Better Know A Canadian Music Prize: Polaris

It’s that time of year again.

If you’re like me, you’re nerding out over who is going to be announced as the recipient of this year’s esteemed Polaris Prize. In the past, winners have ranged from Final Fantasy (now Owen Pallett), to Caribou to Fucked Up. In its 5th year, the prize has much to celebrate. In addition to gathering a crack-team of Canada’s most talented media-savvy personas, the award stands to pay tribute to artists who are truly making some of the country’s greatest music.

I had the chance to chat with Jury Moderator Liisa Ladouceur regarding her experiences on the committee and being a part of the prize since it’s first year.

Pink Mafia: How long have you been a judge with the Polaris Prize?

Liisa Ladouceur: I have been on the Board of Directors of the Polaris Prize, representing our jury, since its first year in 2006. Steve Jordan our executive director and founder of the prize asked me to be a part of it while it was still just a dream and I said yes without hesitation for I saw the need for such a thing. My role is to speak for the jury at the executive level, to help find new people to contribute, and to keep the fist fights amongst our more boisterous members to a minimum.

PM: Can you briefly explain the prize? There is a lot of mixed understandings about what it’s intended for, it seems.

LL: The Polaris Music Prize is often called “Canada’s Mercury,” which I suppose is fine and flattering, but to me it’s really more like a Giller prize for music. It’s about recognizing the album as an artform, right alongside novels and films and other such things that are rightfully considered cultural artifacts worth giving prizes to. There are many awards for music in this country — but they are often for the performers personalities, or a reward for sales. We wanted something based on artistic merit alone. It’s quite simple in its execution: we give away $20,000 a year to the Canadian artist who made the record a group of music journalists, bloggers, radio and TV programmers and hosts voted to be the best in the land.

PM: There’s a lot of talk about this year’s nominees (and a lot of criticism of the selections)–how do you feel that this year’s list has two past winner and two “mainstream” artists on it?

LL: People always ask me if I’m happy with the Short List. Of course I am. How could I not be happy that 10 great records are getting exposed to more listeners around the world? The definition of “mainstream” is quite subjective isn’t it? That’s why you put in quotes, right? So that’s really open to interpretation. I would ask you who you consider mainstream. For some people Tegan and Sara is very mainstream and popular. But for a general pop music audience, they may never have heard of them. There are people out there, people who love Canadian music, who have never heard of a single artist on our Short List. They say “who are these nobodies? Where is Nickelback and Justin Bieber?!” Believe it or not, in our first year some other people criticized Final Fantasy for being too “big” of a name to win — even though he was on a tiny label and had probably only sold in the hundreds of copies of his album. But even if the Short List had 10 albums that were also #1 chart toppers, I would see nothing wrong with that.

PM: Do you feel it defeats the purpose of the award having previous winners/well known artists on the list?

LL: There is a misconception out there that Polaris is an under-dog’s prize, a best new artist prize, a best indie album prize. It’s really not. The purpose of the award is to recognize the best record based on artistic merit — irregardless of how popular it is, what label it’s on, if it’s won before, etc. There has been some debate about whether an artist who won before should be eligible. Why not? Why would we punish someone for being consistently great? There is also often debate about whether a certain artist “deserves” the money. This is really irrelevant as far as we’re concerned. Plus, people need to realize that the “indie stars” they think are rich are not. But let’s say Leonard Cohen won. Maybe he doesn’t need the money as much as someone else, but I’d be happy to give it to him. The whole point to me is to put everyone on an equal playing field. If we start excluding people because they are too rich or too famous, then what we’re saying is that Polaris Prize winner “x’ made the best record out of everyone that wasn’t rich or famous, instead of the best record, period. It devalues the majesty of it.

PM: To you, is the prize more about significance of the work or quality of work (i.e. production, instrumentation, art work, etc).?

LL: What’s interesting is that everyone has a different definition of “best.” As the moderator of the Grand Jury deliberations — when the 11 jury members selected from our pool of over 200 meet on the night of the Gala to debate and ultimately vote on the winner — I am privy to their thoughts about why they are pushing for this or that album. For some people, lyrics are really important. Others don’t care as much. Some people think album art is part of what makes a record “the best.” Others give it no consideration. Innovation matters a whole lot for some. Timeless songwriting is the key for others. And on and on. Ultimately, what tends to matter most is that the album is all killer, no filler, and that the artist has put something together that people are really, really excited about.

Tegan & Sara are nominated for their album, Sainthood

PM: How would you revamp the prize, if given the chance?

LL: I’d give out more money!! Seriously, I wish we could award a cash prize to everyone on the Short List. There is already a benefit to them for being spotlighted in our campaigns as nominees, and they get a nice custom poster and all that, but wouldn’t it be great to cut 10 oversized cheques instead of just one? Oh, and I’d add a prize for music journalism, too.

PM: How important do you think this prize is to Canadian arts & culture?

LL: In a word: very. We know because artists tell us the impact of this prize on their careers, not just increased album sales but visibility all over the world. It gets people all over the country excited (and sometimes enraged) and listening to music and arguing over it. This is great! For me personally, I’ve always loved music over all other art forms. I believe it deserves to be celebrated as art, as culture, and not simply “product.”  Plus, look at the event we’re involved in with TIFF next week, the block party for the opening of the Lightbox. We’re helping to bring The Sadies, Karkwa and Radio Radio to the masses. To me, for all the bitching about who is or isn’t on the list, everything that comes out of Polaris is 100% positive.