The annual Music Victoria Awards returns for its 15th year with a bunch of Victorian artists, venues and festivals receiving well-deserving nods across a spread of 27 categories under two umbrellas.
Within the public voting section, the likes of Amyl and the Sniffers, Cash Savage and The Last Drinks, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, The Teskey Brothers and Tropical F*ck Storm are nominees for Best Band, while Alex Lahey, Angie McMahon, Baker Boy, Courtney Barnett, and Olympia are some of the talent listed under Best Solo Artist. Best Breakthrough Act, Best Female Musician, Best Male Musician, and Best Live Act see some of these names reappear for their tireless contributions to the Victorian music scene and world stage.
The second section covers off a wide range of industry-judged categories including genre-based artist awards, venue nods and our personal favourite categories – Best Regional/ Outer Suburban Venue (under 50 gigs per year and over 50 gigs per year) and Best Regional/ Outer Suburban Act.
Regional Victoria is swarming with talent and the latter of the categories sure highlights it. Castlemaine’s triple j Unearthed Competition winner for 2018, Kian joins fellow local, Maya Rose on the nominee list, alongside sibling rock groups, Stonefield and The Teskey Brothers. Geelong’s favourite rock trio, The Kite Machine, round out the award group. Speaking to frontman, Levi Anderson, the band are psyched to be considered in the running.
“Honestly, it came as a complete surprise to be nominated but we were stoked when we got the news! Having respected leaders of the industry putting us forward and listening to our music is really special,” Anderson says. “We could not be more honoured to be included alongside these high calibre musicians. Like us, they like to represent where they came from whilst also taking their acts to awesome regional venues such as The Halls Gap Hotel, one of our personal favourites.”
He continues, “Associations and awards like the Music Victoria Awards are important to recognise the incredibly talented acts in Victoria and remind people that they don’t need to look too far to find great music! We are honoured to be even in the conversation but to win would be amazing. Getting industry recognition for our music would go a long way to making all the hard work, late nights and mid rehearsal creative disagreements (screaming matches) worthwhile.”
This year Anderson, alongside bandmates, Liam Brennan and Kane Sherriff, have flown The Kite Machine to new heights, putting out the highly anticipated release of their debut self-titled album, with singles clocking up a crisp one million streams combined on Spotify, with their hit ‘Charlotte’ included in the official Music Victoria 2019 Nominee playlist while ‘Lunatics’ appeared at number one on triple j Unearthed.
The boys accompanied the album release with a mammoth South East Australia tour, cementing them as one of the, if not THE, best regional live act on the circuit – a claim left in the hands of the ever-brilliant Music Victoria Awards judging panel with the announcement to be made at awards ceremony on November 20 at the Melbourne Recital Centre.
Though, you can be your own judge; The Kite Machine have just released a nine-minute documentary, directed by Ben Christie, that gives behind the scenes insight into the band and includes footage from their final live show from the national tour. It’s available for viewing on their newly revamped website and highlights why the boys are in the running for the Best Regional / Outer Suburban Act.
Check it out at thekitemachine.com.au and wish the boys all the best for the awards!
Written by Tammy Walters
