Revealed: Four finalists for 2017 Grant McLennan Fellowship

Q Music announced the identities of the four finalists for the 2017 Grant McLennan Fellowship.

It offers $25,000 to travel to New York, London or Berlin to be immersed in the city’s culture and create new work – the way the Go-Betweens co-founder did during his life.

The winner will be announced at an event on Friday, December 1 from 6 pm at The Triffid in Brisbane, with performances by the four finalists.

A tradition of the Fellowship is that the recipient from each year will present a memento from their visit to the city of their choice to add to the Grant McLennan Memorial Archive.

This year will be something from last year’s winner Hannah Macklin (MKO Sun), who went to New York.

The finalists are:

HATCHIE:

After stints in Brisbane bands Go Violets and Babaganouj, Harriette Pilbeam created Hatchie as her first solo project.

Hatchie is about dealing internally with her daydreams than her real life existence in Brisbane.

After uploading the pop track ‘Try’ to Unearthed in May, it became a runaway hit when play-listed on triple j, leading to management and booking agency deals.

JEREMY NEALE

Jeremy Neale is the sole songwriter in his solo project, frontman and primary songwriter in 12-piece garage pop band Velociraptor and songwriter for surf pop band Teen Sensations.

An indication of his writing skills was that ‘Cynthia’ (Velociraptor) and ‘Darlinʻ’ (solo single) were voted #1 and #4 respectively in Brisbane 4ZZZʼs Hot 100 Countdown for 2012.

Neale has toured Europe extensively, won numerous Queensland Music Awards, and a recipient of the Billy Thorpe Scholarship.

His debut solo album Getting The Team Back Together was released on November 3.

SABRINA LAWRIE

The guitarist’s mix of dark pop, brooding earth rock and shape-shifting psychedelia on her Hush The Mountain album received national critical acclaim.

Sabrina Lawrie played most of the instruments on the record.

But amidst this, she had a challenging 12 months after breaking her back.

Her website states, “The healing journey that she embarked on through her recovery has brought about a profound life change and being able to connect with people through her music and share this process, Sabrina is experiencing the release of her album in new and invigorating ways.”

TOM COONEY

The Brisbane-based singer/songwriter moved to Ireland five or six years ago after the release of his The Repetition album and split his time between Dublin and France.

Tom Cooney worked on a number of projects, including ‘West Country Night with enigmatic US singer/songwriter Josh T Pearson, which released a solo album.

He returned to Queensland in 2014 and started work on his third album Futureproof. On hearing of his return, friend and tour mate Lawrence Greenwood (formerly Whitley) got in touch.

The 2017 judging panel are: Sean Sennett, Sally McLennan, Ian Haug and Adele Pickvance.