GRID Series and Sony Music Publishing Launch New Writing Intensive

GRID Series and Sony Music Publishing Australia are joining forces on a new four-day writing intensive connecting artists from regional and outer-suburban Australia with producers and writers from the publisher's roster.

Taking place at Sony's new Sydney headquarters in October, the first of its kind project, called GRIDLOCK, will bring together five participants from GRID Series' artist development programs to work on collaborations for sync opportunities and artist releases.

Wild Gloriosa, FLEWNT, Srirachi, Baraka The Kid and Daisy Kilbourne have been selected for the program, where they will work alongside producers Jayteehazard, Lucy Blomkamp and Robby De Sa.

The sessions will also give participating artists access to input and feedback from sync and A&R professionals, while providing an opportunity to develop new industry relationships and networks.

Julian McGunther, Senior A&R at Sony Music Publishing Australia, said the partnership builds on GRID Series' work supporting Australian artists from outside the industry's traditional centres.

“We are so happy to be embarking on this new program with GRID Series, who have championed and supported Australian talent for more than a decade,” he said. “Some of the country's brightest talent has emerged from regional, remote and outer-suburban parts of Australia (including GRID's own alumni), so we're excited to facilitate new creative relationships for this crop of artists and for our own roster who they will collaborate with.”

The participating artists span hip hop, folk, R&B, neo-soul and jazz, with Wild Gloriosa entering the program following a run at BIGSOUND 2026. FLEWNT is an award-winning Noongar/Wongi rapper from Boorloo, while Srirachi has previously been named one to watch by Acclaim and triple j's Bars of Steel. Baraka The Kid is a Geelong-based rapper, producer and singer-songwriter, and Daisy Kilbourne is a Geelong-based folk singer-songwriter.

Their collaborators bring credits across a broad range of Australian and international artists, including Hilltop Hoods, BARKAA, 6LACK, T-Pain, Ninajirachi, Guy Sebastian, KATSEYE, The Veronicas, grentperez and MAY-A.

For GRID Series alum Ariel Blum, access to professional writing rooms is a key part of the initiative. 

“The chance to create a space for our community of artists to collaborate with the country's finest, and gain experience in high-level writing rooms is something we feel is so incredibly valuable for an artist's development,” Blum said. “It's a rare opportunity for this group to flex their creative muscle in this particular part of the industry, something that is often opaque and hard to access.”

The GRIDLOCK program is supported by Music Australia.