Joan and the Giants singer Grace Newton-Wordsworth goes from Wheatbelt farm to supporting pop star Pink

Grace Newton-Wordsworth grew up on a farm in WA and is now the lead singer in a band. (Supplied: Isabelle Haubrich; ABC South West WA: Kate Forrester)

Grace Newton-Wordsworth is used to looking out over the paddocks of her family’s farm in the West Australian Wheatbelt town of Williams.

But the outlook changed for the singer-songwriter when for two nights her view wasn’t sheep or horses, it was the faces of a 40,000-person crowd.

The 26-year-old is the lead singer of the Perth alternative pop band Joan and the Giants.

The four-person band first formed in 2019, and has been trying to navigate the highly competitive music industry while working several other jobs to keep afloat.

One day all their hard work paid off.

“I used to listen to Pink on the farm growing up,” Newton-Wordsworth said.

“I would run through the paddocks with my Walkman playing her on my So Fresh CDs.

“I use to imagine I was Pink, and now I’ve just shared a stage with her.”

A farm girl at heart  

The Joan and the Giants frontwoman spent her childhood on her family’s farm in Williams, 170 kilometres south-east of Perth.

The Newton-Wordsworth family owns an organic and biodynamic property, meaning they don’t use chemicals in their production.

“My upbringing was very free-spirited and hippie, I guess,” Newton-Wordsworth said.

“There is, was, a lot of chemical farmers around and people may not have understood what Mum and Dad were doing.”

Newton-Wordsworth draws inspiration from the farm in her own creations, despite the fact she no longer resides in Williams.

“Every time I come down to visit, I get out the guitar. I think that creativeness stems from a different way of living, which I’m okay with,” she said.

‘It’s about hustling’ 

The band, once known as Platform 2, has toured Australia three times, but the lead singer believes it is the regional stage she has to give thanks to as it is what gave her and the band its leg up.

She also likens the traditional values of farming to those of being a performer.

“Working on the farm has taught me hard work, drive and obviously, to have a lot of patience,” she said.

As with many performers, COVID-19 was a huge setback, especially because the group had just started to make a name for themselves.

“I remember getting that call. In the space of an hour we had lost 11 gigs,” Newton-Wordsworth said.

Even though the dust has settled on the pandemic, the music industry still finds itself in a situation where ticket sales are low and major regional events such as Groovin the Moo are being cancelled.

“You have to put yourself out there so much and hustle, even when your tickets might not be selling,” Newton-Wordsworth said.

“It’s a huge gamble, but I’m glad I am taking it.”

Winning the music lottery

Sitting on the verandah at her farm in Williams where she spent hours jamming with her family, the singer describes the moment she found out they were supporting Pink as “the most exciting time of my life”.

It is a feeling echoed by her mum Kelly, who is also a musician and has travelled the world with a guitar in hand and, for a short while, her daughter in the guitar case as an eight-month-old baby.

Kelly and her husband William, who have been organic farmers for as long as their daughter can remember, were front and centre for the Pink stadium performance.

“I’ve got goosebumps just thinking about that moment she came out on stage,” Kelly said.

“I just watched her and thought ‘yep, this is what my daughter is meant to be doing’.”

Much like the music industry is facing challenges, it is a similar situation for agriculture, and Newton-Wordsworth’s parents understand the pressures their daughter faces from personal experiences as primary producers.

“You know you can’t just slack off on the farm and not feed the animals, there are jobs that need to be done, and Grace has a job to do, and she is doing it,” Kelly said.