Boy Soda

As the tide in Australian music culture shifts, a collective of emerging local artists are shaping a contemporary sound on our shores. Central Coast bred, Australian-Samoan, Eora-based artist BOY SODA is an undisputed leader in this new school of thought, utilising R&B and intricately crafted pop music to captivate his swiftly growing audience nationwide.

BOY SODA – aka Brae Luafalealo – has been on the rise since 2019 where his early singles and signature styles had him hand-selected as a part of Converse’s All-Stars program. Those early original pieces of work were scattered bignettes into the flourishing creative mind of Luafalealo. As his sonic footprint began to grow, the world stopped due to the great pause. Rather than halting alongside it, he utilised the time to create his debut EP ‘THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THINKING AND FEELING’, home to the acclaimed single ‘BIG’ which was featured on the global hit Netflix series Heartbreak High – but he didn’t stop there. The project began a momentum tidal wave, with editorial support from Notion magazine, Spindle Mag, Revamp, Complex, Rolling Stone, NME, Acclaim, and Purple Sneakers, all culminating in a sold-out hometown show at The Lansdowne Hotel. 

Shifting gears to collaborate with Taka Perry on the high-energy single ‘LEMONADE’, which quickly made it onto rotation on triple j, BOY SODA took a career-changing writing trip to London, honing in on his newly found inspiration; the catalyst for his monumental debut mixtape was born, ‘YC-TAPES: VOL.1’. Breaking the mold of traditional releases, BOY SODA drip-fed the mixtape advent calendar style over the month of December, introducing us to soulful bass-driven jams and traditional pop-infused R&B cuts across its prolific tracklist, glued seamlessly together by his evocative lyrical excellence.

2022 has also been a big year on the touring side for BOY SODA, seeing him open for Seth Sentry on his national tour, as well as showcasing at BIGSOUND in Brisbane. In October, he performed at the HermesFit event at Hordern Pavilion, and at the Hoops Capital x Sydney Kings basketball game at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. Continuing his relationship with Converse, BOY SODA was also selected to participate in the coveted Converse All-Stars Series in Sydney, spearheaded by Tyler The Creator, was then invited to New York to be part of the Spring/Summer ’23 Converse global Campaign, and took part in the latest Converse All-Stars Writing Camp in Byron Bay.