Project Description

The SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MUSIC AWARDS
November 3rd, 2020
(Review and Results)

Interviewer – Lawrie Nolan

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The SA Music Awards held in the Adelaide University Cloisters on November 3rd showcased the cream of The SA industry and celebrated the richness and diversity of musical achievement in SA. I was fortunate to speak with some of SA’s finest local talent and discuss their musical journeys.

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Wing Defence, (Skye Lockwood and Paige Court),
won 3 awards, Best Group, Best Release for their debut EP Friends and the People’s Choice Punk Award. The pair met when Skye performed in the group, Auguste and Paige played support for the band as Mane around 2017. Their close friendship, which they describe as being like sisters, sparked a collaboration to form Wind Defence. Paige calls Wing Defence her ‘punk outlet’ and a fun opportunity to hang out with Skye. Skye is filled with joy after becoming a mum earlier this year. According to Paige, Skye is the best mum ever. Paige and Skye see the Covid restrictions on live music as a struggle for everyone in the music industry, but they personally remain very grateful for all the support they’ve received. They said the SA Music Awards are a celebration and testament to the strength, depth and closeness of everyone in the SA music and art industry. On a positive note Paige said the lack of performance opportunities due to Covid 19 has provided her with the opportunity to work through some issues and rejuvenate.

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Django Rowe won the People’s Choice Jazz Award.
I spoke with Django before his award. Django said the border closures meant he had to cancel a couple of tours but he feels lucky to be in SA. He’s noticed recently that he’s been busier than usual, but said that’s probably because he spreads himself thin. Django began his musical journey at the Elder Conservatorium of Music and during that time started working with bands and singer-songwriters such as Max Savage, Shaolin Afronauts and Aaron Thomas. Django is a jazz performer and composer but said he always enjoys working as a session musician with other singer songwriters. Asked about the current restrictions and his future plans Django said that although the Covid restrictions on live music have been difficult he remains positive and motivated to work around strengthening and building up the live music scene in Adelaide. He felt the restrictions have suited the sit down stye of a jazz audience and provided a bit of a refocus onto jazz.  He said jazz events currently sell out fairly quickly due to the smaller capacity of venues during Covid restrictions.

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Ollie English won the People’s Choice Blues and Roots award.
I spoke with Ollie and his partner and musical collaborator Katie Moore. Ollie grew up with his father playing Flamenco guitar and his mum also a guitarist. As a child Ollie started imitating guitar by playing on a tennis racket. Seeing Ollie’s enthusiasm, his father got him underway with classical Spanish guitar lessons when he was around 5yo. As Ollie grew fonder of rock music he moved to electric guitar, then honed his voice behind closed doors; first singing operatic style before moving to the blues. His first public performance was playing unplugged at a Café Troppo’s Jam Room Series when he was about 18 when a friend organising the event asked him to perform. Ollie wrote his very first compositions for that gig and the positive response he received provided him with the impetus to embark of a musical career. Katie had a more formal experience of honing her voice. She started singing at age 7, taking singing lessons and performing in choirs. She was involved in musical theatre before joined a band. She and Ollie met when Katie was a vocalist in her first band. He described hearing her vocals as an OMG moment. Having heard her sing I can understand why. Katie is also a singing coach so her input into Ollie’s performance has helped with his development. Ollie described his collaboration with Katie as “Gold” as she’s played a pivotal role in developing his powerful voice. In this time of global uncertainty Ollie and Katie are very grateful to be grounded within the amazing and vibrant SA music community.

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Sharni Honor accepted the Best Small Festival Event award on behalf of The Porch Sessions.
The Porch Sessions is Sharni’s brainchild. It began 7 years ago when she acted on her epiphany of musicians playing relaxed backyard settings where the audience can sit on a Persian rug with a wine in hand and enjoy performances in the company of like-minded people. The first Porch Session was hosted in Sharni’s own Brighton backyard. These intimate events which are curated by Shani and her team occur across the suburbs of Adelaide and beyond with hosts for these events offering their backyards as a performance space. Volunteered backyard venues are provided a magical makeover by Sharni and the Porch Sessions team with rugs, lighting, decorations, local wine and fare and a sound engineer ensuring balanced acoustics.  Up and coming musicians are carefully sourced and it is a testament to the reputation of Porch Sessions that artists will often make an interstate journey to perform.  Sharni’s commitment to the Porch Sessions includes studying a music business course at Music SA to ensure the success of her vision. The Porch Sessions have also hit the road for weeks at a time with musicians and crew starting tours from Brisbane and Byron Bay, before providing around 10 backyards performances in places like Bellingen NSW, Torquay VIC and Middleton SA during these road-trip tours. Due to corona virus restrictions the team has started an online record store called Porch Records, which involves delivering records to people’s porches. There is also a physical record store at Summertown Studios; Porch Sessions creative space for music development and discovery. Summertown Studios have recently been hosting jazz night performances. I am a devotee of the Porch Sessions, and I’m personally grateful to Sharni for her inspiration and commitment.

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Towns won the People’s Choice Rock Award.
Towns are a two-piece band of guitarist and vocalist Aston Valladares and drummer and vocalist Daniel Steinert. I chatted with Daniel before the award. Towns was formed in 2017 when Aston and Daniel moved from the band they were in to form the two-piece. They released their first EP Television in 2018. I first saw Towns perform at the Universally Festival  in 2018, so it’s been great to see their career take off. Towns were chosen as a Triple J’s Unearthed winner in 2019 and they played at the Spin Off festival in 2019. I was amongst an audience of around 26,000 packed into a tent at Wayville for the event. Daniel said that because their set started as the gates were just opening only Bridget Hustwaite and their friend, Eve saw them start their set. Towns were then stoked to see people literally running in to see them. When we talked about the pandemic Daniel said everyone is in the same boat, but they feel fortunate that even though crowd numbers have been limited they’ve been able to perform. Aston and Daniel show a lot of enthusiasm in their performance and interact with the audience. Daniel said they’re out there to have fun and enjoy themselves. Towns are playing support in Brisbane on December 5th and will have an enthusiastic crowd including me waiting when they hit the Wollongong stage for Yours and Owls next January.   

Siberian Tiger won the Best New Artist Award.
Siberian Tiger is a collaboration between Chris Panousakis (Timberwolf and Matt Corby) and Bree Trant (The Middle East and Matt Corby). I spoke with Chris before the award. Chris musical journey began with playing saxophone at high school but he coped some jibes from his mates for his instrument choice dampening his enthusiasm for the sax. Chris loved seeing his uncle play guitar each Xmas and said his uncle’s performance would make him smile so hard the back of his head would start to ache. At age14 or 15 Chris saw his uncle play in the band Goose in The Gov main room and it inspired Chris to teach himself guitar. He said he just “fell in love with music” and decided to keep going with it. Although Chris has his solo project Timberwolf, he most enjoys collaborative band performance where the colours of different instruments underneath the vocals come together to tell an important story. Under the moniker Timberwolf Chris released his first EP Man & Moon in 2013, followed by the EP Flux in 2017 and his debut album, Íkaros, the same year. Bree and Chris’s friendship goes back about 5 years. Their collaboration on Siberian Tiger produced the single Plane Spotting in August 2019 followed by the EP First Dance in 2020. Despite the pandemic Chris remains energised and positive citing how musicians are using the internet so effectively; utilizing home recording studios and embracing file sharing to collaborate on tracks. In spite of the reduced audience sizes Chris said the current format of sit-down shows means there’s a stronger audience focus on the performance which provides an enjoyable space to perform in.

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Chelsea Manor, performed on stage at the SA Music Awards.
Their 3 piece Mt Gambier band is made up of Bianca Hendy on vocals and guitar, Ivan Heenen on bass and Michael Collins on drums. I spoke with Bianca Hendy to gain some insight. Bianca has always liked music. As a child she found encouragement from her dad who every Sunday chose an album for them to listen to and he’d talk about where he’d heard it for the first time. Ever since then she wanted to be a musician but felt too shy. At 13 she had a choice between a digital camera or an electric guitar and chose the guitar. At age 18 she gave her first solo performances playing acoustic guitar at an open mic night in Gawler. She remembers the audience being very enthusiastic and “it didn’t matter if they knew your stuff or not. Everyone was just loving it!”.  Always loving a punky rock style she was an inaugural member of the band Scapegoats, a Mt Gambier pop punk band whose members included Ian and Michael. Chelsea Manor formed out of the ashes of Scapegoats in 2019 and just 2 days after the release of their first single, Breathe, they played their first ever live performance to a crowd of around 15,000 at the Lucindale, One Night Stand. I was lucky enough to attend and see Chelsea Manor play their first ever gig. Bianca said it was such an incredible feeling to be part of such a big event first up. She found everyone there so accommodating; Kram from Spiderbait gave her a pep talk before their set and G Flip gave them a hug as they came off stage. Bianca said when the covid restrictions hit it became tough for a while as pretty much all their gigs were cancellated, including a Hamilton festival they were booked to play with The Delta Rigs and the reformed Motor Ace. Bianca said Chelsea Manor’s live shows are such a big part of their music and they really love the energy it creates. The band had planned to be touring Australia this year and head overseas in 2021, but will focus on Australia for now.

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Stellie was nominated for Best New Artist at the SA Music Awards.
I spoke with Stellie at the Awards night to discuss her musical career and development. Stellie went to a music orientated high school and got into singing and performing jazz musicals during her high school years. She knew she wanted to became a musician but after finishing high school she struggled to know how to go about it. After working a couple of jobs and feeling “nah, this isn’t for me” Stellie put everything into her music; writing, finding musicians to work with and eventually putting her first single up online in December 2018. Stellie likes to do her own writing but also likes to collaborate with others. On her first EP Stellie, she worked with Alex Markwell from the Delta Riggs who did most of the production. Stellie hopes to continue her career in music and see how far music can take her and she wants to make music her life. She plans to tour again when it’s safe to do so but hopes to keep Adelaide as her home. I first saw Stellie in May 2019 when she supported I Know Leopard. Her voice and stage presence is truly captivating. 

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Check out DEB KLOEDEN’s gallery of this event HERE

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Follow
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MUSIC AWARDS :
Official Website – Facebook – Instagram – YouTube

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AMNPLIFY – DB