Eves Karydas has announced she’ll be proceeding with her career as a self-managed artist. The announcement came at the end of an essay the Brisbane-based indie pop artist posted to Instagram, the bulk of which focused on the corrosive effects of compulsory social media use for women in the music industry.
“I’m writing this to mark an occasion,” wrote Karydas, whose full name is Hannah Evyenia Karydas. “I’ve reached a point where I can no longer do things the way I was doing them as it was unsustainable for my creativity and at the same time damaging my sense of self-worth.”
“Nothing gets the algorithm going quite like ass and tits”
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Karydas spoke of the turmoil she’s experienced while trying to live up to the expectations imposed on women in the music industry. “I’ve posted thirst traps, marketed myself as a ‘hot girl’, obsessively checked likes, read comments, puked at the gross misogyny it incites but also secretly craved the attention. And for what?” she wrote. “All because I was told that was how to get ahead in this industry? Because I was constantly told I’d have to readjust my expectations of success if I did any differently?”
The turnaround in Karydas’ outlook is rooted in the realisation that she’d been neglecting her authentic self. “The truth is, as someone with a lot to say, I’ve been surprisingly quiet as an artist. I’ve silenced myself because I’ve been pushed to believe that my best asset is my body. Nothing gets the algorithm going quite like ass and tits,” she wrote.
The 28-year-old Karydas launched her career close to a decade ago, initially performing under the name Eves, then Eves the Behavior, before adopting the Eves Karydas moniker in late 2017. But despite signing a deal with prominent indie label Dew Process, scoring an ARIA Platinum single with 2018’s ‘Further Than the Planes Fly’ and getting to #22 in the Hottest 100 of 2020 with the song ‘Complicated’, Karydas’ confidence is at a low ebb.
“I find it strange that, where I should be feeling my most empowered from my hard work and determination in building a career over the last 8+ years, it is instead the most confusing and difficult space in my life to exist as a self-respecting, multi-dimensional, confident woman,” she wrote.
The artist, whose debut album summerskin recently celebrated its fourth birthday, went on to detail just how all-consuming her Instagram practice had become. “I used to dedicate hours every week taking pictures for Instagram; taking hundreds of photos for each post in an attempt to, as advised, ‘be someone all the girls want to be and all the guys want to fuck!.’
“I spent more hours doing this than I spent writing music. When did the music industry become about this? Historically the musicians and artists have been elusive rebels constantly in defiance of ‘the man.’ Surely today ‘the man’ is social media?”
Karydas added, “If finding success means killing my soul for some likes and comments, then I don’t want it.”
So as to avoid this outcome, Karydas has decided to take complete control of her own career. “In an effort to not only salvage my creativity but to also survive, I’m moving forward in my career self-managed,” she wrote.
Further Reading
Watch Paul Kelly, Ziggy Ramo and Eves Karydas Cover Rihanna’s ‘Never Ending’
Lana Del Rey Says She Is Deactivating Her Social Media Accounts
