Ocean Waves by Bonita Mae: How Neo-Soul Built a Gold Coast Late-Night Groove
The Melbourne-Raised Singer’s Alternative R&B Single with Producer DIVI Finds a Second Audience
Bonita Mae wrote Ocean Waves to capture a timeless late-night groove. It sits at the point where alternative indie R&B meets neo-soul. The single began as a basic melody over a guitar riff and piano chords. Over the next two years, Bonita Mae and producer Nathan Divito built it into a full arrangement. Divito records as DIVI, and some of that work happened over video calls while lockdowns kept the pair apart.
Bonita Mae’s music is in the playlist below, alongside this desk’s contemporary R&B and neo-soul picks, and the coverage so far sits on the Bonita Mae artist profile. Ocean Waves reached BlackSounds.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Listen to it once with the lights low, then keep reading.
Bonita Mae and Ocean Waves Belong to a Neo-Soul Wave That Has Been Building Since the Late 1990s
The song first arrived on 9 September 2022, and it belongs to a long tradition. Neo-soul took shape in the late 1990s, when singers went back to the warmth of 1970s soul. They set that warmth against hip-hop rhythm sections, so the groove mattered as much as the hook. Live instruments, loose rhythms and stacked vocal harmonies soon became the signatures of the sound. Since then, the approach has carried into alternative R&B, where the arrangement is allowed to breathe.
Australia has its own strong strand of that sound, and Bonita Mae belongs to the newer generation working inside it. On Ocean Waves, Bonita Mae works from the tradition’s core ideas. There is a laid-back pocket, wooden percussion and smooth, layered harmonies. There are also guitar solos threaded through the mix, and they point back to the classic blues at the root of the singer’s influences.
Where Bonita Mae Fits, From the Australian Girls’ Choir to Two Years of Sessions With DIVI
The training started early. Bonita Mae began developing as an artist at the age of four. Later came the Australian Girls’ Choir, school talent shows and lessons on piano and flute. The singer grew up in Melbourne and now calls the Gold Coast in Queensland home. Today, the singer’s Facebook page sums up the work as neo-soul, R&B and jazz. The influences run from Prince, Aretha Franklin and Amy Winehouse to Destiny’s Child, Alicia Keys and classic blues.
Before Ocean Waves came Get Down, a 2020 collaboration with Thai electro-funk producer Jaypan. After that, the new single pointed in a warmer direction. DIVI is an Australian producer and multi-instrumentalist whose music draws on hip-hop, house and the disco funk of the 1970s and 1980s. Together, the pair started from that first sketch of guitar riff and piano chords. Then, over two years, they added the beat, new harmonic ideas and a blend of colourful instrumentation.
The process was not simple. In comments carried by Plastic Magazine, Bonita Mae explained that lockdowns tested the writing, so the two kept going through Zoom sessions. By early 2022 they agreed the song was almost finished. Even so, it still needed more wooden percussion, smoother soulful harmonies and some striking guitar solos. Those became the final layers, and they are what give the record its finish.
Hiatus Kaiyote and Jordan Rakei Mark the Australian Neo-Soul Lineage That Ocean Waves Sits Beside
Two names set the context. First, the Melbourne band Hiatus Kaiyote took Australian future soul to an international audience in the 2010s. Their intricate grooves and harmony-heavy vocals also earned a Grammy nomination along the way. Ocean Waves shares their belief that a groove can carry a song on its own. However, it works on a more compact, singer-led scale.
Second, Jordan Rakei grew up in Brisbane before building a career in London. Rakei’s records showed how warm guitar and keyboard parts can anchor modern neo-soul. That is close to the sound Bonita Mae and DIVI reached for on Ocean Waves.
Neither comparison is about imitation. Instead, they mark the lane the song sits in. These are Australian musicians who learned from American soul and R&B, then built something with a local accent. Ocean Waves is descended from that lineage, and Bonita Mae adds a Gold Coast voice to it.
The Listeners Ocean Waves by Bonita Mae Was Made For, and Where to Hear the Single Next
Four years on, the single is reaching a second audience: the listeners who missed it the first time round. So who is it for? First, anyone who keeps a late-night playlist for the hour after the party. Next, fans of neo-soul who like warm guitar parts and organic percussion. Finally, it suits anyone following the alternative R&B scene in Australia.
From the BlackSounds.News curator team: “Ocean Waves runs just past three and a half minutes and never pushes. That is the mark of a singer and producer who know when a pocket is deep enough to leave alone.”
Hear Ocean Waves on Apple Music. Follow Bonita Mae on Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
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