Halifax – The first East Coast Music Award ever to be presented in the electronic category is coming to P.E.I.
During the MindSea Electronic Stage Friday night at The Palace, Charlottetown's English Words was named as this year’s recipient of the ECMA for electronic recording of the year for their album Red Potion.
Guitarist Andrew Murray said Saturday the band is obviously happy to win this kind of recognition, though not nearly as excited as his mother.
“My mom called me five times today before I woke up to congratulate me,” Murray said.
Synthesizer player Todd MacLean added that Murray called his father to break the news in the early morning hours.
“Andrew pocket dialed him by accident at 4 a.m.”
MacLean said to be recognized by the East Coast Music Association is something special and they’re all proud of what they’ve accomplished.
“Of course we’ve had recognition at home at the Music P.E.I. Awards before and we value that recognition, but this is something different, almost surreal,” MacLean said.
So what does it mean for them?
Murray said the award will look really good on their resume.
"My mom called me five times to congratulate me." - Guitarist Andrew Murray
“I think it puts you at another level with some people,” Murray said.
MacLean said they were really surprised to win because competition in that category was very strong.
Their competition included artists like In Dreams,
Joshua Van Tassel, Sp00nfed and Steven Naylor.
“We really didn’t know what was going to happen. We were really surprised,” MacLean said.
Both Murray and MacLean expressed the belief that it was a real honour to win this award at this time because this is the first year the electronic award has been offered.
“Some people in the electronic music industry in Atlantic Canada really put some good work into the creation of this category, making sure it was part of the mix. We really hope it continues,” MacLean said.
Murray said he would be very interested to see how the category grows over the next couple of years.
“I think there is enough electronic music happening in Atlantic Canada to keep the award active.” Murray said.
