Finalists for Grant McLennan Memorial Fellowship

Queensland’s top songwriters are vying for a $25,000 prize, with the finalists in the 2013 Grant McLennan Memorial Fellowship announced today.

Arts Minister Ian Walker said Brisbane-based musicians Edward Guglielmino, Jeremy Neale, Seja Vogel and Little Scout are this year’s finalists.

“These performers are all making a big impact on the contemporary music scene,” Mr Walker said.

“Jeremy Neale was the 2013 winner of The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Most Popular Male artist at the Queensland Music Awards in August and has a hit In Stranger Times in top rotation on Triple J, while Little Scout (Patrick Elliot and Melissa Tickle) is due to release its second record Are You Life in September.

“As a former member of Brisbane bands Sekiden and Regurgitator, Seja Vogel has toured internationally and is also a noted visual artist.

“Ed Gugliemino’s second record, Sunshine State, was named in The Courier-Mail as one of that year’s top 10 records. Ed was also a Grant McLennan finalist in 2012 and 2007.”

Mr Walker said the $25,000 Grant McLennan Memorial Fellowship honoured the musical legacy of Grant McLennan, who passed away in 2006.

“The Fellowship is a great investment in the future of contemporary Queensland music, and helps achieve our goal of taking the Arts to all Queenslanders,” he said.

Previous winners include Laneway, Scott Spark, Halfway, Andrew Morris and Danny Widdicombe of The Wilson Pickers, and Helen Franzmann.

Laneway’s Louise O’Reilly, who has just returned from Berlin as part of her 2012 Grant McLennan Fellowship win, said the vision behind the Fellowship was a valuable step towards artistic productivity for independent artists.

“The Fellowship trusts in the song-writing process and gives it both permission and space. It requires you to articulate your own creative aims and that in itself demands you address some of your anxieties about your professional life as a creative person,” Ms O’Reilly said.

The winner will be announced on 25 September at an event at the State Library of Queensland. Tickets are free. For bookings go to https://grantmclennan.eventbrite.com.au

[ENDS] 2 September 2013

Media contact: Alex Bernard 0417 252 563