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• Local Music Awards past and present: two takes from locals

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Ward Gollings stands in front of the Highdive March 8, 2009.

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Ward Gollings

In a wholehearted effort to address the criticisms of years prior, Ward Gollings and others at the Highdive and Illini Media have reshaped and fine-tuned the happenin’ shindig previously known as the Local Music Awards. As buzz conversed with Gollings in his Urbana abode, the Highdive’s jack-of-all-trades expressed his affiliation with and personal appreciation for music in the 217. Having worked at myriad area venues and currently as entertainment manager/booking agent/special events coordinator for downtown Champaign’s Highdive, Gollings has seen it all, from the Golden Age of CU and life with Hum on the road to the constantly fluctuating, sometimes fragile, sometimes strong local scene.

buzz: What was the original intent of the Local Music Awards?

Gollings: The original idea was to sort of mock the Grammys ... and have a party with local music as the center of attention.

buzz: Since last year’s infamous pepper spray incident, do you think tensions within the music community have somewhat diffused?

Gollings: Definitely. I think this is working because Jon Hansen and others are taking in the feedback and doing their best to reshape it. I don’t think the pepper spray incident involved anyone from IMC, but it’s a shame it happened, and it’s hard to get people to think the opposite. I think the Memphis on Main show complemented the LMA show; both shows seemed to do really well.

buzz: Who do you suspect the real culprit to be?

Gollings: A random prankster or, as someone else suggested, an accident in a purse.

buzz: How do you feel about musicians’ refusal of nominations as a means of protest?

Gollings: I can understand and respect their opinion.

buzz: How has the event been restructured to resolve last year’s issues?

Gollings: We’re doing away with awards and voting and ‘best of’ sort of things. I’ve been contacting bands and inviting them to perform. I think they appreciated being contacted by someone they knew. Last year, the artists’ main complaint was that the awards’ organizers didn’t know enough about the bands — that they were either placed in the wrong category or that their biography hadn’t been updated or was incorrect. That’s a big gap I’ve been bridging this year. I’m trying to personally extend a handshake to each artist. The balance will shift from mostly talking to mostly playing. We’re reshaping and retooling the function to be more artist-friendly.

buzz: How would you appraise the local music scene?

Gollings: To me, it’s always had peaks and valleys. Sometimes, you have three, four or five bands that draw extremely well or are nearing record label deals. Right now is a slight valley since we no longer have Shipwreck, Living Blue or Beauty Shop; however, we do have a few bands on the rise, like New Ruins. The tide changes.

buzz: What do you think was the biggest ‘peak’ for CU’s music scene?

Gollings: Hum was the best attempt at creating a national reputation for Champaign-Urbana. The band sold over 250,000 records, and they probably would have gone gold if they hadn’t gone off the road. CU is similar in many ways to places like Athens, Georgia, or Lawrence, Kansas, but here, it’s almost like pulling teeth to get people to come to shows.

buzz: What do you think has changed since the ’90s ‘Golden Age’ of CU that seems to account for the marked decrease in concert attendance?

Gollings: Back then, we didn’t have iTunes, the Internet or MySpace. You went to a show, and you paid your three bucks for a cassette. You had to actually go to the show to get the music.

John Hoeffleur

John Hoeffleur, singer-songwriter/guitarist from the now-defunct alt-country/Americana The Beauty Shop, gives his opinion on the legacy of the LMA’s, and how local folks are neither “winners,” nor “losers.”

buzz: What do you think about the proposed changes to the LMA’s this year and do you prefer the different structure?

Hoeffleur: If the changes are what they appear to be, I am glad to hear about them. I’m still a little fuzzy on what they are exactly; the announcement is my sole source of info on this, but it appears they address the real heart of the matter and are likely to ameliorate the great majority of my objections. I’m also very glad to hear about encouraging collaborations for performances, and I say the weirder the better — it will help mix things up and ultimately strengthen CU music in a concrete way.

buzz: Now that a year has passed, what are your thoughts on the pepper spray incident at the Memphis on Main show?

Hoeffleur: On one hand, I have pretty much the same view [now} as the night of: I think it sucks and I think whoever is responsible is a class "A" pussy and a total fucking moron. Vulgarity is totally justified, by the way, thank you very much. On the other hand, in retrospect, it played right into our hands. So, I suppose I’ll pay IMC as an organization the compliment of eliminating them from suspicion — I don’t think the people at top are that dumb.

buzz: What do you think about the categories being a write-in format this year?

Hoeffleur: A popularity contest is a popularity contest, and the cuisine at McDonald’s is still pretty gross. It’s all “Who’s got the worst crabs?” or whatever the categories are now, so it really doesn’t matter who makes the judgments in my view, as long as they can’t be construed as legit or serious. I do recognize that a move toward write-ins is likely meant as a response to the criticism that so many people get left out/dissed by the LMAs, and so I appreciate that IMC made a sincere effort to address that concern. That kind of good faith counts for a lot to me.

buzz: In Smile Politely, you are quoted as saying that the LMA’s, “make winners and losers out of local folks who are, in truth, neither.” Would you like to extrapolate on that?

Hoeffleur: Not really, I think that sums it up perfectly, but I’m happy to elaborate. I meant to express that a competition is fundamentally the wrong way to approach an arts community if one is truly interested in seeing it flourish. For the good of everyone pursuing music in CU, musicians need to view themselves as all in the same boat rather than competing with one another if they are to stand a chance of transcending local band status. The LMAs have been counterproductive to fostering that kind of environment in my view, and beyond that, it’s simply more enjoyable as an experience to root for one’s peers than be pitted against them.

buzz: How would you assess the local scene this year, including its potential?

Hoeffleur: I moved away from CU in October and missed the last part of the year, so I’m out of touch with the word on the strasse. Ultimately though, I believe any “scene” has unlimited potential. It will be what individuals make it. Anyone can play music, and I’d encourage everyone interested to try. I think those that do will surprised by how far they can take it in no time at all. And the more people that want to try, the stronger the CU music will become. I’ve experienced an embarrassment of riches in terms of local music in CU, regardless of how many people were turned on to it or not at any given time, so I think that show attendance isn’t necessarily the best measure. I mean, I’m a dinosaur who survived “Jungle” music and all that shit, and that felt like the great depression for electric guitars, so I’ve learned to be resilient in the face of lean times. If you do something that’s your own, your audience will find you. Also, I’d like to give a shout out to my CU homies and congratulate some new papas in town — gratz doods!