2014 APRA Silver Scroll Awards – The Winners

2014 APRA Silver Scroll Awards – The Winners

Tami Neilson and Joshua Neilson have won the 2014 APRA Silver Scroll Award with their song Walk (Back to Your Arms). The soulful, retro-flavoured blues ballad was chosen as this year’s winner by APRA’s membership, made up of over 10,000 New Zealand songwriters and composers.

The award was presented at the APRA Silver Scroll Awards - a highly anticipated annual event that recognises and celebrates outstanding achievement in the craft of song writing. As is tradition for the awards, the finalists’ songs were covered in unique and inspired ways by other artists on the night. Walk (Back to Your Arms) was treated to a world-pop cover by a 16-piece Indonesian Gamelan bell orchestra, with a growling Tom Waits-inspired vocal by The All Seeing Hand’s Jonny Marks.

“Walk (Back to Your Arms) is exceptional, true to its genre and original in every aspect. It’s an honest and beautifully formed song” says APRA’s Anthony Healey. “Tami is wonderfully talented, a view obviously shared by her song writing peers and she and her brother Joshua are hugely deserving of this prestigious recognition”.

The night also saw Lorde’s Ella Yelich-O’Connor and her producer Joel Little pick up two awards. Their song ‘Team’ won the Most Performed New Zealand Work in New Zealand, and ‘Royals’ won the Most Performed New Zealand Work Internationally.

Alongside the prestigious APRA Silver Scroll Award, also presented on the night was the APRA Maioha Award, for excellence in song writing featuring te reo Māori. The award was won by Rob Ruha for ‘Tiki Tapu’, and was presented by Aotearoa hip hop pioneer, Upper Hut Posse’s Dean Hapeta. Following the presentation of the award Wellington neo-soul heavyweights Electric Wire Hustle took the stage to perform their interpretation of the song.

Awarded since 1998, the SOUNZ Contemporary Award recognises outstanding contemporary composition. This year the award was won by Wellington’s Michael Norris for his composition ‘Inner Phases’. Inner Phases was written to be performed by a Chinese instrument ensemble and a string quartet, melding eastern and western palettes. The work was re-interpreted on the night by Jeff Henderson’s pseudonym Lil’ Dougie Boyne.

The awards also saw the inaugural presentation of two new awards for music composed for screen. The APRA Best Original Music in a Feature Film award was won by Victoria Kelly for Field Punishment No 01, and the APRA Best Original Music in a Series award was won by Wellington’s Tom McLeod for Girl vs. Boy (Season 2).

As well as the awards presented on the night, the evening also saw classical and electronic music pioneer Douglas Lilburn posthumously inducted into the prestigious New Zealand Music Hall of Fame. Composer and author Philip Norman honoured Lilburn with a moving tribute which was followed by performances of three of his works. Synthesiser maestro Ed Zuccollo performed an excerpt of ‘Overture; Aotearoa’ (1940), pianist Jian Liu played ‘Sea Changes’ (1946) and Wellington’s The Labcoats reinterpreted one of Lilburn’s later electro acoustic works ‘Welcome Stranger’ (1974).

Established in 2007, The New Zealand Music Hall of Fame pays tribute to those that have had a significant impact on New Zealand life and culture through music. Lilburn’s induction makes him the 15th addition and sees him join household names the likes of Jordan Luck, Dave Dobbyn, Shihad, Herbs and more.

The winners of all awards were:

APRA Silver Scroll Award – won by Tami Neilson and Joshua Neilson for Walk (Back to Your Arms)

APRA Maioha Award – won by Robert Ruha for his song Tiki Tapu.

SOUNZ Contemporary Award - won by Michael Norris for Inner Phases.

APRA Best Original Music in a Feature Film – won by Victoria Kelly for Field Punishment No 1.

APRA Best Original Music in a Series – won by Tom McLeod for Girl vs. Boy (Season 2).

Most Performed New Zealand Work in New Zealand – won by Ella Yelich-O’Connor* and Joel Little^ for Team. (*Native Tongue Music Publishing on behalf of SONGS Music Publishing LLC / ^EMI Music Publishing Australia)

Most Performed New Zealand Work Internationally – won by Ella Yelich-O’Connor* and Joel Little^ for Royals. (*Native Tongue Music Publishing on behalf of SONGS Music Publishing LLC / ^EMI Music Publishing Australia)

New Zealand Music Hall of Fame inductee – Douglas Lilburn

The night was streamed live via NZ Herald online brought to you by Yealands Family Wines The full show is available for your viewing pleasure from tomorrow atwww.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment

Videos of the performances will be made available via the APRA AMCOS Youtube channel in coming weeks.

Photos from the night are available from the APRA AMCOS website www.apraamcos.co.nz or by contacting Lauren@maidennz.com

The 49th annual APRA Silver Scroll Awards were kindly supported by Wellington City Council, Yealands Family Wines and Budweiser. The awards were held at Wellington’s TSB Arena on Thursday 30th October 2014.

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