Friday sees this year’s Scottish Alternative Music Awards. Held at The Classic Grand in Glasgow’s Jamaica Street, the show will be hosted by comedian Billy Kirkwood, and will see exclusive performances from a number of Scottish Artists.
Founder Richy Muirhead says that the intention is to recognise and award some of the best new talent emerging in the Scottish music industry across various genres. He was “inspired from attending MTV Europe Music Awards in Berlin 2009 and was completely blown away from the high production and scope of artists/event. Then I had the ambitious idea to recreate it back in Scotland, at the time it also tied in with a creative music module at university so it made a lot of sense to try something new!”
He’s worked hard to create a buzz around the event. To select the nominees, he organised a series of regional music panels from around Scotland. He had “heats” in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness, as well as Stirling and his home base in Ayrshire.
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He’s also been determined to develop the awards and to increase the number of categories, adding Best Electronic and Best Acoustic to the line-up. “The reasons for this,” he explained, “are simply because there is a real scene all around Scotland for these two types of music,” adding that there are many innovative producers and really gifted performers. He wanted the fans to be involved in deciding the winners, so online voting has been running all month. To help them get a flavour for each of the categories, special videos have been made and posted on YouTube. For example, the Best Acoustic Newcomers include Tragic Ohara and Steven Kemp. Another category is Best Metal and the nominees include Departures, Carnivores and Metaltech. And to emphasise the diverse backgrounds of the musicians, a lead member of MetalTech is businessman Rory Alsop who’s been a leading figure in the international information security and risk solutions sector for the past 15 years. Richy says that one “local band from Ayrshire called Athos Vienna really caught my attention recently– they’re a 3 piece who are a really tight band, with good arrangements and big harmonies. Can’t really go wrong with that mix! A few other artists to look out for are Miniature Dinosaurs and Xavia. they’re ticking all my boxes.”We need your support. Please donate to The Caledonian Mercury
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