At only 18 years old, Melbournite Sage Roadknight (she/they) is already beginning to make waves within the music industry with her unique brand of Future Alt-Pop. Her brand-new single “Wake Up” effortlessly mixes a retro aesthetic with hyper-emotive themes touching on the harsh realities of late-stage capitalism and class disparity.
“Wake Up”; is a rallying cry wrapped in a danceable beat. Produced and mixed by industry heavyweight Ricki Rae, the track comes across as polished yet raw to the core, fittingly enveloping Sage’s powerful lyrics. It is no surprise that she has been lauded with everything from Triple J Unearthed to the Folk Artist of the Year Award and even the Environmental Music Prize. Sage was a prodigy from a young age, having performed at the Ignite Festival at 14.
These are the disco vibes that one can feel in this single, with a great sense of urgency and passion that goes without saying—it’s part call to action and part purging.
Describing “Wake Up,” Sage calls it “a song that will get you dancing and singing your heart out about how the system has wronged you and the majority of the world. [It] voices our frustration about the enormous disparity between the working class and the ultra rich 1% of the population.”
From the first note of synths to the final crescendo, “Wake Up” pulls at your shoulders and shakes you awake. Its layers of sound are so decadent and rich, forming a backdrop for Sage’s incisive lyrics, which become both a lament and a call to arms. On this track, he feels anachronistic in his messages while hammering heavily with a lot of the current music trends, seeming to mirror the weight of societal imbalance that rests on most people’s minds.
“Wake Up” by Sage Roadknight is another brilliant piece added to an already fabulous series of repertoires, and the amount of lyrical content she dishes out in the composition brings out both musical sophistication and emotional gravity. As she walks on her chromed path in the industry, there’s no doubt Sage is an artist to be watched. Music that entertains but also evokes an awakening, mind-catching thinking in such a way, this turned out to be a prominent voice within the Future Alt-Pop genre. So plug in those headphones, turn up the volume really loud, and let “Wake Up” be the soundtrack for your revolution. Sage Roadknight is here to shake things up, and with tracks like this, she’s well on her way to making an almighty impact.
You can listen to ‘Wake Up’ below: