Making music for everyone It’s been a whirlwind four years since Jack Meakins (’17) walked out of his final class at CBC, but the performer, advocater and disability support worker hopes his biggest impact is still ahead of him.
Earlier this year Jack’s band, Alter Boy, was named alongside a star-studded line up of nominees for WA’s Best Pop Act. It also placed the group shoulder-to-shoulder with acts like last year’s Triple J Hottest 100 runners up, Spacey Jane, Fremantle indie pop favourites, San Cisco, and singer-songwriter, Stella Donnelly. “Alter Boy is weird, it’s too weird not to pay attention,” Jack said. With three of the band’s members hearing impaired, making music accessible to all is a big focus. Jack performs the band’s songs in Auslan (Australian Sign Language), bringing them to life for Deaf or Hard of Hearing fans. “I try to notice the attitude of the song and let that inform the translation as much as possible,” he said. “It might be sexy, holy, angry or a party, and the translation needs to show that.”
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The group’s queerlectro-pop style is already making waves in the Australian music scene, with Alter Boy receiving a hotly-contested grant to produce an accessible music video from Triple J last year. Reflecting on the band’s meteoric rise, which has included rave-review performances at the Nannup and Fairbridge festivals, as well as at the WAM Awards, Jack says his highlight has been the impact the group has already had . “I think it’s people like us, who see us on stage doing our Deaf, Disabled, queer, fat thing and feel like this space belongs to them as well,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of spaces that welcome people like us with open arms, so getting on stage and making it about us is a really cool feeling.” As well as performing with Alter Boy, Jack also works with the Youth Disability Advocacy Network and the Youth Pride Network to support other young people and champion their causes.
