By Melanie Jackson
msjacksonpei@gmail.com
Here on the east coast, we love our music. And we love our music makers. So much, in fact, we hand out awards to the folks who do it best.
Every year, the East Coast Music Association promotes and celebrates artists from Atlantic Canada in a five-day-long, internationally recognized event that showcases well-known musicians from across the region.
East Coast Music Week takes place in Halifax this year from March 6-10.
The event concludes with the East Coast Music Awards gala – where the region’s top artists are honoured and members from the international music industry gather to recognize and potentially market their talent.
The ECMAs, as they’re popularly known, are marking their 25th year of handing out awards. And this year, the nominees for one of those awards includes not one, but two Island acts who are no strangers to the music scene in Charlottetown and around the region.
Local DJ Donovan ‘Sp00nfed’ Morgan and well-travelled alt-pop rockers English Words share the ballot for the ECMA Best Electronic Recording of the Year – Morgan for his ‘Sweet Fades’ EP, and English Words for their debut album ‘Red Potion.’
News of his nomination took Morgan by surprise when he learned about it via a post by one of his friends on a social media site.
“A friend of mine tweeted me about it, and I was in shock.”
The award-nominated EP took only two months to complete, Morgan said.
He wrote it after being inspired at a festival where he had the chance to watch and interact with a DJ he’d idolized for years – Mark Farina.
“I was so motivated,” Morgan said. “After that, it all came together. Moments like that are all someone needs to get something done.”
For English Words front man, Ryan Crane, news of his band’s nomination also came from a friend via the Internet.
“The day the nominations were announced, I got an email from someone in our camp,” said Crane. “And I didn’t even know the nominations were being announced that day.”
This isn’t the band’s first ECMA nomination, however. Crane’s former band, Smothered In Hugs – comprised of many of the same members as English Words – was nominated for Rock Recording of the Year in 2010 for their album The Healing Power of Injury.
But Red Potion’s sound isn’t like the band’s former recording, yet their fans remained loyal, Crane said.
“It’s nice to know, I guess, that the change in style wasn’t completely insane or that we didn’t alienate too many people,” Crane said. “It’s exciting to try different things.”
Although it’s nice to be recognized, Crane said the award nomination isn’t the best thing East Coast Music Week has to offer – it’s the showcases that promote local musicians and the fans who come to see them play.
“Playing shows at these events is always good times,” said Crane. “People are excited and primed to be entertained.”
While Morgan is thrilled to be an ECMA nominee, it’s just one more thing he’s added to his list of recent achievements. He welcomed a new baby boy earlier this year and landed his first FM radio show in the same week he learned about his award nomination.
“Any one of those things would be enough to send me over the moon,” Morgan said.
Morgan and Crane have more than just Electronic Recording of the Year nominations in common, however. Both are thankful for one important factor that helped them achieve their nominee status – fan support.
“It fills me with a lot of pride and humility that anyone else would like the stuff I do,” Morgan said.
And Crane said their fans are the “only reason” English Words continues to plays shows and records albums.
“Otherwise, we’d never leave our rehearsal space.”
First appeared on The Surveyor Online - February 7, 2013
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