Hastings band wins international songwriting contest

Snake Eats Boy took part in the inaugural contest, called Uploaded, which was run by Andrson, an AI-powered music discovery platform.

The band will receive €10,000 for submitting its song, The Haunting of H. Quinn.

It was hand-picked from thousands of entries submitted from artists all over the world.

Initially conceived as a musical project in the early 2010s, Snake Eats Boy is a three-piece, acoustic folk-noir music collective based in Hastings.

The band said it cites its environmental surroundings as an influence on the music it creates, ranging from the folky beginnings of a countryside upbringing giving way to the wavy-surf tones of electric guitars shaped from a decade of living by the coast in Hastings.

On winning the competition, Snake Eats Boy said: “The standard was really great. I can’t put it anyway. It’s just promising to see people through a lockdown still chomping away at the bits. It’s been for me and everyone involved, therapy. It’s all been perfect. This is mad.”

Speaking about what cash prize will be spent on, the band added: “It will be going towards the future of Snake Eats Boy. It will be going towards paying off a few debts incurred while chasing a musical dream.”

Neil Dunne, co-founder of Andrson, said: “What a brilliant song to win our first-ever international songwriting competition.

“The Haunting of H. Quinn stood out as a clear winner among our panel of music industry experts for so many reasons.

“We created Uploaded as a way to not only inspire all budding musicians globally but also as a way to discover incredible talent from some of the best undiscovered musicians. Snake Eats Boy is just one of those.”

Secondary prizes were also declared within the competition. The People’s Choice award, chosen by the public, was awarded to EMERGER, an alt-pop duo from Cape Town, South Africa who wins €2,500. Irish singer-songwriter, Aby Coulibaly, won a complementary photoshoot with Christian Tierney, a photographer to the stars.

Launched in June 2020, Uploaded was an international song competition open to all budding songwriters to showcase their talents whereby their music was judged on originality, lyrics, melody, composition, production and the potential to be a ‘smash hit’.

More than 3,000 artists from more than 40 countries entered the competition.

* Got a story? Ring reporters Richard Gladstone on 07803 505794 or Stephen Wynn-Davies on 07393 754494.

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