Melbourne artist Angie McMahon collects prestigious prize at SXSW

As SXSW wound up yesterday (Sunday) in Austin Texas, Australia’s Angie McMahon and New Zealand’s The Chills took out two prestigious prizes out of the thousands of acts around the world who showcased at the event.

Each year for the past six years, SXSW gives out three awards for creativity and promise in the name of its late creative director Brent Grulke, who passed away in 2012.

Past winners included Leon Bridges, Courtney Barnett, Haim, Chvrches, Jade Bird, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Iggy Pop, Todd Rundgren, Spoon and The Flaming Lips.

The Grulke Prize winner for Developing Non-U.S. Act is singer-songwriter Angie McMahon.

Having recently completed her first Australian headline tour, McMahon drops her debut album this year, drawing inspiration from artists like Bruce Springsteen, Lianne La Havas and Big Thief.

Her video for current ‘Keeping Time’ single is “a diary of some moments on the road over a whirlwind year”, she says, filmed by her manager Charlotte Abroms, and edited by Lewis Parsons.

The Grulke Prize winner for Career Act are The Chills, the legendary act fronted by Martin Phillipps, and hailed as the architects of the globally acclaimed Dunedin Sound with hits as ‘Pink Frost’ and ‘Wet Blanket’.

The Chills are currently performing worldwide behind their 2018 album Snow Bound and the SXSW world premiere documentary feature The Chills: The Triumph & Tragedy of Martin Phillipps.

He posted on Facebook recently: “In the early 90s I had one of the hardest and most disappointing shows of my career in LA. Last night I got to put those demons to rest.”

The Grulke Prize winner for Developing U.S. Act is Pink Sweat$, a Philadelphia-based R&B/soul artist, songwriter and producer.