Charting Breath Mints

Sui Zhen has a few things on her mind. But thanks to a 30-second breath mint television advertisement she featured in, quite a few people have their minds on her.

You might know the advertisement. The ad sells mint by way of a pretty girl walking around a city; you glimpse a pretty boy and then there's an eclipse (cue wanting mints … for, ahh, whatever reason).

Not long after it aired, Internet forums were hit by users wanting to know who sang the song that accompanied the ad. They were directed to Sui Zhen's MySpace page and now Sui Zhen's got even more things on her mind. “I had so many under 16-year olds contact me (through MySpace) but I couldn't get back to them because they were so young,” she explains in a voice that’s the aural equivalent of fairy bread - super sweet.

“They're like, 'Sui Zhen, can you tell me what this song's about?' … they just kept messaging me. It was pretty funny though. It's been made into a full version song now,” she giggles, like really giggles.

This 24-year old sounds as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth and she's got a home made style that’s comparable to Bjork in more ways than one.

A recent recipient of a Media Pick for the Tooheys Extra Dry uncharTED competition for emerging bands, Sui could be playing at this year’s Splendour In The Grass as well as bagging a music development package valued at $25,000 if she wins.

“That's like a $25,000 artist development kind of thing,” she says. As Sui lists her plans if she wins, her voice gains a thicker, slightly deeper toned determination. “That would be awesome, it would just make that whole publicity and promo kind of thing so much easier.

“At the moment I'm trying to work out what my next expectation will be with my next album (due later this year) because I don't want to fall into that cutesy, folky, kind of indie-girl kind of thing,” she says.  “It's hard, you want to be different but at the same time, you are who you are.”

The first stage of Tooheys Extra Dry uncharTED competition 1 ends later this week. The Top 10 (semi-finalists) will then be announced on Friday May 22. The media pick bands (Ellington, Death Mattel, Hot Little Hands and Sui Zhen) have all secured a spot in the semi-finals. The top 6 public voted bands will also go through to the Top 10. To vote for your favourite band, visit www.uncharted.com.au