Bella Amor

When Bella Amor was 13, her family decided to change everything. They had to make a decision between Tasmania and the Gold Coast. Bella’s choice was Tasmania but her family went in the other direction.
“I remember driving down the Gold Coast Highway the first time and thinking, ‘this is home’.”

What is home? What does it feel like and what has it done for her?

Early mornings on the Gold Coast, she can journal for an hour, meditate if she feels like it, and walk the beach listening to albums. She can go for a climb, meeting with the bouldering community. Libraries, on the Gold Coast, connected her to creativity here and around the world and helped inspire her, along with bookstores and live music venues like Mo’s Desert Clubhouse, Vinnies Dive, and Miami Marketta.

Music was always a part of her family life, but there was something about the Gold Coast that made her feel like she could do it at a young age. It started with what she calls a silly little song she wrote and performed on a ukulele. “By the time I was 15 or 16 it clicked that I just had to practice and stay true to myself. My biggest thing is authenticity and making other people feel like they’re not alone. I bare my soul in every song. My music is literally a sonic long diary entry of my life.”

Like most artists, she has a lot of soul to bare. Growing up is hard, people can be cruel. We can be cruel to ourselves. When she is feeling burned out or upset, Bella has learned to reach for her guitar. “I’ll cry about it for hours, play the chords, and start singing something that feels true. A lot are about feeling shitty about how someone treated me. It’s not a nice experience but a lesson well-learned and a damn good song.”

Bella knows a song is finished when she can’t contribute anything else, when it either makes her dance or cry. 

With these raw, true songs, in between dancing and crying, Bella built fans through Instagram. That is how Sony Music reached out to her.

“I assumed it wasn’t real, thinking, ‘Liar, you’re a scam artist.’ I ignored it for a while and then replied, just for funsies. The next day I was on a call with Sony.” 

Signing with a major label helps her be as free as she can be, thinking less about money and more about truth, but like a lot of artists she supplements her income with other work. Even then, the chill atmosphere helps. Bella says a unique aspect of the Gold Coast is the way artists support each other. “It’s generous, non-gatekeeping, a place where we support each other’s wins.”

The Gold Coast has a spiritual quality that fits Bella. “Living somewhere we can feel serene and calm is a blossom. It would be harder to create in a noisier place. I wouldn’t listen to myself as much because I’d be surrounded by everything else. When I think about being a Gold Coaster I just feel happy, at home, because everything I know and love is here. I think of love and friendship and community.”

There is more to do. The Gold Coast needs more 300-seat venues, says Bella, and the people running large local festivals can do a better job of spotting original new talent who already live here.

This is, says Bella, what the creative community already does together: musicians, photographers, videographers, artists supporting each other.

“If someone’s thinking of moving here to pursue something creative, I’d just say, ‘do it.’ We’re really got you. We’ll back you. It’s homies helping homies. Having permission from someone other than yourself is a really big part of letting go of creative blocks and doubt. And everyone expresses themselves so differently here. There isn’t one way to do it. Take a leap of faith. Come trial it here because we’ll get behind you. We’ll probably love you. We’re accepting because we’re a mix of everybody, all cultures. Being a Gold Coaster is not about being born and bred here. We’re willing to accept everybody who wants to take a leap.”