Sydney hardcore five-piece Speed has taken home the AU$80,000 top prize in the inaugural New South Wales Music Prize, awarded last week at a ceremony in Sydney for work on their 2024 debut album Only One Mode. The band — known for its flute-forward moments amid ferocious hardcore and for tackling topics such as male mental health and anti-Asian racism — said the award belongs to their scene and pledged to use the money to give back to the community that supported them.
The NSW Music Prize is part of a state cultural initiative intended to bolster local artists facing the dominance of international music on streaming platforms. The program’s first year offered a total prize pool of AU$160,000: the AU$80,000 main prize plus two AU$40,000 prizes (one for breakthrough artist and one for First Nations music). In 2025 those additional awards went to Ninajirachi (Breakthrough Artist) and Barkaa (First Nations category). State arts officials framed the new prize as a way to help homegrown acts cut through algorithm-driven listening trends.
Speed beat a field of high-profile nominees that included Rüfüs Du Sol, Ninajirachi, Onefour, Barkaa and others — underscoring how eclectic and competitive the NSW scene is right now. Critics and scene writers have pointed to Only One Mode as a major reason for their momentum: the album has been widely praised for pairing old-school hardcore urgency with contemporary production and socially pointed lyrics.
At the awards Speed thanked their local hardcore community and said they planned to “take some time to think about the best way we can pay that forward,” a sentiment that resonated with many outlets covering the night. Observers noted the symbolic weight of a hardcore band winning such a large, state-backed prize — both as recognition of the genre’s vitality and as an explicit investment in scenes that often operate outside mainstream industry channels.
Reaction in the Australian press and international outlets has been broadly celebratory: longform write-ups have highlighted Speed’s rapid rise (they opened for Turnstile on a recent run), the impact of Only One Mode, and how the NSW Prize itself could reshape funding conversations for musicians in Australia. Profiles of the band point to a DIY ethic, close ties to local venues and photographers, and a string of strong live shows that helped push them into contention for the prize.
