Earlier this month, Australian DJ, artist, and industry mentor KLP (Kristy Lee Peters) launched the inaugural VITAL Songwriting & Industry Mentorship Program.

Supported by Sound NSW, the program is focused on lifting emerging local female and gender-expansive artists’ voices. The ten musicians successful in entering the program will access high-level mentoring, collaborative songwriting sessions, and monthly industry development check-ins from September 2025 to August 2026.

The successful applicants will receive mentorship from KLP, Anna Fitzgerald (Ms.Fitz Communications), Tom Honeywill (Late Nite Business, Medium Rare Recordings), and Lachie McQueen (Breezecore Music), plus a $1,000 production grant to go towards mixing and mastering a track developed during the program.

Applications close on Monday, 25 August - you can apply here. Ahead of the program taking place, KLP has taken The Music on a journey surrounding VITAL, which you can read below.

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After years of working as an artist, songwriter, DJ, producer, and now in publishing at Sweat It Out, it’s clear to me that there is so much incredible talent in Australia. But I’ve also seen too many artists stall, not because they’re not good enough, but because they don’t have the right team or access to mentors, networks, industry know-how, or the kind of long-term support that can actually make a difference.

Don’t get me wrong, one-off workshops and conferences can be amazing. They can light a spark and get the ideas flowing. But growth in this industry doesn’t happen in one weekend. It’s a slow burn. It’s learning your craft, building your confidence, figuring out the business side, and developing your own sound and doing that again and again and again.

Another challenge for emerging artists is building a strong, trusted team. In music, it’s easy for anyone to say they’re a manager, a publicist, or a mentor, but finding people who truly know their stuff, have runs on the board, and genuinely have your back is a different story. With VITAL, I’m opening up pathways to some of the best industry professionals I know, people who are part of my own personal team and who I trust with my career. These are the people I call when it really matters, and now they’ll be sharing that same expertise with the program’s artists.

VITAL is all about giving female and gender-expansive artists in NSW a whole year of support to do exactly that. We’ve got monthly one-on-one mentor sessions with myself and other industry legends, a two-day creative and professional development intensive in Sydney, and even a $1,000 production grant so each artist can finish and release a track they create during the program.

And honestly, one of the best parts of something like this is the relationships it creates. The friendships, the collaborations, the “call me anytime” mentor moments, they’re often what artists lean on long after the program ends. Those connections can be the difference between giving up and pushing through.

The music scene, especially in dance and electronic, is very visibly still male-heavy. That’s not news. But representation matters. When you see someone like you producing, performing, or sitting in the big decision-making chairs, it shifts what you think is possible for yourself. VITAL is about actively building more of those stories and successes, not just talking about the need for change.

My hope is that the artists who come through this program not only grow their own careers but also turn around and pull others up with them. If we want a more inclusive, exciting, and future-focused music industry, it starts with creating real, tangible pathways like this.

And I can’t wait to see where this journey takes them.