A lot of things were lost during the lockdown years: we lost our sanity and the freedom to visit our east coast mates. Mark McGowan’s hairline lost a lot of ground and Perth’s music scene lost a lot of momentum. In the past two years several prominent venues – Badlands, Sewing Room and The Aardvark – closed their doors. Despite the casualties, the city’s young talent is consistently regarded as among the country’s most promising. Think Spacey Jane, Dice and – of course – indie-pop three-piece Dulcie.

Ashleigh Carr-White, Timieka Denton and Saskia Brittain make up the all-female ensemble. They first put their name on the map in 2019, releasing debut single Fall to Triple J Unearthed. In the months that followed, Dulcie were showcased by Triple J as a featured artist and opened for G Flip and San Cisco.

During lockdowns, the band showed no signs of slowing down, releasing an EP followed by a number of hit singles. In 2023 Dulcie have gone from strength to strength, embarking on their Sleep It Off tour as well as travelling the country supporting the likes of King Stingray, Boy & Bear and Ocean Alley.

Never miss a Perth moment. Make sure you're subscribed to our newsletter today.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Straight off the back of performances at Spilt Milk and Rolling Sets, the trio are gearing up for a big summer. They’ll be playing at festivals including Changing Tides in Kiama on NSW’s south coast and Summer Salt in Denmark, WA.

Broadsheet chatted to guitarist and vocalist Brittain to find out what the band are most looking forward to about their upcoming shows and what they’ll miss about WA while they’re away.

Are you all Perth locals?
Currently I live in Fremantle, Ash lives in Mount Lawley and Timieka is in Leaning, which is very close to Fremantle. But Timieka and I grew up in Denmark, so right down the bottom of the state, and Ash grew up in Karratha which is right up the top. But we all went to Waapa [Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts] and that’s where we started the band. We only did one year of our course because Dulcie seemed to kind of give us everything we needed. But yeah, we just rehearse in Fremantle every week now.

What is it that you love about Freo?
That it’s close to beautiful beaches! I think we’re very lucky music-wise, we’ve got so many incredible artists from Perth – and Freo especially. There’s Tame Impala and Chela, another amazing artist from Fremantle. The city is just beaming with amazing talent.

What do you miss about home when you’re on the road?
To be honest, we really love our routines so we don’t do super well with tours. Being away from home is fun for the first little while and then we’re just like, “Oh, man, I just want to sleep in my own bed”.

Are there any venues that you love playing at in Perth?
Oh gosh, we played at the Red Hill Auditorium a few weeks ago supporting Ocean Alley. For me that was a bucket list venue. I’ve always wanted to play there.

Where is your favourite place to eat in Perth?
There’s this Vietnamese place called Thien Kim. It’s so good. It’s two minutes from my house and I’m there almost every week.

What about an underrated hidden gem?
I feel like lots of people go here already but I always recommend Old Shanghai.

Tell us about something or someone that makes Perth a better place?
Growing up in WA, I feel like it’s all I know. But the music industry over here is such a tight-knit community and the band is where we are today because of support from so many other amazing bands. Instead of it being a competition, it’s like, “Yeah, we’ll get you on the line-up”. Everyone is so friendly. It’s just so lovely.

You just released Sore Loser, but are you working on anything else at the moment?
We’re always writing, but we’re currently self-managed so it has been a little bit of a struggle to find that creative time. We do have a few songs in the works though and we’re hopefully leaning towards releasing a bigger body of work in the future.

What are you looking forward to while you’re on the road?
We’ve got a week off in Sydney between Changing Tides and Rolling Sets, so we’ll hire a car and finally get to explore and maybe go to some beaches!

Catch Dulcie playing at Changing Tides on Saturday December 16 and Summer Salt Saturday March 2.

@dulcietheband