It’ll be guitar picks at dawn for two QUT staffers later this month when they battle it out for Album of the Year at the Queensland Music Awards.
They may be of different generations but John Willsteed and Zoe Davis are both poster children for the outstanding QUT music program.
Dr Willsteed, a QUT Creative Industries music lecturer and former Go-Betweens member, plays guitar in Halfway which is in the running for its fifth album The Golden Halfway Record. One of the songs from the album, Three In and Nothing But The Stars, is up for Best Country song.
Released through ABC Music in 2016, The Golden Halfway Record was produced by industry legend Mark Nevers in Nashville, Tennessee, and has received rave reviews from Australian music press. It made it into the top 10 of the Aria album charts and number two in the country charts.
Ms Davis, a music graduate and technical services studio technician for QUT’s world-class music school, is lead guitarist with wildly successful indie-pop group Cub Sport which is a finalist for the album This Is Our Vice.
Cub Sport, which last year toured the UK and North America, are also up for Most Popular Group in the People’s Choice category and are finalists in the Pop and Best Video categories for the song Come On Mess Me Up.
Indie artist Ayla represents another QUT connection. The music graduate from the class of 2016 is also a finalist in the Pop category for her song Like The Other Kids. In 2015 she won the $10,000 Billy Thorpe Scholarship at the QMAs.
QUT Discipline Leader, Dance, Drama & Music Associate Professor Sandra Gattenhof said QUT’s representation in the list of 2017 finalists for the QMAs was a great boost to the reputation of the Creative Industries Faculty.
“The QUT music program is one of the best in Australia; even more so since the opening last year of our cutting edge new studios at the Creative Industries Precinct in Kelvin Grove,” said Dr Gattenhof.
“To have music lecturers of the calibre of John Willsteed is a great drawcard to budding musicians who are choosing QUT to start out on their path towards a creative career.
“Zoe and Ayla are the latest in a long line of stunning music talent to have emerged from QUT. Other noted alumni include Kate Miller-Heidke, Naomi Price, Michelle Xen and the members of Ball Park Music.
The winners of the 2017 Queensland Music Awards will be announced on 27 March at the Brisbane Powerhouse.
QUT is part of a national collaborative group of five major Australian universities that form the ATN (Australian Technology Network of Universities).
Media contact:
Amanda Weaver, QUT Media, 07 3138 9449, amanda.weaver@qut.edu.au
After hours: Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901, media@qut.edu.au
