Boox Kid steps into the limelight with fusion of sounds and language
After a standout year that named him the RAC Arena Limelight Music Support Fund winner and saw him take home a WAM Award for Vocalist of the Year, Boox Kid is getting more used to being in the spotlight. Never one to be easily defined, the Noongar artist—also known as Jarred Wall—moves fluidly between electropop, indie and soul, while his latest music weaves together English and Noongar language to honour culture, heritage and connection. Ahead of the release of a new single, Barang Ngalang Kadjin (SOS), out on Friday, February 6, and with an EP on the way, ABBY GREER sat down with Boox Kid to find out more about his Limelight Award, the new single, and his upcoming set at X-Press Magazine’s 40th anniversary event.
Congrats on receiving the 2025 Limelight Music Support Fund! What does it mean to you to have been recognised as an up-and-coming WA act that deserves the spotlight?
Thank you so much. It’s nice to be recognised for my craft and for my songwriting ability and the project itself. What I’m doing is writing an EP that’s a mixture of English and Noongar language, and it’s something that’s reflective of my heritage, and as much as it is music, it’s about preserving language as well, so it’s really special.
So, the next EP is dropping this year. How is the release different from what we’ve heard from you before? And how are you going to celebrate its release?
In terms of being different, my previous EP was probably electropop in style, and I think my sound’s kind of morphed since that EP—that was released in April 2024. Since then I’ve been working pretty closely with a fella named Dylan Ollivierre, and he and I have been crafting a nice little style together in more of an indie vein. I’ve always had a bit of a desire to write songs in my own language, and ever since I started engaging in Noongar operas and singing with Gina Williams and all the songs she’s written and created, I’ve been inspired to do something reflective of my heritage and make it special.
To celebrate, I’ll likely be doing a national tour in May, going around to a number of different states, regional and in the cities. I’ll probably do a headline show over in Perth too, and there are a few festivals and things I’m set to play at as well.
I want to do some different things, I guess. I’d like to create some online content around the language side of things and show people how I came to that process.
You’re leading up to the EP launch with a new single, Barang Ngalang Kadjun (SOS), coming out in February. What’s the song about?
This one was really cool. I sat down with Dylan Ollivierre when we wrote this one. It’s probably one of the first songs where I’ve actually sat down and written a song from scratch with someone else. Generally, I’ll write the majority of it, but this was one where he and I sat down, and we truly nutted it out in terms of song structure and melodies. It’s completely different from the original voice note, but that’s the beauty of the songwriting process.
The single’s called Hold Our Souls, and in terms of the Noongar translation, it’s called Barang Ngalang Kadjin, and essentially it’s an uplifting song about someone who might be struggling, and they receive a bit of a helping hand, whether that’s in the way of a higher being, or a friend, or culture. It’s just something to kind of bring you out of the depths, really. It’s got that happy vibe. There’s an opening of Noongar words to the whole sequence, a notion called ‘darbakarn koorliny’, which means ‘slow down’. The song’s kind of saying, ‘Slow down, everything’s gonna be okay, don’t stress.’ And yeah, I hope it gives that vibe.
I got some uplifting feelings for sure! What has it been like to write and sing in both languages?
So, in terms of the songwriting process and the language particularly, I worked on this track and all the others for the EP with a friend of mine called Kobi Morrison. He’s very much more fluent than I am at Noongar language, and so my process for this was I wrote the verses in English and then worked out a translation of what I thought would be accurate relative to my knowledge. Then I worked with Kobi around the deeper, more accurate translation, and we workshopped it together and took it back to his language group as well. That’s kind of how we came to the final product, and it’s pretty cool! It’s nice to be doing something in my tongue and something that’s a bit more than just music.
We know you’ll be joining a stack of fellow WA musicians at X-Press Magazine’s 40th anniversary show in March. What WA artists have inspired you as a musician? And what do you think makes our music and culture unique?
Yeah, I mean, I think in terms of my inspirations of WA artists, over the last so many years I would be remiss to not mention Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse. Like, they’ve played a pivotal role for me in terms of the language process and everything.
And I guess in terms of other artists, I spent a number of years listening to Eskimo Joe, and then I got to know Kav Temperley over the last couple of years as well. I mean, he’s a lovely guy, so that’s been nice in itself, from the early days of listening to Eskimo Joe and seeing their journey.
I’m still a huge lover of electronic pop and stuff, so when I see Luke Steele with Empire of the Sun, I love their style. It’s really unique. I just love bands and artists that can make people feel a certain way, and WA has so much talent in that regard. I mean, Tame Impala is another example in terms of amazing songwriting and the production and that side of things. I like to feel that some of my new stuff has a touch of Tame Impala from a production perspective.
You’ve had a super busy 2025, winning your first WAM award and receiving the Limelight music support grant, with a packed 2026 also coming, as we’ve talked about. As someone who likes to push themselves creatively across different genres, what artists are you listening to, or what ideas are circulating that might shape the next batch of songs we hear from you in the future?
That’s a good question. What am I listening to? I’m someone that listens to albums, probably an old way of listening, but I really enjoy listening to artists’ whole catalogues and stuff, and then every now and then I get fixated and go back to old artists that I’m listening to.
But I’ve been listening at the moment to a fair amount of Djo in terms of international acts. I’m a huge fan of a dude called Still Woozy. I’ve always loved the band called Miike Snow. I’ve got so many different influences.
I really love Alter Boy’s music in terms of what they’ve created. The melodies are super cool, and they’re just amazing, great people. Ullah as well. Ullah is creating something really unique in their sounds.
I guess I’ve kind of wanted to make something unique with my music, and listening to some of these artists, they’ve carved their own little pathways, so that’s why I figured writing in language and making something reflective of WA is a pretty cool way to go.
Boox Kid plays Rewind: 40 Years of X-Press Magazine at Astor Theatre on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. Tickets are on sale now from ticketek.com.au
