Do you love local music? Well, who doesn’t? If you just can’t get enough of the brilliant San Diego music you won’t want to miss the 22nd Annual San Diego Music Awards on August 13th at Humphrey’s By The Bay, presented by the San Diego Music Foundation. Please enjoy our interview Kevin Hellman about all things SDMA!

 
For the past 21 years the San Diego Music Awards have honored some of the greatest bands to ever come out of America’s Finest City including The Beat Farmers, Rocket From The Crypt, Jewel, Buck-O-Nine, Rochelle Rochelle and No Knife just to name a very tiny group of past winners. Presenting awards to bands in categories ranging from Best Tribute Band, to Best Acoustic. Best Americana to Best World Music. From Best Hip Hop, to Best Hard Rock all the way to Best Club DJ. Of course, there are also the categories for Album Of The Year, Best Local Album and Best New Artist. (For a full list of categories and 2012 nominees, or to cast your vote please click here!) Some of last year’s big winners found themselves back on the voting ballot in 2012. Little Hurricane who walked away with 3 awards last year including “Album Of The Year”, land in the running for Best Alternative and Artist Of The Year. Winner of both the Best New Artist and Best Blues awards in 2011, Low Volts, has been nominated for Best Blues and Song Of The Year. The Silent Comedy – winners of Best Pop in 2009 and 2011, Best Pop Album in 2010 and Best New Artist in 2008 return with two more nominations – Best Pop and Artist Of The Year. San Diego newcomers Mrs. Magician found themselves nominated for Best New Artist and Best Pop Album for their debut “Strange Heaven”. Also up for Best New Artist is Bunny Gang. A rock n roll trio that has rocketed to popularity in recent months. This year’s ceremony promises to be as big as ever with live performances by Euphoria Brass Band, The Mattson 2, Hyena, Hills Like Elephants, The Howls. Dead Feather Moon, as well as San Diego veterans Unwritten Law and POD.

Can’t wait to take part in all the fun? If you are like us you will be looking forward to some great events leading up to the big show. The festivities begin on August 1st with the Magners’ San Diego Music Series. 5 different events showcasing some of this year’s SDMA nominees including Mrs. Magician Thursday August 9th at the MCASD Downtown, Nervous Wreckords and The Howls August 5th at The Casbah and Cuckoo Chaos, Hills Like Elephants and Maren Parusel at Bar Pink August 4th. On Saturday August 11th, you can participate in the San Diego Music Awards Charity Softball game. Your “Donation to play” will place you onto a team for a day. Warm up starts at noon and the game begins at 1pm, Field 10 at the Kearny Mesa Rec Center. For full event details please visit the SDMA page.

Please enjoy our interview with Board President for the San Diego Music Foundationand CityBeat Publisher, Kevin Hellman as we learn more about the San Diego Music Awards.

 
How are the nominees chosen for the San Diego Music Awards each year?

Nominees are chose by a panel of music industry insiders, people who book music, write about music, or who program or play music on San Diego radio stations. These people are those who should know most about San Diego music.

With so many great local songs and records and the wide range of nominees for Song Of The Year, how are these chosen?

You see national acts in the category, (Blink, Jason Mraz) up against local acts (Low Volts) Typically, the Song of the Year category is for music that has received airplay on San Diego radio stations, outside of just local programming hours. Each of this years nominees has had regular rotation spins on a San Diego County station.

What is the criteria for a Lifetime Achievement Winner?

This award goes to someone who has been involved in music for many years. This award can go to someone who has made a long time contribution to the San Diego scene or has been an intergral part of San Diego music for many years.

In past years there has been a category for “Best Punk”. Is there a reason it is no longer a category in San Diego?

Over the years, our categories have changed on a regular basis. In the mid 90’s, the punk category was one that we felt was very important. But with music styles changing, the punk category was merged into the rock and alternative categories. As times change, so do our categories. The Gramny Awards do the same thing…categories will sometimes merge, and some are eliminated. You try and keep up with what’s going on in music.

Being in touch with so many San Diego bands / groups, how would you describe the status of the scene these days say from 10 years ago?

This is a really difficult question to answer. There are some absolutely awesome new music being created in town right now. But we are in that period where a group of artists has grown up, and have moved on to the national stage. And others, while writing great music, have yet to start taking that next step. I guess the best way to say it is that we’re in a bit of a development stage right now. Great music, but people have yet to discover it.

Has there been a specific performer any year that you were most excited to see?

I think going way back, I used to love The Beat Farmers shows…they were always a blast. They were early pioneers for San Diego music, when no one else was doing much of anything. I still miss Country Dick Montana…he gave that band a pulse with all the crazy shit he did. But he also promoted San Diego music like no one else did before, or after for that matter. He’s still missed to this day, by so many people.

Who are some of the bands/groups in San Diego that you have been jamming lately?

I listen to all kinds of stuff…I’m a Silent Comedy fan, I really like Little Hurricane. I’m glad to see each of them getting out of SD and working hard to make it happen on a national basis…not an easy thing to do. But there are some great new bands, like Dead Feather Moon and Mrs. Magician that I think are gonna be pretty special also.

Please finish this sentence… I love local music because…

To answer this question is kind of impossible. How about, I just love great music….and we leave it at that.

 
Thank You to Marjy Taylor and Kevin Hellman for working with us. Please visit the San Diego Music Awards for all event details, and follow their twitter and facebook for latest updates and news. Photo taken by SDMA Commercial created by Marc Balanky. Art for 2012 SDMA’s by Kelli Murray.