Maybe we’re a little bit patriotic, but we’ve always thought that Australians are pretty hard to beat when it comes to music. However, we’re clearly not the only ones who think it – this time it’s the judges of the highly coveted International Songwriting Competition who are backing our ‘Strayan claims.
The nominations for the 2014 ISC were released back in March and featured an impressive 35 Australian names across the 22 categories, with the likes of Alpine, Bertie Blackman, Ben Lee, Calling All Cars and SAPHIA flying the flag for our diverse music scene.
Now the winners of the composition competition have been revealed, with more than 10 local acts having raked in more trophies for Australia’s ever-expanding cabinet, as The Music reports,
First up, in the Aussie-dominated Rock category, world-conquering five-piece The Preatures came out on top over Apes and Calling All Cars to claim the coveted gong for their ubiquitous break-out track ‘Is This How You Feel?’. “More than 10 local acts having raked in more trophies for Australia’s ever-expanding cabinet.”
We can’t really say we’re surprised – The Preatures, who we recently featured in our list of Aussies That Are Cracking America, have been launched into the international stratosphere off the back of their critically-adored Is This How You Feel? EP. The Sydney band have been featuring on the lineups of some of the biggest festivals in the world including Coachella, Bonnaroo, and CMJ, and even made their late night US talk show debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Elsewhere in the ISC results, a handful of Aussies were pipped at the post in second place, including Missy Higgins (for ‘Set Me On Fire’) in the Adult Album Alternative division, Darwin troupe Worldfly (for ‘Please Go Lightly’) in Adult Contemporary and Charles Jenkins (for ‘It’s Not Over’) in the Folk/Singer-Songwriter category.
The Adam Eckersley Band took out the Country category, for ‘Give Her The World’, and Tony King of jazz-soul duo Beautifully Mad won in the competitive Lyrics Only category with his piece entitled ‘Billy’s Dream’.
Meanwhile the Kiwi pop princess who we’ll keep trying to claim as our own, Kimbra, and her avant-pop masterpiece ‘Come Into My Head’, knocked off Sydney singer-songwriter Sophie Hanlon in the Performance category, as well as beating Clubfeet’s infamous ‘Everything You Wanted’ clip for the Music Video ribbon despite the Sydney indies’ video being the victim of some serious copycat treatment in the past 12 months (we’re looking at you, One Direction). Kimbra’s cinematic, monochrome-themed video also triumphed over Aussie songwriter Bertie Blackman’s ‘Boy’, which came in third.
Finally, this year’s $25,000 grand prize was awarded to Japanese jazz trumpeter and composer Shunzo Ohno. Omedetogazaimasu to Mr Ohno, and all our globally dominating Australian artists who continue to have us spoilt for choice with a smorgasbord of world-class music.
We have a history of doing pretty darn well at the ISC with top honours in the past being awarded to Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes, Oh Mercy, Matt Corby, Buffalo Tales and Guy Sebastian – to name a few.
View the full list of Aussie winners and place-getters below.
Australian International Songwriting Competition 2014 Winners
AAA: Missy Higgins, Butterfly Boucher for ‘Set Me On Fire’ (second), and Dave Crowe of Resin Moon for ‘Aloft’ (third)
Adult Contemporary: Worldfly for ‘Please Go Lightly’ (second)
Children’s Music: Jamie Saxe of The Mighty Buzznicks for ‘Ow Ow Ow’ (third)
Country: Adam Eckersley, Jason Reeves, Danelle Joy Leverett for ‘Giver Her The World’ (winners)
Folk/Singer-Songwriter: Charles Jenkins of Charles Jenkins & The Zhivagos for ‘Pray My Dear Daughter’ (second)
Lyrics only: Tony King (Beautifully Mad) for ‘Billy’s Dream’ (winner)
Music Video: Sebastian Cohen, Yves Roberts, Montgomery Cooper of Clubfeet for ‘Everything You Wanted’, directed by Josh Thomas (second) and Bertie Blackman, Francois Tetaz for ‘Boy’ (third)
Performance: Sophie Hanlon for ‘My Dark Crusade’ (second)
Rock: Isabella Manfredi, Jacket Moffitt, Thomas Champion, Luke Davison (The Preatures) for ‘Is This How You Feel?’ (winners), Benjamin Dowd, Sam Reale, Jordan Hicks of Apes for ‘Seven’ (second), and Calling All Cars for ‘Werewolves’ (third).
