The PDA acronym can produce mixed feelings in people - from cringe to disgust in some quarters.

But in the music industry here in Aotearoa, PDA is celebrated.

Not Public Displays of Affection - but APRA's Professional Development Award.

This highly-coveted career booster received a record number of entries this year, each hoping for one of the $10,000 grants to contribute towards their future - be it mentorship and internships, music and production lessons, stage craft development, attending sound art residencies or production camps. The award is intended to help artists develop their songwriting skills domestically or internationally, where funds have been a hindering factor.

The PDA used to be given out bi-annually, but the increased demand saw it made an annual occurrence back in 2021,  with the five chosen for 2024 taking the tally to 44 overall recipients since it opened in 2005. 

Diaz Grimm (Ngāwhā, Ngāpuhi) creates at the crossroads of music and technology. In his latest project, he stepped out as the world’s first Indigenous avatar rapper, creating from the perspective of a musician standing with one foot deeply entrenched in the rich world of Māoritanga, and the other in a futuristic metaverse. His face and body are made of pixels, but his heart and soul were raised on by the ethos of te ao Māori.

Grimm will use the APRA Professional Development Award to undergo a self-designed intensive boot camp - up-skilling to hone their skills and set a standard for their artistic practice to continue long after. The camp involves specialists in areas of lyricism, rhyming, performance, freestyling, cultural knowledge, and voice control. 

Grimm enthuses “The PDA funding is going to allow me the ability to develop myself in ways that I just couldn't achieve without the extra help. It's a great opportunity for me to level up in a way that I've been wanting to move towards for a long time but have been held back due to the costs involved. Really looking forward to seeing how far this support will help me go!”

Gussie Larkin has already proven to be a widely-talented creative, both as a songwriter and a visual artist. Founding member of regularly award-nominated band the Mermaidens (of which Larkin and her co-writers are up for the Silver Scroll next month with I Like to be Alone) as well one half of Earth Tongue, Larkin's also hugely admired for her album cover art, has found success as an event promoter and music video director.

As you'd expect with someone so versatile, she's stretching her PDA funding in several directions. That includes attending panel talks and workshops and forming international music connections at The Reeperbahn Festival and Conference in Hamburg - the largest club festival in Europe. Larkin will also take a comprehensive ‘Introduction to Pro Tools’ online course through UCLA to further her desire to break into composing for film, TV and commercial projects; undergo co-writing and mentoring sessions with Samuel Flynn Scott (The Phoenix Foundation) and attend songwriting sessions with an acclaimed musician in Los Angeles.

Currently based in Germany, Larkin explains "It means a lot to me to be recognised by APRA through this award. I have and always will write songs, but it isn't easy to maintain a balance between real-life responsibilities and the magical inner world that I get to access through writing songs. The PDA will allow me to dive right into that zone and to slow down my songwriting practice. 

"I'll be working one-on-one alongside some musicians I really admire, developing my production skills, and generally getting out of my comfort zone."

Paloma Schneideman is another with a ridiculous number of hats in her creative wardrobe. Known to many by her stage name PollyHill, she is entrenched across the music, theatre and film industries, moving between performing, producing, composing, writing, directing, and ultimately - storytelling. She is currently gearing up to direct her debut feature film, slated for production in early 2025.

Schneideman's PDA payday will be used to support upskilling of practical abilities. With a focus on growing live mixing, engineering and performing in technical skill and sound quality for live scores in dance and theatre, Schneideman will also attend the School of Synthesis in Melbourne for a six-week training course in the specific field of live engineering. Additionally, Schneideman intends to shadow an established composer for film and television to learn the technical aspects of scoring, as well as observing other essential aspects like client/relationship management.

Schneideman describes the PDA as a huge privilege. "This sort of validation and support has come at a pretty crossroad moment for me so feels like a big affirmation to keep going. As someone who’s battled with imposter syndrome for the longest time (I still regularly wonder if I’m garbage and wasting my time), I feel very reaffirmed and held by my creative network. 

"I am incredibly grateful and honoured for this opportunity, especially as someone who is so astutely aware of the immense talent among my community, whose work continues to inspire me. Thank you APRA, for this chance to fully invest in my craft and move forward with renewed energy and inspiration."

James 'Mac' McDonald, is a seasoned session musician and musical director. The judging panel noted that he has developed a comprehensive toolkit of performance technology and resources he is eager to share with emerging artists and youth. 

McDonald will utilise the funds from the award to attend the Electronic Creatives MasterTrack course in Los Angeles. The 12-date course will allow James to spend one-on-on time with some of the most successful live musical directors and arrangers in the world. The trip will align with a week-long Mix the Masters seminar in Europe, where participants spend time together with a guest speaker sharing ideas about music engineering and production. 

McDonald says “With such a wealth of information about live show direction online, and also technical manuals on the how-to, there is very little creative and thorough help on how to execute a high standard of production. 

"The incredible APRA Professional Development grant will directly allow me to attend Los Angeles and E.U.-based in-person workshops led by the MDs behind Harry Styles, Dua Lipa, and others at the very top of the performance sphere. My aim is to apply these learnings to Aotearoa-based artist formats - in an effort to lift the performance production of all our emerging acts.”

Networking, upskilling and immersing herself in the international contemporary music scene will be the focus for composer and sonic artist Garling Wu after being given the $10K backing. 

Her track record has seen her build interactive sound installations, collaborate with choreographers and dancers, use innovative motion-tracking systems for live performances and compose music for multi-channel speakers. Weaving together real and imagined sound worlds, she hopes to create music that evokes a gestalt reaction—something more than the sum of its individual parts.

Garling notes "With the support of this award, I’ll be able to travel to three international music and arts festivals in Spain (Mixtur Festival of Sound Creation), the United Kingdom (Sound Image Festival) and Japan (Setouchi International Art Tienniale). These experiences represent a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me - they will allow me to learn and develop as an artist in ways that simply would not be possible without the support of APRA. 

"Through my experiences growing up in Manurewa, South Auckland, I believe it is so important to support creative people who come from working-class backgrounds and to elevate voices that often don't have the resources or opportunity to contribute to the arts and culture of Aotearoa."