Musicians win Tamworth award

AN INVERLOCH band has made its mark on the country music scene by winning a major award at the home of Australian country music, the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
Souly Us won APRA AMCOS New Songwriter of the Year 2019 through the Tamworth Songwriters Association (TSA), sponsored by APRA AMCOS.
Souly Us won the award for its song Meant to Be and was a semi-finalist in the lyric only section with another song, Walk Away.
The group is Inverloch couple, Kate Appleyard and Ben Mawdsley.
Kate said she and Ben just looked at each other in utter amazement when their names were called.
“They started playing the chorus of our song loudly and we got to walk through the crowd to the stage, say our speech and hold our beautiful trophies! It’s a moment we will always remember,” she said.
Ben said, “We were against incredible and talented songwriters in these awards and to have our names read out as the winner, well that was a moment I won’t forget.” 
The couple were shaking in their seats ahead of the announcement.
“My mum Wendy and her two friends, Rae and Kerry, were there supporting us too,” Kate said.
“When they started announcing the finalists they played a snippet of each song. When they announced the winner, we couldn’t believe it.
“We were so proud of ourselves for even getting to this point. This was our first song release, our first time to Tamworth, our first grand final position for our music as we released Meant to Be about four months ago.
“It meant so much to us to be there let alone win the title for New Songwriter of the Year! A very emotional time and such a proud moment.”
Kate said they submitted Meant to Be into the New Songwriter of the Year category as it was their first and only release at that time.
This allowed them to qualify for the category as it had to be a commercially released song.
“A panel of TSA judges examined the songs that were up for an award and decided which artists made the finals and who won the overall title,” Kate said.
The song was inspired by remembering what it was like to have your first love, Kate said.
“It also incorporates a summer feel with beaches, sunshine and summer nights. Those days when you were young, wild and care free like the world was at your fingertips, and it still is, even though us humans lose track of it every now and again when we get so caught up in our day to day lives,” she said.
“However, more often than not first loves end but you never forget!”
Souly Us now plan to travel and take their music worldwide.
“We are so appreciative for the support of our local community and the people who know us, but we can’t wait to see where our music can take us. This is our passion, what we feel we were born to do,” Kate said.
Ben added, “It so special we can write and perform music together. This has taken us places recently and it will take us places in the future. Kate is an amazing singer and her ability to create melodies and write storytelling lyrics for our songs, she’s a very clever girl.”
The couple started songwriting together 10 months ago. Meant to Be was one of the first songs they wrote.
They have now released an EP, Hello World, which debuted at number five on the iTunes Country Music Charts.
It can be streamed on all digital stores including Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes.

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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Jan 30 2019. Filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry