QUT music graduate Robbie Miller has found a new Australia-wide audience for his songs after being announced the winner of the 2013 triple j Unearthed National Indigenous Music Award.
The award was announced on July 10 and will see Robbie fly to Darwin to perform at the wider National Indigenous Music Awards on August 10 alongside current Indigenous stars.
"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to kick start my career and getting to play in front of thousands of people means a lot to me and my family," he said.
Robbie graduated from QUT Creative Industries in 2010 with a Bachelor of Music and is also completing an advertising degree with the QUT Business School.
The 24-year-old singer-songwriter is also a talented sportsman and was a member of the Queensland team that won the Imparja Cup for Indigenous cricketers in Alice Springs in February this year.
He combines his music and sport with working as a program manager with AIME - the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience.
Robbie is a descendant of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) people and was born in the remote central Queensland mining town of Bileola.
His family moved to Caboolture on Brisbane's northside when he was two and he grew up playing cricket and rugby union with local sides.
He first picked up a guitar in 2002 and soon after started writing and recording music with influences drawn from the Cat Stevens, Van Morrison and Neil Young.
He plans to release his debut EP later this year.
Triple j Unearthed executive producer Stephanie Carrick said the radio station had more than 650 tracks from artists who identified as Indigenous on triplejUnearthed.com.
"We had a wealth of new talent to choose from this year and we deliberated at length on our overall winner," she said.
"In the end it was the obvious raw talent and relative obscurity of Robbie Miller that convinced us he would benefit most from this opportunity."
Download two of Robbie Miller's tracks (Don't Go Walking Away, Oh Lord) on triple j Unearthed here and view an acoustic clip of Asked You Once here.
Media contact: media@qut.edu.au
