TIA was destined to find her way to the stage, after years of sitting in the crowd watching her pappou play the bouzouki at events and festivals.

“My pappou, George Bouras, was always quite big in the Greek scene so I just grew up with music all around me since I was little. We’d go watch him play at the festivals and I guess that subconsciously had a big impact on me because I just grew to love music and then I started singing lessons when I was 11. From then on the passion inside me has grown,” TIA told Neos Kosmos.  

Today, the 17-year-old is a rising star in her own regard, having released her single Conversations and toured with fresh Aussie icon Tones & I as part of the artist’s backing choir. Tones and I even has TIA’s name tattooed on her, along with the rest of the choir as a thank you.

“The songwriter that I work with, Alice Blake actually got all the singers that Tones needed for the choir together, so that experience was honestly so surreal. It was crazy. We actually got to travel all around Australia, which was pretty cool,” TIA said.

READ MORE: Opinion: Music as the catalyst to connect young Greek-Australians to their heritage through culture and language

Touring with Tones gave TIA some extra insight into the reality of the music industry, and allowed her to dip her toes into the world she has now begun to step into.

“I knew it, but she [Tones] solidified that it’s very important to have the creative decisions in what you do. I think that’s a very big thing, especially as a young girl, being allowed to control what you want to do, what you want to look at, how you want to be perceived and how you want to be branded. She was very much in control of that from what I saw. I found that quite empowering,” she said.

TIA on stage touring with Tones and I Photo: Supplied

Tones has publicly described TIA as a “bad ass vocalist”, whilst her voice has even garnered comparisons to pop powerhouse Dua Lipa. Unearthed’s Music Director Dave Ruby Howe also sung the musician’s praises saying “when TIA sings, you take notice.”

The young singer’s RnB, pop infused track scored her a finalist spot on Triple J’s Unearthed High competition, taking out one of the top five spots out of 1,400 entrants. Finding out she had made it to the top tier came as a great surprise during her final year of high school.

“It was so funny because all the finalists and I were still asleep when they were announcing it, because it was announced on an early morning radio show. Mum was awake so was the one who actually came in to my room going ‘you’re a finalist!’, and I responded ‘for what?’ because I was still dazed waking up. She then said ‘for Triple J’s Unearthed high’,” TIA said.

“That was pretty cool and it was a pretty wholesome kind of experience. Being a finalist was so crazy. I had a chance to meet all the other finalists and hopefully I’ll get to meet them in person in the future. It was a good experience.”

READ MORE: The young leventes carrying on the music of their family’s motherland

Of course the song that launched TIA into Unearthed High’s 2021 lineup would not have come into fruition without hours of hard work.

The studio is where the year 12 student garners her most elusive creative powers, allowing her to soak in all of the passion that she and her team has for music.

“My favourite part is probably the whole being in the studio, creating the ideas. It’s a vibe, I can’t quite explain it. It’s all the creativity in the room when we’re writing a song or even when we’re tracking vocals and such. It’s just the best feeling ever. You are literally creating something from nothing,” TIA explained.

Juggling life in the recording booth and finishing her final year of high school wouldn’t have been made possible without her mum, Libby.

“She’s my rock through it all and literally my right hand with all of this, especially because I’m still young. We’re kind of a package deal type of thing which I love,” TIA said.

TIA is planning to release another single some time in October, but the name is still under wraps. In the meantime you can listen to Conversations by hitting play in the video below.