Intricate finger-style guitar and dreamy vocals reflect the deeply contemplative and evocative lyrics of Melbourne’s Ernest Aines.

A multi-award winning songwriter, noting over a decade of experience, Ernest’s uniquely pure and thoughtful sound has enchanted both fans and critics across the globe. He was nominated as Artist of the Year by Folk Alliance Australia 2023 and 2024 and for Best Folk Work 2024 by Music Victoria for his album “Spiral Bound”.

Ernest’s journey began with busking on the streets of Melbourne, and progressed to him playing celebrated events like The Australian Open, The Melbourne Grand Prix, The Port Fairy Folk Festival, Woodford Folk Festival, the St Kilda Festival and The Blue Mountains Folk Festival. He has appeared throughout the UK on his three UK tours of 2024/5 culminating with standing ovations and sold out shows. His indie-folk styling and unique vocal delicacy has been compared to James Taylor, Jeff Buckley, Ray Lamontagne and Bon Iver.

In 2021, Ernest was selected for the Sounds Australia Folk Alliance International Showcase, and Global Music Match, achievements that would see his presence within modern folk grow exponentially in the months to follow.

He released five singles from his debut album – a project years in the making. The single ‘Rigged Games’ spoke volumes on behalf of Ernest’s unfiltered, authentic approach to the art-form, with live performance clips depicting a compelling devotion to the heartache and desperation of the writing. Along with the single ‘So Far’, the new music has amassed hundreds of thousands of streams online, and Ernest’s second single ‘Yellowstone’ earned high-rotation at ABC Country.

Ernest has taken home multiple awards for songwriting over the years, beginning with an Apollo Bay Festival Young Songwriter Competition win back in 2010. He has since noted finalist positions at the International Songwriting Competition (2013), the Melbourne Songwriting Competition (2016) and the Australian Songwriting Awards (2021), along with another win in 2020 for the City of Melbourne Online Song Competition. 2020 saw him earn the runner-up position in the Cygnet Folk Festival Song Awards.

Ernest’s ability to captivate audiences means he is in demand at festivals and has been invited to showcase at several international industry conferences such as the Folk Alliance International Official Showcase in Kansas City (February 2023), where he was honoured to perform for the Library of Congress Archive and the Irish Your Roots Are Showing conference. His performances caught the eyes of industry bookers and paved the way to his future international tours. He also featured live on ABC Art Works TV show (Sept 2023).

Ernest released his debut album, “Spiral Bound”, in September 2023 and it has gained over 500,000 streams on Spotify.