Tash Sultana is coming to NZ this week. Photo / Supplied
Tash Sultana is coming to NZ this week. Photo / Supplied
Four years ago, Tash Sultana was an unemployed drug addict, busking on the streets of Melbourne.
Now, the 21-year-old songwriter is one of the brightest stars on our new music radar - selling out tours across Australia and New Zealand at lightning speed.
Tash Sultana. Photo / Supplied
Her meteoric rise began last year when Sultana shared a video of herself performing on social media and the rest, as they say, is history.
Within five days, she had clocked more than a million views. Later that year, she won the J Award in Australia for Unearthed Artist of the Year and had two of her songs voted into the Triple J Hottest 100, Jungle (No. 3) and Notion (No. 32).
Jungle has earned close to 10 million streams since its release and more than 1.5 million people listen to her each week on Spotify. And it's not just Aussies who have picked up on this fresh talent. When tickets to her three NZ shows went on sale, they sold out in just three days and her North American and European tours are also in hot demand.
But it's been a tough journey for the young star who began busking on the streets of Melbourne when she wasn't able to get a job.
She became addicted to drugs, falling into a drug-induced psychosis at 17 after experimenting with magic mushrooms.
She says she was stuck in her own mind for nine months.
In a recent interview with Viceland she opened up about the ordeal: "You have freaked yourself out and I couldn't get away from thoughts.
"It was like I had opened up a can of worms and I couldn't put them back away, it took ages to put it back together."
Tash Sultana. Photo / Supplied
"I had to have therapy to learn to think normally again and how to eat . . . It was hell, I put myself in that position and it was the worse because you can't blame anyone."
But Sultana says her dark past with drug use has helped her music.
"Whether I was going to experience that in my life or not, I would have chosen music anyway but having that experience made me consciously a better person to myself and those around me.
"Music's the only thing that I can do that gives me complete peace of mind."
Her love for music began when her grandfather gave her a guitar when she was 3 years old and now she plays a staggering nine instruments.
Tash Sultana. Photo / Supplied
"It's a never-ending total but so far I play guitar, bass, drums and percussion, live beat making, oud, mandolin, trumpet, piano and pan pipes."
Now her music lets her tour the world, where the highlight is: "Being able to play all over the world to different audiences and have them singing my lyrics back to me even if they can't speak the same language."
Sultana has come so far in such a short time yet she stays humble. "I wouldn't even consider it being rags-to-riches, I just do me and the rest follows . . . it is what it is and I'm happy."
LOWDOWN: What: Tash Sultana When & Where: May 25: The Bedford in Christchurch; May 26: San Fran Bathhouse in Wellington; May 27: Powerstation in Auckland Plus: Sultana will perform at Wanaka's Rhythm and Alps festival on over New Year's (29 - 31 December 2017).
