Back in May, Brisbane singer-songwriter Georgia Potter was named the winner of the inaugural Carol Lloyd Award created to honour the late legendary rocker.
In the months since picking up the prestigious award and a $15,000 grant to produce her EP under the Moreton moniker, Georgia says the relief from the financial pressure of making a record means she’s been able to focus on developing the Moreton project to its fullest potential.
“I’ve been able to have some different conversations with different producers and we’re going to be working in a really nice studio, which will be a really lovely experience,” Georgia says.
“Also, I took a co-writing trip, which funnily enough none of the co-writes I did will be on the record, so that didn’t change the sound but it certainly has been inspiring.
“I will be taking an-ever-so slightly more of an adventurous approach to the [song] arrangements; I’m planning some horns and a few other orchestral elements I haven’t used before in Moreton, so I’m looking forward to that.”
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Georgia was one of over 70 entries and just 5 finalists who were assessed by a judging panel that included Queensland Music festival (QMF) Artistic Director Katie Noonan, co-founder of The Zoo Joc Curran and ex-Go-Between bassist John Willsteed.
Georgia says that winning the first Carol Lloyd Award has put a higher expectation on her work, which she confesses was difficult to come to terms with at first. “I actually wanted it so badly and then the day after I woke up having won it, I could feel my own pressure come crashing down,” she says.
“When somebody puts faith in you, you want to meet that expectation and I’ve definitely had to work to put that in a positive space where it is more of an enabler rather than being crippling, which is easy on some days and not easy on others.
“[There is] definitely the pressure of expectation but at the end of the day you can also interpret it as faith in your creative instinct and what I’m going to carry forward into the studio is that faith and trust in my creative choices.”
Applications for the 2018 Carol Lloyd Award are now open for any emerging Queensland female singer-songwriter who wants to take the next step in their career.
As the first-ever winner, Georgia has some practical advice for those considering entering. “You would benefit from having your project ready to go and going ahead regardless,” she says.
“There’s thing worse than trying to scramble together an idea and a project just for a grant; you need to be able to show that you’re going to hit the ground running.
“At the end of the day, a year to receive the grant and have the project completely finished, released and toured – it’s not actually a great deal of time.
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“Be clear about what your project is and what the timeline of it is, and show the clearest examples of your work. Being bold about what you want and what sort of space you want to carve for yourself as a woman in music.”
