KYVA at Darlo Sessions

Forget those pub crawls and sticky floors, Darlo Sessions is a lush new way to experience the best of Australia’s live music scene.

For 3 weekends over Feb-March we’re centring FBi’s rising stars and triple j darlings on our stage, with shows tailor-made for the Darlo. After a challenging year, these artists spent their time in lockdown creating electric new work. It’s time for them to take up space. This is a program of intimate hour-long gigs decked out with 5 star production values.

Our iconic Eternity Playhouse stage will transform into a music-lovers utopia when you’re nestled with a beverage, no elbow shoving or spills in sight. Sit back, kick it back, and enjoy them soulful melodies and catchy tracks. You can’t get this on Netflix.

KYVA

KYVA is Challenging Entrenched Masculinity with Post-Punk Guitars and Yearning RnB The new project from the Australian artist is a retro-futurist reverie.

A cultural shake up is happening. Entrenched societal values and judgements are being challenged across a broad political spectrum, creating a gap in which previously hidden identities emerge and new modes of expression are manifested. And it’s in this gap that you’ll find KYVA – the dynamic new project from Kyle Linahan.

KYVA’s diverse set of influences were introduced early, with his West Indian mother playing soca, reggae and calypso in the family home, alongside Annie Lennox and Crowded House.

As a person of colour KYVA was marginalised growing up in the typically European-Australian suburban neighbourhood of Avalon, in Sydney’s northern beaches. Whether it was from micro-aggressions like being dropped in on by rival surfers or direct confrontations from Avalon residents, otherness has shaped KYVA’s identity.

KYVA made it through those difficult early years, going on to perform backing vocals for Taku, Wafia, Adele, Ngaiire, Touch Sensitive, Set Mo, Genesis Owusu and Mo’Ju. But outside of those valuable collaborations, navigating a world that prioritises commerce over-expression meant a long process of self-discovery before fully acknowledging his queer identity. KYVA is an exploration of a multi-faceted idea of masculinity, one that places femininity and androgyny on an equal footing as more traditionally masculine modes of presentation.