Laneway have received the prestigious honour of being awarded the Grant McLennan Memorial Fellowship 2012.

Established in 2007 in honour of the late Queensland singer-songwriter Grant McLennan, the $25,000 Fellowship offers the recipient an opportunity to travel to New York, London or Berlin for up to 2 months and use the experience of being immersed in a foreign and vibrant musical culture to further develop their own artistic skills.

Grant was one of Australia’s greatest songwriters and a founding member of internationally successful Brisbane band The Go-Betweens.

It’s been over three years since the release of their acclaimed debut album, If You Don’t Need It Let It Go. Now, after two years of pioneering and playing music from their sub-tropical abode in the southeast Queensland rainforest of Natural Bridge, Laneway have crafted a stunning new release entitled, Turn Your Love Up.

Featuring a superb collection of ten original songs penned by the duo, Turn Your Love Up displays strong and striking roomy guitars both gritty and delicate, reflecting light and shade, with haunted, floating vocals and diverse compositions.

The album was recorded in a vast number of environments and landscapes, including Grandma’s Place in Brisbane with Matt Redlich, Studios 301 in Byron Bay with Jordan Power, Delta Groove Studios in Ocean Shores with Fingers Malone, Little Gold Studios in Melbourne with Steve Fraser and a tracking session in one of the wooden dwellings on their property at Natural Bridge.

After being shortlisted for the prestigious songwriting award, The Grant McLennan Memorial Fellowship, Laneway released the lead single and opening track on the album, ‘Love is a Devil’ which coincidently, was one of the first songs the duo ever wrote together. The demo cassette sat patiently, collecting dust over the years until an opportunity presented itself with a place on the album.

A creeping ballad with wild arrangements, ‘Love is a Devil’ sets the tone for the rest of the album, compelling the listener to embark on a journey through the metaphorical woods.

Released through Crawler Records with support from Arts QLD and the Gold Coast City Council, Laneway will take their live show on the road, in full band mode, from August to October. They are playing a very special instore on the day of the release, August 1st, at Jet Black Cat Music, West End from 6:30pm.

Turn Your Love Up is available on iTunes from August 1st or direct from the artists here at this site through their online store.

The songwriting team of Laneway, Louise O’Reilly and Paul Hannan, along with Edward Guglielmino (Brisbane), Kellie Lloyd (Brisbane) and Sue Ray (Toowoomba) have been shortlisted for the Grant McLennan memorial Fellowship 2012. It is a very high honour for Queensland based songwriters and the recipient of the fellowship will be granted the opportunity to travel to Berlin, London or New York to immerse themselves in a cultural exchange to further develop their songwriting. Each of the nominated composers will perform at the Fellowship announcement along with Scott Spark, the 2011 winner and Adele Pickwevnace (The Go-Betweens) and Sally McLennan (Grant’s sister). The event, ‘Bands of Your Town’ is at the Judith Wright Center of Contemporary Arts and tickets are available through their box office.

Louise has been handpicked by songwriting extraordinaire Pat Pattison to receive a career development course from Berklee College of Music. This has come about through Louise’s involvement in APRA’s Song Summit 2012 where Pattison delivered intensive song writing workshops and selected two scholarship recipients from the conference based on their recordings.

Louise has been selected to attend the Song Summit music convention for 2012. She’ll be participating in songwriting workshops, panels and industry networking experiences. This is a wonderful opportunity for Louise and Laneway and would not have been possible without the support from Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) and Arts Queensland.

The new premises of Matt Redlich’s studios in Brisbane will be a space so may songs will be beautifully captured and released. It was a pleasure hovering in the halls and hearing the tales of the old timber sales yard that now houses that studio. Even more enjoyable was handing the new Laneway tunes over to the 2” tape last weekend. (And that is a mahogany bodied Martin guitar in the background behind Louise. Yes, indeed, it is.)

What do you get when you put Louise and Paul in a wooden house in the woods for a week - accompanied by Steve Fraser of Little Gold Studios? The start of a new record - that’s what.

Creeping out of the cabin to play a few shows in December, Louise and Paul will be joined by Fingers Malone (who plays drum set on Laneway releases) at two beautiful support shows. Hope to see you at one of these…’tis the season.

December 11th - 6pm
The Rails, Byron Bay NSW
featuring Fingers Malone on drumset
with The Lucky Wonders

December 16th - 8pm
The Soundlounge, Currumbin QLD
featuring Fingers Malone on drumset
with Frank Fairfield (USA)

 

It is a pleasure to announce that Louise & Paul were shortlisted this year for Queensland’s most prestigious songwriting award, The Grant McLennan Memorial Fellowship. The associations with such a talented composer and performer are very encouraging. And so, to the studio for that second album…