NI Music Prize 2023: Dingle Distillery Music Trail performers take home key prizes!

Arborist, Chalk, Problem Patterns, TRAMP and more Dingle Distillery Music Trail artists heading to West Kerry next month win big at this week's NI Music Prize!

Some of the island’s most talented bands and artists were celebrated at the Northern Ireland Music Prize ceremony in the Ulster Hall on Wednesday night, and the Other Voices representation was at an all-time high! Our Dingle Distillery Music Trail tickets flew out the door last week, with over 55 incredible names on the bill, including some of the North’s most compelling established groups and rising singer-songwriters.

Organised by the Oh Yeah Music Centre, the NI Music Prize 2023 featured performances from Chalk, Problem Patterns, Conor Mallon, Ferna, Winnie Ama and last year’s ATL Artist of The Year winners, The Florentinas. A highlight on the night was Strabane folk/pop musician Paul Brady receiving the coveted Oh Yeah Legend Award, presented by the Irish Music Rights Organisation.

Elsewhere, the NI Music Prize Album of the Year was won by Arborist, AKA Mark McCambridge, who will perform along the Dingle Distillery Music Trail from December 1-3 in West Kerry this year! Arborist’s 2015 debut single ‘‘Twisted Arrow’ featured an astonishing duet with Kim Deal of The Breeders and it was a hint of what was to come. The musician’s first show was an opener for James Yorkston, before touring solo and performing alongside Low, Cat Power, Echo and The Bunnymen and Guy Garvey.

The 2016 debut album Home Burial and 2020 follow-up A Northern View received glowing praise from the The Guardian, MOJO and Uncut. For album number three, Arborist embarked on a solo trip to Richmond, Virginia in March 2022. Working alongside producer Matthew E White (Producer) and recording with the legendary Spacebomb House Band, they completed what has become An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros, released on Kirkinriola Records in April 2023. A gorgeous fever dream filled with groove and insight, it takes the Arborist sound one step further.

Last night, An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros took home the Album of the Year gong at the NI Music Prize, so make sure to catch his Dingle performances next month! The trophy was presented by Vic Galloway of BBC Scotland and Peter Leathem CEO of PPL.

Having energised the stage only a few weeks ago at Other Voices: Cardigan in West Wales, Belfast punk trio Chalk were named Live Act of The Year winners and recipients of the Joe Cassidy Chrysalis Award. The bursary of £3,000 from thespecial award was created by friends and family of the Chicago-based Belfast artist.

As it happens, the lads are signed up to perform on the DIngle Distillery Music Trail next month (they clearly can’t get enough of us!). Anyone lucky enough to catch the trio's visceral live sets rarely forget the experience.

Irish musicians (and Academy Award winning filmmakers) Ross Cullen, Benedict Goddard and Luke Niblock formed Chalk back in 2019 after they met whilst studying film. Realising they shared the same musical vision and ambitions, the three-piece sprung out of the gates live, supporting London's PVA in for their first ever shows. They later sold out five dates on their debut headline UK/IRE tour, with two full capacity performances at The Great Escape and packed rooms in London, Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow and Manchester. 

With the release of their debut EP 'Conditions', the band interweave their industrial noise/techno hybrid soundscape and the monochromatic gothic visual landscape in evocative style. Inspired by the ferocity and live performance of the likes of Death Grips and The Murder Capital, and informed by the sweaty hardcore dance scenes of their native Belfast (the breeding ground for acts like electronic duo BICEP), Chalk have begun work on their second project with producer Chris Ryan (NewDad, Just Mustard, Enola Gay).

Meanwhile, Belfast queerpunk outfit Problem Patterns scored Video of The Year, while Tramp were awarded BBC Introducing: ATL Artist of The Year. Problem Patterns' Music Video Market Place sponsored Video for ‘Who Do We Not Save’ created a stir upon its initial release. Released via Alcopop! Records, who the band have signed to, the track takes aim at the incompetent Tory government. Alanah Smith directed the visuals.

Beverley Boal, Bethany Crooks, Ciara King and Alanah Smith came together in Belfast in 2018 to create "shouty, heavy, tongue in cheek, inclusive, hopeful and damn good fun punk rock", and they're doing it their own way.

Already backed by legitimate punk rock legends Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill/Le Tigre) and Henry Rollins (Black Flag) as ones to watch, they’re a band who are all about creating havoc in celebratory and cathartic spaces, and have played notable support slots with iconoclasts Le Tigre, Bob Vylan and Fight Like Apes. Problem Patterns are known for swapping roles and instruments to get their point across about whatever angers them that week. Catch them next month on the Dingle Distillery Music Trail, tearing up various stages!

Donegal band TRAMP’s fiery and cathartic performance combines earworm guitar riffs & drums which keep you guessing - with a raw, unrelenting voice. This bunch of north west Ireland’s DIY, post-punk-inspired hallions have taken the North or Ireland by storm, going from supporting The Undertones, TOUTS and Cherym to selling out venues with their headline slot at Output 2023 Showcase.

Northern Irish-Ghanaian artist Winnie Ama also performed at Wednesday's NI Music Prize event, ahead of her exciting debut set in West Kerry.

With aresidency with Pirate Studios - Ama has been tipped as a Rising Artist by RTÉ 2FM and One to Watch by BBC Introducing ATL. The Belfast born and raised soul musician's writing style is inspired by Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone and Amy Winehouse, with a background in jazz before she started releasing her own contemporary neo-soul/pop tunes in 2019. Winnie Ama has also received recognition from Macy Gray and Sister Sledge, who both invited her to open their shows in Cork and Belfast respectively. Dingle is lucky to have her!

Oh Yeah Music Centre's Charlotte Dryden remarked how this year's ceremony was a great night for the music industry in Northern Ireland.

“We might be living in some of the most challenging times, but tonight was a needed moment of positivity,” she offered. "Recognition and acknowledgment for music creators is more important than ever and we thank our sponsors and supporters for getting behind that.

"Congratulations to all the acts tonight. Music moves people in many ways and tonight that was available to everyone.”

Sign up to the waiting list here for this year's Dingle Distillery Music Trail, kicking off on December 1st!