FOREWORD LINE WINNING DEVELOPMENTS
APRA WINNERS ALEX POZNIAK, CATHERINE KELLEHER (CATCALL), BRENDON BONEY, HARMONY JAMES, ROHIN JONES, TIMOTHY STEVENS AND CAITLIN YEO
THE APRA PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AWARDS ARE HANDED OUT EVERY TWO YEARS TO ASSIST EMERGING AUSTRALIAN SONGWRITERS AND COMPOSERS IN GETTING THEMSELVES HEARD. DAVE DRI SPEAKS TO SOME OF THIS YEAR’S WINNERS.
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he winners of the 2011 APRA Professional Development Awards have been announced, with the eight winners of the bi-annual awards selected in the categories of Popular Contemporary, Film & Television, Classical, Jazz, Indigenous and Country. The awards are a great opportunity for the recipients, who will get a massive leg-up as they each receive career-boosting prizes worth $25,000. Winners include Harmony James, recipient of the award for the Country category, who was excited at the timing of the competition. “I won a MacBook as part of the package which is so timely – my old MacBook was dying and there’s no letter ‘O’. I was typing emails and copying and pasting until the sentence made sense,” she says. For James, the significant cash prize element, complete with Studio 301 studio time, will unlock career opportunities. “We’re looking to do another album soon and the studio time will come in great for that, and there’s a heap of Sydney artists that I want to write with as well, so there’s certainly not going to be any problem using up that part of the prize. “I guess the cash element is extremely important because it means that I can fast-track things I’ve wanted to do that I’ve needed to save up for, like travelling to do co-writes. Part of the pitch to try and win this was saying that I want to do some co-writes in
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Sydney – I’m based in Brisbane – and also to go to the States, both of which I’m in a position to do now, which will really help me consolidate my networks and get out there more.”
such esteemed company, Boyd was extremely positive on the implications of the win. “We don’t really see it as any kind of pressure of anything on us,” he says. “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves anyway to try and come up with the best performances and music that we can every time we do anything, so getting an award like this isn’t really any kind of pressure. It’s actually a bit of a relief and a nice feeling to get that kind of recognition.”
The access to industry resources is something that is equally appreciated by Brendon Boney, taking out the indigenous category as part of the genre-blending duo Microwave Jenny. “We’ve been actually trying to figure out what to do with that. It’s kind of like somebody saying you can have more time then you need, and then trying to figure out what to do with it,” says Boyd. “Probably the biggest, most exciting part for us is trying to figure out what to do with that day [in the studio], because we do need a lot of mixing and recording to finish off some touches for an album we’ve been putting together.”
Harmony James shares the excitement, speaking to Drum while rushing through an airport. “It’s good,” she says. “You put yourself out there and just try and get as many breaks as you can. You’ve got to cop your knockbacks as well, so when you get a really good win like this it’s just so encouraging.”
This year’s round of the PDAs was one of the most popular yet, starting out with a talented pool of 2,500 music artists to whittle down to a group of 250 songwriters and composers. Of this shortlist, only eight winners were possible, providing great recognition for the recipients. Speaking of the honour of being in
The other recipients of 2011 PDAs include Sydney’s Caitlin Yeo for the Film & Television category, composer Alex Pozniak for the Classical category, and Melbourne’s Timothy Stevens in the Jazz category. The Popular Contemporary category awards three prizes, the winners being Rohin Jones (of The Middle East), Catherine Kelleher (performing as Catcall) and Zoe Randall (one half of the duo Luluc). Speaking after the announcement Jones said, “The APRA PDA will do so much – I’ve been trying to get a studio together to do some more home recordings and I think I have most of what I need for the studio now because of the award. And I can kinda pay myself to record for the rest of the year. It’s a really sweet prize and will allow me to keep writing music.” Each APRA PDA winner receives prizes that will substantially support their burgeoning careers as songwriters and composers, including a cash prize of $10,000, a full day of studio time at Studio 301, and an Apple Macbook pre-loaded with Logic Studio. Additional category-specific prizes and industry development resources ensure that the 2011 recipients are afforded every opportunity to develop their respective projects on a national and international level. As Brendon Boney puts it, “It’s such a hard thing to actually get perspective on that you’re just as likely to be able to produce something that’s recognised nationally as anybody else in the country. There’s no reason why anybody from anywhere shouldn’t be able to do it.” With the 2011 APRA Professional Development Awards under their belts, this year’s winners have every opportunity to do exactly that.
British electro punks Does It Offend You, Yeah? have returned with their long-awaited second album, Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You, out now through Pod via Inertia. With lead track The Monkeys Are Coming already proving an instant hit at triple j, the group have unleashed their most relentless and energetic album yet. The British band broke onto the world’s stage in 2008 with their debut You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into, which saw the band become the ninth most-listenedto new band of 2008 on last.fm and led to them being crowned as Rolling Stone’s ‘Breaking Artist’ in the same year. Thanks to Inertia and SPA we have an amazing Ultimate DIOYY? Prize Pack up for grabs that includes a keyboard, a drum skin, a signed T-shirt and a copy of the new album. To be in the running to win this awesome prize pack DO NOT email us, simply head over to the new Drum Perth Facebook page and go to the giveaways section to enter. Entries close 5pm Friday 25 March. Think of an Australian superhero and you might come up with the image of Matt Shirvington trying to outrun speeding bullets, or – worse, much worse – the image of our opposition leader’s underwear on the outside. But with Griff The Invisible there is a street patrolling, tight wearing DIY vigilante in our midst. Written and directed by the ever-present Leon Ford and starring True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten, Griff The Invisible has been getting some great talk since last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. To pick up one of TEN double passes, email giveaways@drumperth.com.au with “WIN THE INVISIBLE” in the subjectline. *All giveaway prizes must be claimed within two months and a max of one prize can be won by each entrant every two months.
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12 • THE DRUM MEDIA 17 MARCH 2011
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