Soundcheck: What to expect from Madison Area Music Awards 2008

The Madison Area Music Awards return to the Barrymore Theatre on May 10 with a strong line-up of awards show performers as well as a new feature this year, after parties. Performers this year include the Pale Young Gentlemen, Motorz, Jessie Lynn, and others. The red carpet rolls out at 6 p.m. with the show starting at 7 p.m. and running until 10 p.m. At that time the after parties kick-off around Madison with shows at Mr. Roberts, the Harmony Bar, the Great Dane-Downtown, and the Brink Lounge. We asked MAMAs founder Rick Tvedt some questions about how the MAMAs are different this year and how he feels they are being received in the local music community.

What is the most important change about the MAMAs this year?

Two things:
We've instituted some rule changes that have opened up the nominations. We were finding that especially some albums were getting nominated in more than one category and that some artists were getting multiple nominations in the same category for different songs. We now scrutinize the results so that a single album can only get nominated in one category and an artist can only have one song nomination in any single category.

The second thing is that we shifted our focus from the awards process to the mission a great deal. We've spent so much time and energy over the first four years trying to perfect a system that probably can never be perfect! Between this year and next we are talking about a major overhaul of the online voting system to streamline it. There is little doubt, however, that the MAMAs could not have survived had not Broadjam come into the picture.

Why did you want to do the after parties?

Again, two reasons:
The after party worked great when we were at the Union as we moved to a new atmosphere in the Rathskellar. When we took the event to the Barrymore last year, the afterparty fizzled because everyone was anxious to move on to a new location. There's also a cost-saving element to the decision.
Also, we - and especially me - are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with hiring bands but not paying them. The bands donate their time to the awards show - as they should for a charity event - but we thought we would get them into clubs afterward to give them a chance to make some money that they may have given up by agreeing to do the awards show on a Saturday night. There is also impetus to make this a more city-wide, community event. So we hope next year we can expand on this idea.

Any sort of surprises for the night you can reveal or hint at?

There are some very touching and significant moments in this year's show. As time goes on we become increasingly alarmed at the urgency of the conditions a lot of these schools and the children themselves are in. It has affected us as an organization in a very emotional way. We become more and more convinced that we are on to something good here and that makes all the sacrifice and frustrations worthwhile in the end.

How has registration and voting been this year?

It's been great. In prior years we would go around the room at fundraisers and ask anyone and everyone to become members by signing up. We got to thinking that a good deal of these "members" were probably not coming in to vote. So this year we didn't push that and got almost the exact same number of members. We feel that now the musicians themselves make up a good percentage of the membership and I certainly feel that they are the best equipped to be picking the winners. And, as I said, the voting has gone really well though we plan on making it much easier. I'm a big fan of the way our nominee round works because you have to listen to the music. You can't just come in, cast one vote for your favorite, and leave. That does us very little good. We want to make it fun and meaningful. But we are challenged by the sheer amount of time it takes to vote in the first round. So we'll keep trying things out and continue to make it as fair and sensible as possible.

Do you feel local musicians are coming around?

Yes. I believe that when we show the results that we have obtained so far, they begin to understand that this can be effective. That and the perseverence factor. This is the fifth year now, we stand a good chance at making this a real successful organization. We function as a charity and raise this money for our chaitable purpose of getting instruments to kids and funding programs. But what's always in the back of my mind is that some day there will be enough funds to expand into doing some work on behalf of the musicians that are professionals as well. I haven't figured out exactly what we can do but there has to be some things. I remain as committed as ever to making things better for musicians and trying to rally support for them because, as a musician myself, I know what having music in my life has meant to me and I don't know where I would be without having that. It's become who I am.