10/9/2009 10:48:00 AM Music awards head for Thaunderground The UMAs join forces with Chewstick & we reveal nominees
Together we stand: Gavin Djata Smith, founder of Chewstick with Jonathan Talbot (JT), founder of Thaunderground. The two are joining forces for the 5th annual Underground Music Awards
The fifth annual Underground Music Awards are upon us and for the first time they will be hosted as a joint venture with the live performance collective Chewstick.
In a bid to better reflect the underground street music that epitomizes the awards, Chewstick founder Gavin Smith has convinced president of Thaunderground music production and promotion company Jonathan Talbot (JT) to move the awards away from their traditional homes of City Hall and the Ruth Seaton James Centre.
For the first time they will take place in the back of town at the New Spinning Wheel Entertainment Complex where Chewstick holds its weekly Saturday night open mic sessions. The awards will be held in the large hall on the upper floor - once home to a thriving hub of top entertainment in Bermuda.
"It's a natural fit for the underground - it is the underground, it's edgier," Mr. Smith explains. "This is Bermuda's original entertainment complex and it's still it's largest facility. It hasn't been used a lot in recent years but Chewstick came here to reinvigorate the arts and resident community and we have had some great success so we are trying to share some of that with Thaunderground and its awards."
JT added: "In our first year we had an honorary award presented to a group of gentlemen who used to play here - The Feel Of Music. Gavin came to me and said why don't I bring it here - I'll be honest I said some people may have a little negative feeling about Spinning Wheel about it but I feel we can, as Gavin has been doing, give a whole new element to it while reflecting that underground feeling."
This year the awards carry 16 categories including a brand new award for Best Music Video. Among the most hotly contested awards are Producer of the Year and Collaboration of the Year with fierce competition coming from Bermuda and overseas.
Force Proph, Imani and Slanger have all been shortlisted for three awards each, Imani is up for Best New Artist while Slanger and Force Proph are both up for the overall prize for LA Virgil Artist of the Year Award.
Speaking of Imari JT said: "I really liked her songs - she is an up and coming female artist. Her lyrics made me take a step back and she had a whole energy - she wasn't afraid to express herself and I gravitated towards that."
Thaunderground was founded by J-Rock Communications in October 2004 as a website to promote and produce music.
