stories and triumphantly performing two sold-out launch shows at the Cambridge Hotel last Friday, dave the band have joined the podcast universe.
Dave the band's video podcast features frontman Noah Church interviewing fellow Newcastle musicians. The first episode stars Tilly Murphy, aka indie-pop singer-songwriter Fritz.
NO PLAIN JAYNE
NEWCASTLE-based country-pop artist Katie Jayne will release her single Why Can't You Love Me later this month and it promises to be an emotional one.
Jayne said it'll be an "unrequited love song to the world I'm living in."
The Dubbo-raised songwriter has enjoyed success with her previous singles Use Me and No Shadow, which have amassed more than 300,000 streams on Spotify.
STREAM WITH CAUSE
BACK in June William Crighton raised money for Aboriginal elder and dancer Jungala, aka Peter Birch Marshal, this time around the Hunter Valley troubadour has turned his attention to a wider issue.
On Friday night at 8pm Crighton will perform a Ready For Renewables livestream to raise funds for Lock The Gate Alliance, a national union of farmers, traditional custodians, conservationists and urban residents working to protect land and water from invasive mining.