Grant McLennan Fellowship sends Hannah Macklin to New York

Brisbane singer-songwriter Hannah Macklin will return to New York for six months to write her next album. It will be the prize for being the recipient of the $25,000 Grant McLennan Fellowship for 2016.

The announcement was made last Friday night at the Triffid club in Brisbane. Jennifer Howard, Assistant Minister of State Assisting the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk presented the prize on behalf of the Premier.

Palaszczuk passed on her congratulations, saying, “It has been a decade since the Queensland Government established the Grant McLennan Fellowship to help develop today’s generation of Queensland contemporary music talent.

“The Grant McLennan Fellowship has gone far in helping Queensland songwriters make new connections and develop skills in an international market and I wish Hannah every success in New York.”

Macklin wrote her first album in New York as well, coming to terms with the passing of her father.

L-R: Andrew Tuttle (APRA AMCOS), Sally McLennan, Adele Pickvance, Hannah Macklin, Jennifer Howard and Ian Haug

Blessed with a bell-like vocal tone, which has drawn comparisons to the late US R&B singer Minnie Ripperton and Kate Bush, in the past nine years Macklin has been able to tackle a wide range of styles. These have included musical theatre, experimental jazz, big band, hip hop and working with EDM producers and DJs.

In 2011, Hannah created the experimental trio MKO Sun, which ranged from psychedelic R&B to art rock. She is about to launch another project in 2017.

Fellowship judges were Grant’s sister Sally McLennan, former Go-Betweens bassist Adele Pickvance, Ian Haug (Powderfinger, The Church) and music writer Sean Sennett.

They said, “There is a sense of adventure to Hannah’s songwriting, and the concept of her being immersed in New York City to fully focus on writing a new collection of songs is exciting. We have no doubt that the combination of Hannah’s unique sense of artistry and the filter that is New York will create something remarkable”.

Runners-up were folk-turned alt-blues singer Leanne Tennant from Cairns who’s just toured behind her album Red Wine Late Nights, Jeremy Neale the frontman of Velocirapto who’s just finished his second solo album, and Bec Laughton (RETTA) who’s won a number of overseas awards and payed in the US and Europe.

The Fellowship, jointly funded by Arts Queensland and APRA AMCOS has supported Queensland songwriters for a decade.

Previous recipients of the Fellowship have been Greg Charles (2007), John Busby and Chris Dale of Halfway (2008), Helen Franzmann of McKisko (2009), Danny Widdicombe & Andrew Morris of The Wilson Pickers (2010), Scott Spark (2011), Louise O’Reilly and Paul Hannan of Laneway (2012), Seja Vogel (2013), Thomas Calder of The Trouble With Templeton (2014) and Timothy Steward of We All Want To and Screamfeeder (2015).

This year the winner’s announcement was part of a tribute to the Go-Betweens, Streets of Your Town, which aside from the four finalists, also featured Pickvance, Halfway, Dan Kelly and The Stress Of Leisure.