TOP 5 FINALISTS ANNOUNCED FOR 2017 APRA SILVER SCROLL AWARDS

Five top acts have made the shortlist for the 2017 APRA Silver Scroll Award, recognising excellence in songwriting.

• Close Your Eyes by Bic Runga (written by Bic Runga and Kody Nielson)
• Green Light by Lorde (written by Ella Yelich O’Connor, Jack Antonoff, and Joel Little). Published by Native Tongue Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia P/L, EMI 
• Music Publishing Australia Pty Ltd.
• Horizon by Aldous Harding. Published by Native Tongue Music Publishing.
• Life of the Party by Chelsea Jade (written by Chelsea Jade Metcalf and Leroy Clampitt).
• Richard by Nadia Reid. Published by Kobalt Music Publishing.

Having won the Silver Scroll Award in 1997 with Sway, Bic Runga is once again a finalist 20 years later, this time for her beautiful, energetic love song Close Your Eyes, written with partner Kody Nielson (Silicon, UMO, The Mint Chicks). A song about going your own way, finding joy in the little things, and love enduring through time, it presents Runga as potent as she’s ever been. 

Another past scroll winner (for Royals in 2013), Ella Yelich O’Connor and Joel Little are nominated once again for their latest world-dominating single Green Light. A cutting indictment of a past lover, which perfectly captures the chaos of post-break-up feelings, and the push and pull between the old and the new, it’s a bona-fide pop sensation. 

Aldous Harding has become an international sensation in 2017, capturing imaginations with her singular songs which cut through like a lightning bolt, and she is a welcome first-time finalist for her song Horizon. A spare, vulnerable track which finds impressive power in its simplicity, Horizon finds a way to spin gut-punching love into a song that feels brand new.

Also a first-time finalist, Chelsea Jade is nominated for her hypnotic, subversive, delicate pop piece Life of the Party. The LA based artist (formerly of Teacups and Watercolours), manages to encapsulate the contradicting feelings of awkwardness and confidence in an intoxicating, joyful, yet low-key production.

A fellow newcomer is Nadia Reid, with her fierce, haunting song Richard. The Port Chalmers native has also found herself in demand across the globe with the release of her second album Preservation, and Richard is a stand-out folk-rock gem with its wonderfully direct delivery, charting heartbreak and dissolution, through striking imagery.

The APRA Silver Scroll Awards is considered one of the most coveted awards in New Zealand music and has previously been awarded to artists such as Ray Columbus, Hammond Gamble, Shona Laing, Dave Dobbyn, Don McGlashan, Neil Finn, Chris Knox, Brooke Fraser, James Milne & Lukasz Buda, Alisa Xayalith & Thom Powers (The Naked And Famous), Tami Neilson, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and Thomas Oliver.

The other awards presented on the night are: 

●      APRA Maioha Award, celebrating exceptional waiata featuring te reo Māori

●      SOUNZ Contemporary Award, celebrating excellence in contemporary composition

●      APRA Best Original Music in a Feature Film Award

●      APRA Best Original Music in a Series Award 

As a part of the celebrations APRA will also be inducting a songwriter/s into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame. 

All awards will be presented at Dunedin Town Hall on Thursday 28th September. Radio New Zealand will broadcast and live video stream the APRA Silver Scroll Awards ceremony on RNZ National, Freeview Ch 50 and online at www.rnz.co.nz/music.

The awards will also be shared via the Student Radio Network (Radio One, RDU, Radio Active, Radio Control and 95bFM), and The Spinoff website (www.thespinoff.co.nz).

Sky’s Rialto Channel 39 are also proud to broadcast the 2017 APRA Silver Scroll Awards on Saturday October 21 at 8.30pm.  

The awards are proudly supported by Panhead Custom Ales, Quartz Reef Wines, and NZ On Air.

ALDOUS HARDING ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM

Aldous Harding Announces New Album
4AD/Flying Nun Debut Party Released On May 19, 2017
New Single ‘Imagining My Man’ + video

On 19th May 2017, Aldous Harding (Liv Young) releases her second album, Party. Following the recent single ‘Horizon’ – a lover’s call to arms which also features on her 4AD/Flying Nun debut – her new track 'Imagine' has been released.

Party was produced with the award-winning John Parish (PJ Harvey, Sparklehorse) in Bristol, a world away from Harding’s New Zealand home. As well as contributions from Parish, Perfume Genius’s Mike Hadreas lends vocals to the aforementioned ‘Imagining My Man’ and Party closer ‘Swell Does The Skull’. 

Igniting interest with her eponymous debut album released just two years ago, Aldous Harding quickly became a name murmured on many lips. She’s known for her sinister torch songs, gentle laments and eerie odes delivered with a charismatic combination of hubris, shrewd wit and quiet horror. Party introduces a new talent to the stark and unpopulated dramatic realm where Kate Bush and Scott Walker reside.

‘Imagining My Man’ is an intensely intimate listen as Aldous explores the curiosity of a lover’s idiosyncrasies. The video was created by ‘Horizon’ director and editor Charlotte Evans and once again draws focus on Harding, tracking her movements throughout the city of Auckland.

“It has a fluidity that works nicely. I couldn't think of anything that would work better. I want people to feel calm, I was just trying to look friendly. It was also lovely being driven around Auckland City, I hadn't done that in a while.” says Harding. 

To celebrate the release of Party, Aldous Harding will be performing in Europe. She will play four UK shows in London, Bristol, Glasgow and Manchester during the week of release, before heading to Europe in late May. The New Zealander will also bring her captivating live show to North America in June. 

ALDOUS HARDING TOUR DATES:

May 18-19 - BRIGHTON, UK - The Great Escape

May 20 – PARIS, FR - L’Olympic Café [TICKETS]

May 21 – BRUSSELS, BE - Huis 23 [TICKETS]

May 22 – LONDON, UK - Omeara [TICKETS]

May 23 – BRISTOL, UK - Thekla [TICKETS]

May 24 – MANCHESTER, UK - The Ruby Lounge [TICKETS]

May 25 – GLASGOW, UK - Broadcast [TICKETS]

May 28 – AMSTERDAM, NE - Schellingwouderkerk [TICKETS]

May 29 – HAMBURG, GER - Nochtwache [TICKETS]

May 30 – BERLIN, GER - Auster Club [TICKETS]

June 3 – NELSONVILLE, OH, Nelsonville Music Festival 

June 4 – NELSONVILLE, OH, Nelsonville Music Festival 

June 5 – WASHINGTON, DC, DC9

June 6 – PHILADELPHIA, PA, Johnny Brenda’s

June 7 – ALLSTON, MA, Great Scott

June 11 – MONTREAL, QC, Le Divan Orange

June 12 – TORONTO, ON, Velvet Underground 

June 13 – DETROIT, MI, El Club

June 14 – CHICAGO, IL, Empty Bottle

June 16 – ATLANTA, GA, The Earl

June 17 – NEW ORLEANS, LA, Gasa Gasa

June 19 – AUSTIN, TX, The Mohawk (Inside)

June 20 – EL PASO, TX, The Monarch

June 21 – TUCSON, AZ, Hotel Congress

June 22 – LOS ANGELES, CA, The Echo

June 23 – SAN DIEGO, CA, Soda Bar

June 24 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Swedish American Hall

July 28  - SALT LAKE CITY, UT - Kilby Court

July 29 – BOISE, ID, The Olympic

July 30 – SEATTLE, WA, Tractor Tavern

July 31 – VANCOUVER, BC, The Biltmore

August 2 – CALGARY, AB, The Palomino

August 3 - SPOKANE, WA - The Bartlett

August 13 -PALERMO, IT, Ypsigrock 

August 17-20 – BRECON BEACONS, UK - Green Man Festival

August 25-27 – DEVON, UK - Sea Change Festival

September 1 - WILTSHIRE, UK - End Of The Road Festival

September 1-2 – SCOTLAND, UK - Electric Fields Festival

ALDOUS HARDING 'HORIZON'

Produced by John Parish (Sparklehorse, P. J Harvey) the album will be out in the first half of 2017 on Flying Nun Records and 4AD. Aldous Harding (Liv Young) is the first New Zealand artist (Dead Can Dance don't count!) to sign to 4AD - regularly cited as the most influential indie in the world; home to The  Cocteau Twins, The Pixies, The National, Grimes, The Breeders and many more.

Aldous Harding’s music is not for the faint of heart. Disarming in its desolate imagery and stark instrumentation, her songs draw from the core facets of life: death, birth, grief and love. There are few happy endings, but the power is in how Harding enters into battle; with a dancer’s grace and a boxer’s stance. 

Harding initially ignited interest with her eponymous debut album, released just two years ago. The album slowly filtered out into the world via various pathways; Harding toured Australia and Europe extensively. In 2016 it received a release in the US via Flying Nun and Harding undertook her first major tour there with Deerhunter. 

With echoes of folk luminary Linda Perhacs, Harding’s work is one step removed from the modern world, lying in the more savage and dramatic terrain where Kate Bush and Scott Walker reside, wrought with a wry wit and tenacious gall. 

For her first release from the forthcoming album, ‘Horizon’ offers an enticing preview of that collaboration. She wraps her voice effortless around a simple three-chord skeleton with poise and at times near violent intensity. The confrontational accompanying video, directed by Charlotte Evans, and produced by Evie Mackay, features Harding's own mother performing a transfixing blend of Aikido and physical theatre in the New Zealand hinterland.

ALDOUS HARDING ANNOUNCES NATIONAL TOUR WITH FULL BAND

After the international success of her self-titled debut, Aldous Harding (Liv Young) continues to ascend beyond fleeting trends. Delving into more timelessly resonant territories of human experience, Aldous has established a firm stance worldwide as a fearsome recording artist and performer. In February, ahead of the release of her next record, Party, she’s set to play four special shows in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, leading a band of full instrumentation through new and old material. 

Produced with the acclaimed John Parish (PJ Harvey, Perfume Genius, Sparklehorse) in Bristol, Party comprises a formidable clutch of songs that swell with the gothic energy of her former work, embalmed with a newly explorative slant. 

Spanning sinister torch songs, gentle laments and eerie odes, don’t be fooled into thinking that Party belies a droll irony - a close listen and you’ll hear the twisted touches of humour, hubris and quiet horror. In other words, Aldous Harding enjoying herself. Stretching her limbs with playful cunning and fierce resolve; every note, word and arrangement posed with intellect and inventiveness. 

Beginning with a tour of the United States with Andy Shauf and performances at SXSW in March, Aldous’ 2017 touring schedule spans Europe, North America and the United Kingdom for much of the year. Having toured relentlessly for the past 18 months alongside such acts as Deerhunter, Frankie Cosmos and Perfume Genius, as well as to crowds at The Great Escape, Golden Plains and more, Aldous’ live shows continue to bewitch fans and first-timers alike. 

And so this is the moment to see Aldous Harding’s Party performed live in New Zealand ahead of its release - with full band and some spectacular guests, across four shows.

8 February sees her play in Christchurch at Blue Smoke with Oscar Dowling, whose track ‘The Life’ “taps into the same low-key but potent malevolence that seethed through early Smog” (Pitchfork). She’s joined by Dowling again the following evening at Wellington’s San Francisco Bathhouse, along with adroitly gumptious poet Hera Lindsay Bird. Harding then heads north to Auckland, where she will perform two very special shows at Avondale’s Hollywood Cinema on 10 and 11 February. She’s joined on 10 February by the Bob Scott(The Bats, The Clean); then on 11 February, with genre-bending multimedia group SoccerPractise (whose second single ‘Haere Mai E Tama’, sung entirely in te reo Māori, topped NZ’s alt charts for weeks in 2016), and Oscar Dowling in support. Hera Lindsay Bird, hailed by The Guardian as “New Zealand’s most exciting young poet”,  once again fills out the bill on both evenings. Both nights feature beer by Garage Project and special 35mm trailers, and shorts curated by Matthew Timpson. Judge Bao will serve up delicious eats on Friday 10th, and Saturday 11th will see food on offer from Wise Boys Burgers. 

Stay tuned for more information on Party - you’ll want to RSVP to this one.

Aldous Harding with full band

New Zealand Tour

8 February - Christchurch - Blue Smoke w/ support from Oscar Dowling
Tickets available from www.undertheradar.co.nz 

9 February - Wellington - San Fran w/ support from Oscar Dowling + Hera Lindsay Bird
Tickets available from www.justtheticketnz.com www.undertheradar.co.nz 

10 February - Auckland - Hollywood Cinema w/ support from Bob Scott + Hera Lindsay Bird
Tickets available from www.justtheticketnz.com

11 February - Auckland - Hollywood Cinema w/ support from SoccerPractise, Oscar Dowling + Hera Lindsay Bird
Tickets available from www.justtheticketnz.com