Four dominate 2004 music awards finalists

Four dominate 2004 music awards finalists

A hip hop superstar, a quirky pop rock quartet and a soulful newcomer dominate the nominations for the Vodafone NZ Music Awards 2004.

Top-selling hip hop artist Scribe grabs the most nominations with nine while Brooke Fraser commands six in her first year at the recording industry’s annual celebration of kiwi music.

Pop rock band Goodshirt are finalists in five categories and are the only winning artists from last year to be nominated again in 2004. The group was nominated for four awards in 2003 taking out Single of the Year and Songwriter of the Year.

Dimmer, the creation of former Straightjacket Fits front man Shayne Carter, also features prominently with nominations in four categories.

Finalists for 20 Awards have been announced with three technical awards being presented at a function in Auckland (see separate story).

The Tuis are to be handed out by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) at the 39th annual awards ceremony at the Aotea Centre, THE EDGE® in Auckland on September 22.

RIANZ music awards spokesperson Adam Holt is delighted with the standard of finalists. He says competition for places has never been hotter.

“Last year’s awards were huge in terms of the musical talent represented and we’re right up there again this year. The new names coming through mean the music industry in New Zealand continues to produce outstanding talent.

“It certainly fulfils the primary aim of these awards – that is, to promote and celebrate the talented pool of artists and musicians who make incredible, undeniable New Zealand music.”

Scribe’s nominations include those for Vodafone People’s Choice, Best Male Solo Artist, International Achievement Award, L&P Best Urban/Hip Hop Album and PlayStation®2 Album of the Year. He has also been nominated for Songwriter of the Year together with P-Money, Con Psy and Savage for Not Many – The Remix!

Brooke Fraser was signed to her record company as an 18 year old based on one boardroom performance. Two years later, in her first foray into the awards, she has been nominated for the Vodafone People’s Choice Award, Best Female Artist, Export Gold Breakthrough Artist of the Year, PlayStation® 2 Album of the Year, Single of the Year and Songwriter of the Year (Lifeline).

Goodshirt and Dimmer have both been nominated for Best Rock Album, Export Gold Best Group, PlayStation® 2 Album of the Year and Single of the Year. Goodshirt also features as a finalist in the Vodafone People’s Choice Award.

Technical award winners announced for music awards

The organisers of the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards 2004 have announced three technical awards.

They are: Best Album Cover Tui goes to Ben Sciascia for Supergroove’s Postage Best Engineer Tui goes to Chris van de Geer for Carly Binding’s Passenger Best Producer award goes to P-Money for Scribe’s The Crusader.

Ben Sciascia – Best Album Cover Supergroove’s Postage is a ‘flashback’ album of greatest hits and the cover was designed by the band’s former guitarist Ben Sciascia. The album debuted at number 10 on the New Zealand Album Chart, remaining in the Top 20 for four weeks, and the Top 50 for seven weeks going gold a week after release.

From 1990 to 1996, Ben learned his craft designing album artwork, posters, merchandising and direct marketing for Supergroove as well as working freelance for design firm DeBeer Adams.

When Supergroove disbanded in 1996 Ben focused on design and advertising full time, forming Sciascia Brothers Advertising. (Further details below)

Chris van de Geer – Best Engineer Chris van de Geer was engineer for all tracks on Carly Binding's Passenger album and also performed guitar duties on some of the tracks.

Chris has been a musician / writer since his early teens and has a strong interest in the art of making records.

He has been working as a engineer for more than 10 years and has engineered or engineered/co-produced many New Zealand artists such as Tim Finn, Strawpeople, the feelers, Bic Runga, Dave Dobbyn, Garageland, Greg Johnson, Savant, Eye TV, Splitter.

P-Money – Best Producer P-Money is New Zealand’s premier hip-hop Producer / DJ. As a producer and recording artist, P-Money received critical acclaim and international recognition for his gold selling debut album ‘P-Money – Big Things’.

P-Money’s proficiency behind the boards has led him to become one of the most ‘in-demand’ hip-hop producers in the south pacific, composing & recording tracks for local hip-hop luminaries such as Scribe, Deceptikonz, Ill Semantics, Unique, King Kapisi and Che-Fu and Nesian Mystic.

Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards spokesperson Adam Holt says it’s important for technical experts to be recognised.

“Without the quality work produced by these people behind the scenes New Zealand music would be not be the force it is today.

“It is our pleasure to honour their work and the vital role they play in the ongoing success of local music.”

The remaining 22 Tuis are to be handed out by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand at an industry only event at the Aotea Centre, THE EDGE® in Auckland on September 22.

Awards web site http://www.nzmusicawards.co.nz

Note to editors A full list of finalists accompanies this news release.

More on Ben Sciascia The concept behind the Postage artwork was to tell the story of Supergroove using printed material, rather than liner notes.

Posters, flyers, photographs, press clippings, fan mail, tour itineraries and unused artwork from various band and record company sources was gathered together and put into chronological order.

The cover image is a paper sculpture created from previous Supergroove covers, cut and glued together and then photographed.

At this point a decision was made to use hand-constructed elements only, with the aim of giving an original look to the artwork. The “Postage” text on the cover was created from screwed-up printouts of each letter.

The “Best of” text was created with printouts and sellotape. The font used throughout the artwork was a custom font made from 4 point text printed to a laser printer, enlarged on a photocopier then digitally turned into a font.

The dedication page was constructed from photocopied printouts, cut up and suck together with sellotape.

The characters under the booklet were originally created for the “Tractor” release, but were abandoned at the time. The artwork was resurrected and finished for “Postage”.

The characters were created from various facial features of each band member, distorted on a photocopier, glued together, then stuck onto spliced up photographs of 50’s pop stars.

The rest of the artwork was created using the historical material laid-up into spreads, which tell the story of Supergroove (formally “The Low-Down Dirty Blues Band” formally “Little Boy Blues”) from beginning to end.

Finalists For The Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards 2004

PLAYSTATION® 2 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Brooke Fraser – What To Do With Daylight Dimmer – You’ve Got To Hear The Music Goodshirt – Fiji Baby Phoenix Foundation – Horsepower Scribe – The Crusader

SINGLE OF THE YEAR

Brooke Fraser – Lifeline Dimmer – Getting What You Give Goldenhorse – Maybe Tomorrow Goodshirt – Buck It Up Scribe – Stand Up

EXPORT GOLD BEST GROUP

Dimmer – You’ve Got To Hear The Music Elemeno P – Love & Disrespect Goodshirt – Fiji Baby

EXPORT GOLD BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Adeaze – Always And For Real Brooke Fraser – What To Do With Daylight Minuit – The 88

BEST MALE SOLO ARTIST

Greg Johnson – Here Comes The Caviar Nathan Haines – Squire For Hire Scribe – The Crusader

BEST FEMALE SOLO ARTIST

Bic Runga – Live In Concert Brooke Fraser – What To Do With Daylight Hayley Westenra - Pure

SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR

Brooke Fraser – Lifeline Greg Johnson – Save Yourself Scribe, P-Money, Con Psy & Savage – Not Many – The Remix! list-2

HIGHEST SELLING NEW ZEALAND ALBUM

Bic Runga – Beautiful Collision Hayley Westenra – Pure Scribe – The Crusader

HIGHEST SELLING NEW ZEALAND SINGLE

Ben Lummis – They Can’t Take That Away Blindspott – Phlex Scribe – Stand Up

CHANNEL Z BEST ROCK ALBUM

Dimmer – You’ve Got To Hear The Music Elemeno P – Love & Disrespect Goodshirt – Fiji Baby

L&P BEST URBAN / HIP HOP ALBUM

King Kapisi – 2nd Round Testament Mareko – White Sunday Scribe – The Crusader

BEST DANCE / ELECTRONICA ALBUM

Concord Dawn – Uprising Salmonella Dub – One Drop East Shapeshifter – Riddim Wise LP

C4 BEST MUSIC VIDEO

Chris Graham – Stand Up (Scribe) Gary Sullivan – Getting What You Give (Dimmer) Mark Trethewey & Shane Mason – Fools Love (Misfits Of Science)

VODAFONE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

Brooke Fraser Elemeno P Goodshirt Scribe Steriogram Zed

BEST JAZZ ALBUM

Charmaine Ford – Blues For Guppy The Frank Gibson Quartet – Rainbow Bridge The Rodger Fox Big Band – A Rare Connection

list-3

BEST MAORI ALBUM

Ruia – Hawaiki Hirini Melbourne, Richard Nunns and Aroha Yates-Smith - Te Hekenga - a - rangi Whirimako Black - Tangihaku

BEST PACIFIC MUSIC ALBUM

Adeaze – Always And For Real Te Vaka – Tutuki The All Stars – Pele Ea

BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM

John Psathas – Psathas: Fragments New Zealand String Quartet – Szekely / Dvorak NZSO – David Farquhar: Three Symphonies

BEST GOSPEL / CHRISTIAN ALBUM

Magnify – In Wonder Parachute Band – Glorious Peter Posa – My Pick

INTERNATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Bic Runga Hayley Westenra Scribe

AIRPLAY RECORD OF THE YEAR

To be announced on the night

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

To be announced on the night

© Scoop Media