King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Awarded Environmental Music Prize

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are the winners of the inaugural Environmental Music Prize.

The Environmental Music Prize is an audience voted award recognizing artists who inspire action for climate change.

Stu Mackenzie, the band’s singer and main songwriter says: “We’re so humbled to have won the inaugural Environmental Music Prize! It’s fantastic and deeply important for initiatives like this one, to help build community around the fight against the climate crisis.

I’ve written quite a few songs about climate change, but after the black summer bushfires in 2019-2020, shit started to feel dire. It still feels dire – more dire. We need actual, real, tangible action from our leaders, otherwise what are they there for? Why are we not doing everything we humanly can to right our wrongs? When we’re literally on fire, why not now? If not now, then when?

This song is part of a larger idea, a thread and a collection of narratives that extend through all of our music. Exploring themes of climate destruction and what that might look like, is an important exploration for us. A window of what reality could be, if we fail to take real action.”
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard will donate the $20000 first prize to The Wilderness Society to further conservation and climate action in Australia.

The winning song was ‘If Not Now, Then When?’.

Animator Dr D Foothead said, “The song made me consider how individual action or inaction affects the world. What happens when our repressed pain, darkness and confusion manifest and influence our surroundings and relationships?

“I wanted to explore the journey of a character who has neglected their inner shadow, and how this energy manifests physically and becomes a force of its own.”

Environmental Music Prize Founder, Edwina Floch says of the winner: “Music has the power to capture our imagination, touch us deeply, and enable us to dream big.

“The incredible engagement of talented musicians, fans, climate concerned citizens was amazing and I’m so delighted that the Environmental Music Prize resonated so strongly and received such strong high level support in year one. We’ll be building quickly from here to provide ongoing support, opportunity and reward for artists who are actively using their voice to advance environmental issues during this crucial decade.

“Of course, I’m also extremely excited to see that the money I donated into the prize is now being re-donated back to fund frontline conservation work by The Wilderness Society… the multiplier effect in between has been massive!”

Matt Brennan, CEO, The Wilderness Society says: “’If Not Now, Then When?’ Indeed! King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s Environmental Music Prize-winning song calls for action amidst the normalised calamity. The joyousness of the groove belies the urgent message for climate and nature. We congratulate them on the award and we are deeply grateful for their decision to donate their $20,000 prize to the Wilderness Society to act now. Congratulations to all of the artists who participated, music can surely change the world!”

The finalists for the award were:

Billy Otto CAN’T TAKE THE OCEAN OUT OF ME
Briggs and Tim Minchin HOUSEFYRE
Ciaran Gribbin WHAT IF
Eskimo Joe SAY SOMETHING
Holy Holy HELLO MY BEAUTIFUL WORLD
Holy Holy PORT ROAD
In Hearts Wake WORLDWIDE SUICIDE
Jack River WE ARE THE YOUTH
Jess Ribeiro IN LOVE WITH THIS PLACE
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN?
King Stingray HEY WANHAKA
L-Fresh The Lion MOTHER
Lime Cordiale ADDICTED TO THE SUNSHINE
Little Green THE NIGHT
Paul Kelly SLEEP AUSTRALIA SLEEP
Reverend Bones THE SKY WAS BLUE (THE BUSHFIRE SONG)
Rory Phillips THE TRUTH
Sage Roadknight VOICES
Small Island Big Song TA’U TAMA
Tambah Project OUR SONG
The Boy Of Many Colors, featuring Emily Wurramara WHEN A TREE FALLS
Virtual Choir by The Bowerbird Collective WORLD MIGRATORY BIRD DAY
What So Not, featuring Evan Giia MESSIN’ ME UP
William Crighton, featuring William Barton & Julieanne Crighton YOUR COUNTRY

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