For 23 years now, the Boston Music Awards have served as an annual who’s who in the regional music scene. This Sunday, the festivities return to the Liberty Hotel for a roving cavalcade of everything great about Boston music. Think of it less as a standard awards show and more like the best musical party of the year; you won’t need to go see another a local show for weeks, but you’ll want to. We asked some of the nominees a few questions about how badly they want to win.
Is it really just an honor to be nominated? Come on, you want to win this thing, right?
Dom of DOM (Nominee for Artist of the Year/New Artist of the Year/Song of the Year/Album of the Year):
Yeah. We don’t wanna be losers. We wanna win big.
Nikki Dessingue of Stereo Telescope (Nominee for Electronic Artist of the Year):
We’re so honored and ecstatic to be nominated. It would be cool to win, but it feels great to be recognized by the BMAs. Seriously, look at who we’re up against, and the other categories!
Chris Warren of Viva Viva (Nominee for Live Artist of the Year/Rock Artist of the Year):
It’s great to be recognized by a city as great as Boston for something we care about, but we didn’t start a rock ’n’ roll band to win a trophy. Unless the trophy looks the Oscar guy holding a guitar. In that case we would definitely want to win.
Ben Potrykus of Girlfriends (Nominee for New Artist of the Year/Rock Artist of the Year):
Winning would be cool, but it’s really just an honor to get to drink fancy drinks in a fancy hotel and play our songs for a bunch of people who might not have heard them otherwise.
Hayley Thompson King of Banditas (Nominee for New Artist of the Year):
First of all, I would like to be referred to as ‘Boston-Music-Award-Nominee-Hayley-Thompson-King.’ Wait, what were the questions? Oh yes … um, no … winning is certainly not important. It’s just another opportunity to wear a unitard.
How would you summarize the state of the Boston music scene this year?
M-Dot (Nominee for Hip-hop Artist of the Year):
On the rise. A lot of the artists nominated are doing things nationally and internationally. I know every time I tour Europe they tell me out there they see “Boston shining on the map.” And that makes me feel good, knowing the city is getting attention globally. Every city and country I go through I have all my Boston gear on, so I always wanna hear people recognizing the production of the Hub in recent years. Hopefully, I can carry the award with me when I tour France in March.
Khuri:
Eclectic and awesome. Fiddles, midi-keyboards and big bands together at last. If bands in Boston joined forces, it’d be better than Voltron.
Thompson King:
For me, Boston is a place where you can afford to live and do your art, where you’re not crushed by the massive pressure of [New York City]. I think we have something really special here.
Keene:
Eclectic would be the word I would use. Some music scenes have one kind of sound. I think Boston has tons of different bands doing all different styles of music. It makes it kind of difficult to have a unified “scene” or one decisive idea sometimes, but it also makes it a lot more interesting. I think I like it better this way.
Any bands you think were overlooked that deserve a nod?
Chris Keene of Mean Creek (Nominee for Album of the Year/Song of the Year):
I think Sodafrog should have been nominated for more categories, that album totally blew me away. That would be my pick for album of the year.
Mikey Lee of Coralcola (Nominee for Electronic Artist of the Year):
There are plenty of great acts who coulda woulda shoulda got a nod like Many Mansions, PPALMM, Ming Ming and Soul Clap, whose “Break 4 Life” record is one of my favorites, hands down, of the year. I also think Endless Wave could’ve been tapped for Best New Artist. They are fantastic.
Dessingue:
Definitely Doomstar! should have been nominated for best live act. I’ve probably seen them a dozen times this year and they absolutely killed it and had the whole crowd moving with them every single time. Super-energetic performance and great songs. They really take the whole garage/surfy/ rock thing that’s been picking up steam lately to the next level.
Potrykus:
Doomstar! are one of the best live bands in Boston, Young Adults just put out one of the best records of 2010, Four Eyes wrote one of the best songs of the year, Earthquake Party is one of the best rock bands in Boston, Cuffs just started playing out and are one of the best new bands we’ve heard. Also the Spirit Kid video for “My Imagination” is a great one, too!
If you can’t win your category, who else do you think it should be?
Reks (Nominee for Hip-hop Act of the Year):
Slaine deserves it more than any of us. Have you heard the song “Run It”? No one has done more in this category than he has this year. Period. Moe Pope’s album is phenomenal and Rain should have been nominated in the producer category for his contribution to “Life After God.” I honestly haven’t heard the new 7L & Esoteric album yet but Esoteric has earned my respect over the years especially since he knows I used to be the biggest hater but I love what he’s doing now. M-Dot, I feel, has earned his spot because of his work ethic and dedication to getting to the top. Cheers to him.
Naseem Khuri of Kingsley Flood (Nominee for New Artist of the Year/Americana Artist of the Year):
For Best New Artist, DOM is blowing up everywhere. For Americana, David Wax Museum is playing a ton and doing really well. And, we’re only ‘Americana’ while they’re ‘Mexo-Americana.’ They have a whole other word in their genre.
