Singer-songwriter Anthonie Tonnon, of Whanganui, received the 2022 Taite Music prize for his 2021 album Leave Love Out Of This on Sunday.
Tonnon said receiving the award, named after the late music journalist Dylan Taite, was "pretty surreal".
It had been a surprise to win against such a strong field, he said.
Growing up in Dunedin, he had wanted to make music his career but never knew what the path would look like.
"No-one gives you a template," he said.
Playing shows as a University of Otago student was at times a little frustrating as it was hard to build an audience in Dunedin, but it helped to tour overseas and get more experience.
His winning album was influenced by growing up in Dunedin in the wake of the economic reforms of the 1980s.
"I think it was a change in mindset, we were this generation that was growing up to be these perfect rational actors ... I do think it has changed the way some of us think, for better or for worse," he said.
His father was a tradesman and Tonnon recalled going with him to collect railway sleepers from demolition yards and then using them to landscape people’s gardens around Dunedin.
He only realised a decade or so later that they were taking the resources of the New Zealand state, which had been sold at scrap prices, and using them to improve the value of individual properties.
His interest in rail had increased since music became his full-time career and his travelling show Rail Land had been one of the most fulfilling things in his career, particularly when chartering trains from Dunedin Railways.
Coming back to Dunedin was always great as there was a home crowd feel to the shows.
The city not having a medium-sized venue affected him as it was "very difficult" for performers who had a show of a certain size and scale but could not put enough people into a room to pay for it, despite having being able to sell enough tickets.
Towns across New Zealand could look at opening up venues and making them more accessible for a broader range of uses, in the same way that Dunedin had success using underused commercial spaces to run pop-up shops, he said.
