This feature is part of a new Scene Report on Dunedin. Check out the series here.
You can tell a lot about an artist by the company they keep.
In the span of two years, Keira Wallace has played opening sets for Jazmine Mary, Mount Eerie, and Tiny Ruins; she’s performed in the Exploding Rainbow Orchestra alongside Rolling Stone AU/NZ favourites like Grecco Romank, Erny Belle, and Mousey; and she’s played more Dunedin gigs than she can probably count, both as a headliner and support.
You can also tell a lot about an artist by the accolades on their mantelpiece, and Wallace is well covered there too.
In 2024, she was the winner of the Play It Strange youth songwriting competition, earning a $10,000 grant, time in a recording studio, and a mentorship in order to help her pursue music.
And all of this has been achieved before the preternaturally talented musician turns 20.
Wallace, 18, won Play it Strange at the fourth attempt, with the prize money going towards the creation of the pensive and raw “Lambs Aren’t Waking Yet”, which went onto make the Student Radio Network Top 10.
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She followed that song with “Your Surface Settles” in August, which is her most accomplished release to date.
Recalling Big Thief’s songwriting superstar Adrianne Lenker, Wallace is, even at this tender age, unafraid to face the fragility of life head-on in her music, writing with unsparing vulnerability.
“Your Surface Settles” is sparse indie-folk, consisting of just Wallace’s soothing vocals and her contemplative acoustic guitar, but the song doesn’t pass by unnoticed — it transfixes the listener with its hushed atmosphere.
Wallace, like Lenker too, balances her personal folk solo project with band work. She performs in the up-and-coming Motheaten, which allows her to try out new genres. “I think we’re going to lean a bit more sort of country-shoegaze!” she told me. “Quite fun.”
Another balancing act: Wallace is determined to chase her music dreams at the same time as studying a double degree in music and marketing at the University of Otago.
“I’m working on a little solo album at the moment, just in my bedroom, that’ll be out at some point,” she revealed.
No matter how hectic her life gets, Wallace – already so marked by lyrical talent and artistic authenticity — should be a significant presence in Aotearoa indie and folk music for a long time to come.
“It’s been really inspiring to see adults pursuing this [music] because I’ve been hesitant to fully commit to music as a career, but it’s really inspiring to see artists still doing this… it’s something so innate that it’d be hard to give up even if it wasn’t financially sustainable,” she said.
Keira Wallace’s “Your Surface Settles” is out now.
