Polaris Music Prize Holds Toronto Salon on Eve of Gala

By: Patrick Topping (@ptopp_ing) –

With the Polaris Music Prize gala approaching on September 23rd, the Polaris Prize organizers hosted a Salon at the SoHo House in Toronto last night to discuss the Grand Jury process that comprises the election process of the Canadian music award. Event attendees, mostly mid to late twenty and thirtysomethings of the Canadian web and print media and PR professionals, made their way to the dimly-lit third floor of the Prohibition-styled private club as music from 2013 nominees set the backdrop of the room, including Colin Stetson, which made for particularly interesting cocktail hour music, surely a SoHo House first.

Polaris Prize Executive Director and Founder Steve Jordan welcomed the attendees and introduced the salon’s moderator, James Keast (Exclaim!’s Editor-in-Chief, alumni of Polaris inaugural Grand Jury in 2006). Keast also serves as a member of Polaris’s Board of Directors, overseeing the Grand Jury’s two-day decision making process leading up to the gala. The salon’s Grand Jury alumni panelists were Ryan Patrick (Exclaim! Contributor, 2012 Grand Jury alumni), Frank Yang (chromewaves.net, 2008 Grand Jury alumni), and Anupa Mistry (freelance, 2011 Grand Jury alumni).

The nomination process occurs across a period of 3+ months, whereby Canadian music journalist, broadcast media, and blog professionals submit ballots for top-5 albums of Canadian music for the year and by mid-June, they tally the results to comprise the “Long List”of nominees. Within a month, a second round of balloting generates the venerated “Short List”. The 11-member Grand Jury meets two days before the gala to begin the deliberation process, though deliberation is a mischaracterization as tales of Jury members lobbying one-another have become infamous.

The conversation of the evening began on the personal decision-making process, pivoting on the absorptive process of music as a subjective experience, while seeking an objective centre. When Keast asked panelists for their approach to the Grand Jury meetings,  the three panelists agreed that they had formed their choices before their arrival at the Grand Jury meetings. Patrick characterized his process as determining not only a frontrunner in its genre, but also a stand-out within the context of the Short List. Whereas Mistry’s decision was primarily founded on a personal narrative attached to her top pick. Ultimately, panelists agreed that the Jury’s strength is in discussing the merits in the content of the music, and stripping away contentions or connotations surrounding artists’ personas, politics, or statures.

The conversation shifted to the nature of the Short List of nominations itself, with Keast mentioning that disputes over the list of nominees is a common refrain year-after-year. The panelists agreed that it would be unsettling if the Short List perfectly matched any one person’s personal list, Yang stating that the ideal Short List results in everyone being unhappy. Mistry added that the Short List should ultimately herald Canadiana and speak to the innovative, contemporary nature of Canadian music.

On the 2013 list of nominees, the most appropriate sentiment to the broad selection was Yang’s portrayal of the list as “flat and wide” with Mistry agreeing there isn’t a galvanizing record to set a frontrunner in the pack. Top picks from the panel were Zaki Ibrahim’s textured, challenging-albeit-accessible Every Opposite, A Tribe Called Red’s layered, matured album Nation II Nation, and Tegan & Sara’s pop-centric Heartthrob. There was also consensus that Rhye’s Woman deserved a Short List consideration.

If you missed the salon last night, there are several more salons coming up in the coming weeks including Ottawa tonight, Vancouver on September 23^rd, Montreal on September 27^th (as part of Pop Montreal) and finally Halifax on October 26^th (as part of Halifax Pop Explosion).

The 2013 Polaris Music Prize Short-List:

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